Assistance with charges on old cc required, please

nuttylou

Hi everyone,

I am new to this site. Let me give you a bit of background info...

I was a teenage parent and forced to leave home at 17 in a council property due to abuse at home. I bumbled along on benefits, part time jobs and accumalated debts from this period. The debts were about £2000 which for my circumstances were alot.
I met my partner and we were fine for a while until he became unemployed for a period of 6 months. During this time our debt increased to £5000 with interest etc added due to non-payment.
I am now at university studying a full-time medical degree. My partner is a full time houseperson caring for our 4 children to allow me to complete the course and thus put us in a better financial standing.
We are struggling financially but we are meeting the rent, council tax payments, water rates etc etc and have cut back our shopping bill etc. We do not have any money left over to pay creditors for our non-priority debts.
We have not taken any credit out for 3 years as we simply cannot afford it.

This morning I recieved a letter from 'Ruthbridge LTD' stating that they have advised their clients to commence bankruptcy proceedings.
We do not own a home or have anything of substantial value other than the usual household appliances ie tv, oven etc etc the tv is an old one not a new LCD one!
The debt in question is a MONUMENT credit card, they are asking for a figure of £655.03 to settle the debt. The amount they are claiming I owe is £1091.72 in total, this was £200 of credit borowed and the rest is charges for non payment when my partner lost his job.
Obviously I know that I owe them money- I am not disputing that and I have offered payment towards the balance of £200 I owed. I feel that adding £800 to the debt is unfair for non payment and wondered if anyone could offer any advice on this matter at all?

Many thanks for taking the time to read.

saintly_2

hi, well done for goin to uni, much respect!!

id maybe pop over to the debt free board, they are brilliant on there and will offer help no end!!

greenmantle

yes, congratulations for getting in for medicine. Do go over to the DFW board - they should begin to give the right kind of help.

welf_man

And also contact the University's Student Services to ask about the Access to Learning Fund - if there's any money left you should be a priority. (And if not they may be able to help in some other way).

Mel.