Newbie Debt Basher in need of advice.

elsie52

Have a read on the DMP Mutual support group and any questions you have, post them and I am sure you will get answers.

Good luck

elsie52

Payplan, Or CCCS. are both really good. Yes your credit rating is definitely trashed. And don't worry.....its only money. Your wife's and your own health are more important. Your children need you to be well.

worried_jim

Hi ccn1, I have been with Payplan since November and rate them better than Jesus ! Honestly look at http://www.payplan.com/ right now and this time tomorrow you will probably have had some free advice and help. I started in Nov and by Feb I had stopped receiving all nasty letters and phonecalls and had my life back and for this help I am being charged not 1 pence. Good luck. Do it now !

DevonGirl

Hey ccn1

Are you sure you don't mean £100 groceries per (?weekly?) shopping trip. £100 does sound low for a family of 4 unless perhaps you grow your own veg etc.

Do you realise that in total you are paying £261 in insurance? That's £3,132 per year!!!! The £97 life insurance especially sounds a bit steep! Can you not get this figure down?

Why not go on the CCCS website and do their 'online debt remedy' ? www.cccs.co.uk. It takes about 20 minutes to complete (less if you have your SOA to hand) and gives you instant advice, which you are free to ignore and it is completely anonymous. You only give your name and address if you want to get an information pack and then you're still not obliged to do anything.

Alternatively, you could use the 'snowball calculator' on the main MSE site whereby you work out how much you can afford a month for debts and throw the maximum at the most expensive debt and only the minimum on the rest, thereby paying your debt off quicker and cheaper.

Just a few ideas. Hope these help!

ccn1

Thank you for your response

I just did it !, waiting for them to call me back.

Will read up on it now.

Many Thanks

Chris

worried_jim

ccn1 wrote: »

Thank you for your response

I just did it !, waiting for them to call me back.

Will read up on it now.

Many Thanks

Chris

well done ! Best thing you'll do all month. You've had your lbm !(light bulb moment )

Tixy

Hi ccn1.

Looking at your SOA if you can manage to make your minimum monthly payments (and it looks like you just about can) you may not need to go down the DMP route. DMP is invaluble if you can't afford the minimums as it saves you getting a lot of hassle from creditors and debt collecting agencies but as others have said it can affect your credit rating. Therefore do have a think if you could manage without before you choose this route - that said won't hurt to talk to one of the charities anyway, they will explain it all.

Welcome to MSE

theoretica

Are you sure road tax is correct? 3 cars for £16 a month seems nicely low.

You could probably reduce your home phone bill by quite a lot too- there are call plans which are much less than you are paying and include most/many calls.

ccn1

Hi All

I spoke to Payplan last night re a DMP and I have a meeting arranged for next Tuesday !!

On a good note, I spoke to MBNA regarding my 2 credit cards and they agreed to drop the APR from 29.9% down to 12.8% for a year which will help out.

I only pay road tax on 2 cars, the other is business.

Telephones are a pain, BT said we owe them £350 in back charges for something that was their fault, so thats why the home phone is high. As soon as the back payments are cleared im getting rid of my BT line and looking into VOIP, a hell of a lot cheaper ! (If anyone would like to look into "Voice Over IP", have a look at vonage.co.uk

Im looking into the mobile phone costs.

Kind Regards

Chris

40somethingmum

Chris ,

Well done on reducing the interest rate on your credit cards. Its a good start.

Just a thought , what sort of condition is your camper van in ? Could you hire it out for some weekends over the summer ? I bet there are lots of families looking for cheaper holidays this year .


40SM