Completely lost, very long post - need a lot of advice/direction

Francesanne

TottalyLost wrote: »

Francesanne - thank you for your post on this thread but... I am a bit taken back by your comments and I feel they are a bit out of place.

Working where I do, doing what I do costs money as I am expected to look certain way - £100 per month on clothes is a very, very modest amount in my position and also considering it covers myself and my daughter. I never said I have a £10 haircut every month. Decent haircut in London costs much more than that (and again this is for 2 people) so I have one once maybe every 3 months and then it costs me about £40 each time (just for me).

I could go on but what is the point?

Although everyone is entiled to their own opinion I really appreciate if you do not try to analyse my life for the sake of it if you have nothing of substance to offer in terms of advice I am asking for.

**************************

JCS1 - your post and quote makes things much clearer for me, thanks a lot for that.

Meerkat - thanks a lot for your post,very informative and I appreciate the time it took you to reply to me here.Not sure I have the guts to do it solo though.... Need some kind of assurance that the debts will be reduced and not growing so DMP with CCCS is possibly the way forward for me. WEll done for you for managing your debts all by yourself.
Also, sometimes people who do not have pets are not able to understand those who do and I appreciate that. My pets are my family and I will stand on my head if I have to to keep them well and happy to the end of their days. My dog is never alone for 9 hours per day by the way, my daughter is in a lot but she can not walk the dog, dog (German Shepherd) is way too strong for her and got a few behavioural issues so only myself or my dog walker take her out.

Dalip - thanks again for your help.

I'm sorry you felt that my comments were out of place.
I can understand the need for looking smart for work but really can't believe that someone need to spend £100.00 every month on clothes when finances are tight and a need to makes cuts is vital. You're very fortunate that you can still afford to spend and haven't resorted to charity shops that many people with limited funds have to frequent due to their circumstances and lack of funds. All the best with your cutbacks.

TottalyLost

Francesanne - you sound very bitter but please try not to take your life's frustrations on me here as I have no intention to explain my life in details or apologise for anything to you on here. I will spend whatever I need to/have to spend to KEEP my job - be it on clothes/haircut/courses that I pay for myself to be up to date with what I do. I do nto expect you to understand but I also do not expect you to comment on things you obvioulsy know nothing about.

This is supposed to be a SUPPORT/ADVICE forum, if you have nothing to offer in terms of support/advice I am asking you to please not post on my thread trying to "have a dig" at me here.

Thank you and have a good night.

dalip

Sounds like a good plan to me tot.

If you check out meers post i think he/she mentioned that they refused to send proof of income

I didn't fill their form in, and I certainly didn't supply payslips, on the grounds that payslips include a lot of personal information (risk of identity theft).
Instead, I wrote to them and told them my income, gave a list of expenditure, showing what I had available for my debts (I just listed the amounts, I didn't give the names of the creditors), and working out a pro rata distribution for my creditors.

Ahh found it.

Let us know how it goes and any other questions just shoot.Dx

TottalyLost

Morning Dalip - just about to pick up the phone to CCCS to see if they can direct me to my creditors....

Trying to look through emails first to see if I still got my logging to their website and can check it online.

Thanks again - I like the "no payslips no bank statements" option.

Merry_Gentry

Morning TottalyLost

I think what FrancesAnne was trying to say is that if you continue the way you have before, you will get the same result. You are going to have to make cutbacks once you go bankrupt - you won't have access to credit at all, and now is the time to see where you can make these changes. Totally understand the need to look professional in your job, etc but the areas that have been pointed out to you - the dog walkers, the clothings expenses, etc - seem to be logically places to start making these changes.

Obviously these are just suggestions - in the end, you are the only one who can decide where and how to spend your money once the OR has made his ruling, but I don't think anyone was trying to have a dig at you (hopefully).

Waspeze

TottalyLost wrote: »

One small problem - with my Co-op basic account (opened about 2 years ago) I do nto have a cheque book, buying and sending postal orders would be a nightmare... Any thoughts on that?

Get your creditors bank details and set up Standing orders NOT direct debits... that way you have control over what you pay them

Never give your bank details to a DCA!!!

TottalyLost

Ok- got the figures and creditors names/ref numbers/contact numbers from CCCS and does not look as bad as I thought -the last payment I have made was in October 2008 and the balances from that time are/were:

MBNA Credit Card £7,718.76
Abbey National Loan £7,225.72
Lloyds TSB Credit Card £6,954.87
Tesco Loan £3,106.44
Abbey National Overdraft £2,119.60
GE Capital One Credit Card £238.00
Total £27,363.39

I was advised to call the CCCS as a new client if I wanted to try to set up another DMP with them.

Or I can call each one of my creditors separately to find out who they sold the debts to and who to contact re repayments as well as to find out what the balances are at the moment (added fees etc).

Just over £27k looks much better then nearly £40k which I expected (my rent areas were never included in the DMP as I was paying them directly to the council and still am, about £1500). There is also a new debts, Littlewoods at just under 2k but all in total stands at just under 31k so at £500 per month looks like 61 months repayments which would be brilliant.

The only question now is how much interest/fees have been added to those amounts since October?

I am a bit reluctant to call from my house or mobile as none of my creditors have ever had any of my numbers and do nto want to get into that now - could not deal with phone calls from them.

Shall I write to each one of them and ask to confirm the amounts or write to them stating the amounts I was given by CCCS and offer reduced payements as percentage of the £500 that I can afford?

That would look like that:

Creditor............................... Debt.......................... Percentage of total debt............................... Repayment offered
MBNA Credit Card............ £7,718.76................... 26.29% ..................................................... £131.44
Abbey National Loan ..........£7,225.72.....................24.61%..................................................... £123.04
Lloyds TSB Credit Card..... £6,954.87.....................23.69%..................................................... £118.43
Tesco Loan......................... £3,106.44................... 10.58%........................................................ £52.90
Abbey National Overdraft... £2,119.60..................... 7.22%........................................................ £36.09
GE Capital One Credit Card... £238.00.................... 0.81%.......................................................... £4.05
Littlewoods Direct.............. £2,000.00...................... 6.81%........................................................ £34.06
Total Debt........................ £29,363.39................. 100.00%....................................................... £500.00
Monthly total I can pay £500.00



Any thoughts on that?

Thanks a lot

TottalyLost

Ops, got to tidy up the post above, all got muddled up.....
Waspeze thankls for that idea, good one

Merry_Gentry, sorry but I did not take those posts that way and found them quite agressive so prefer not comment on them further as ( with all due respect) FrancessAnne can not possibly comment on me "continuing as I did before" as she does not know what got me in that situation- thanks.

Trying to work out a DMP rather then BR anyway (thanks to helpful people on this board I can see this happening now) but I do not see a DMP board, is it still OK to post on here?

Thanks

dalip

Tot you could try the Debt Free Wannabe board if you don't feel your circumstance fits this one.


I would write to all you creditors and ask that they communicate in writing only and your propsed plans ect. Try www.nationaldebtline.co.uk they may well have a template letter you could use. I found their templates very useful.Good luck.


Keep me posted by pm if you do go over to dfw.Dx

TottalyLost

Dalip - thanks again.

When I started this thread I thought BR was my only option but due to enormous patience of quite a few people (thanks all) in replying to me - I started to "see the light".

If Meerkat could do it DIY style, I am goinmg to try this as well.

The only worry would be ensuring they all freeze interest.... Maybe I should state in my letters to them that I will make the first payment "as soon as I receive a written confirmation that the interest has been frozen"?

And, should I write to the original creditors or trying to find out who the debts are with at the moment?

Hmmmmmm