Eight years of spending, now to pay it off!!

nick1983

This is my first post documenting my steps to get debt free after years of taking credit and ignoring it!

I'm sure many people have similar stories, I started my mountain of debt in 2001 when I went to university. Moving as far away from home was my first mistake, I tried to live off the student loan but within a month it was gone, so I got my student overdraft with Natwest, they gave me £2000, I was so happy with this I decided to celebrate with a shopping spree and again this was gone within a month.

My addiction to credit then got alot worse, I went to LloydsTSB asking for a student account with a £1500 overdraft, they were more than willing to help and even gave me a credit card with a £1000 limit. The only catch was I had to pay an installment of my student loan into the account, I did that and the spending spree continued for another couple of months.

In april 2002 I recieved a letter from Natwest stating that my account was going to be closed as I broke the terms of the contract by not paying in my student loan, this left me with my first debt of £2000. I was young and dumb, so thought oh well, thank god for LloydsTSB and never contacted Natwest again.

Looking back on my mistakes I wish I would have got a part time job and paid my bills like a sensible person, but I was a very naive young man who thought I'd get away with it, and believe it or not my parents never told me about credit ratings, so I really had no idea what I was doing!

Anyway, still partying my way through uni my money ran out just before the summer, I wanted to go home and have a good time with all my old mates so decided I'd open another student bank account, this time I chose Barclays as I had some friends who told me they had a £2000 overdraft with them, it worked and I was happy as larry for the summer, spent all the money and went back to using my Lloyds account when my next batch of student loan came.

Within 1 year I'd racked up £7000 of student debts, this is the first time I've written this down, I'm shocked myself!
There was no more debt incurred from the uni experience, I tried but couldn't get any credit, I couldn't pay the tuition fees or rent so had to quit, I went home and got a job, the plan was to pay off the debts and move in with the girlfriend after she had finished uni. That was the plan, the problem was me being an absolute spendaholic, I just can't help myself, my parents were only charging me £150 a month to live with them, and I was left with £1000 a month to play with, I didn't pay any debts off, just worked and partied, I went on a few holidays, and finished with my girlfriend (the only person who ever gave me sensible money advice!). I was living a luxury life and before I knew it I couldn't afford to keep going out in different social circles, then I found Vanquis, they offered me a credit card with no questions asked, I was told to spend on it and pay it off for a few months and they would keep increasing my credit limit, this was the first time I'd paid off any debt, only so I could get into more! Thankfully after going upto £2000 with vanquis I'd missed a payment when my balance was only £300, a cash machine swallowed the card and saved me from more debt!

A year passed and another girlfriend came along, I felt like I had to move into my own place to impress this one, so I found a nice flat and moved in, one day into it and I got impatient with the furnishing, I wanted all the best things, I paid a broker to find me a loan and put me in touch with Welcome finance, they gave me £1500, which turned into paying back somewhere in the region of £2500. I spent all that money in one day, got bored of my job and quit so could't even afford to make the first payment. This debt is totally paid off, as I found Welcome finance aren't the kind of company you can hide from, they literally sent someone out to where I was working, this scare tactic worked on me!

Along side this I'd messed up on a few mobile phone contracts, basically I'd run up a bill I couldn't afford so ignored it and got a new one, this left me with a total phone debt of £1500, most of that was just one phone.

The last of my stupidity came in january 2007, I got a new job and had to pass my driving test to get there and back, obviously I thought I'll treat myself to a fancy new car, but didn't want to save up for one, nor did I want to get a cheap one! I found U Can Car Credit, they gave me £4500 (£9400 was the amount to pay back after they stitched me up with warrenties and all sorts). Everything to be fair was running smoothly, although I wasn't paying anything back, I was never short of money, then came the credit crunch, my company starting setting targets so high not even an Apprentice winner could hit them, this stopped my bonuses leaving me with just enough money to get to work and eat, this is still the case today.

Now my car has failed its MOT, it will take me 4 months to save the money to pay for the repairs needed, this is why I've decided to sort out my finances once and for all, I'm angry with myself for learning the hard way what debt can do, but I hope it will be a good lesson to my future conduct, and I think I'll be a really annoying parent one day when I start banging on about debt to my kids!

All I've done so far in my quest to become debt free is write this post! I've researched a few things on this forum, but I'm a little confussed by it all, I'm going to search through my hoards of unopened letters and find out exactly what I owe everybody, and I'm going to get a copy of my credit report so I can see on paper the mess I've got myself into!

I estimate my total debt including the student loan to be about £19000, I'll find out how close my guess is by the end of the week I hope!

If anyone has any comments (you don't need to say I'm an idiot, i know that!) or ideally any advice then please let me know, I'm going to update this thread every time I do anything with my money, I hope it can be a learning curve for people in the same situation.

Thanks for reading!
:beer:

gardner1

nobody to blame but yourself
i think you missed one more option on your poll-PAY OFF MY DEBTS

nick1983

I wasn't blaming anyone, I'm a self certified idiot! I'll show nay sayer like you by getting myself out of this!!

gardner1

to be honest you sound like a right !!!!!!!!

nick1983

Gardner1, your feedback is far from constructive! Sounds like your out to annoy people, and you don't make much sense when your trying to do that! I would love to pay off all my debt, problem is I don't have any money to do it with, I have £50 a week to live off and to use on transport for work, you may have your affairs in order, but I don't thats why I've posted on here, if you have nothing helpfull to say then get lost

gardner1

and no doubt you will complain that you have been mis sold various cc and other contracts
its a shame all the other companies involved didnt follow welcome finances stance

nick1983

I work in sales myself, I wouldn't say I was mis-sold anything, it was just well sold!
I'm going to look into loop holes that allow me to write off certain debts, I'd be foolish not to, however I know nothing about them and I'm looking for advice more than negative comments with no punctuation!

gardner1

its a shame your debt management skills dont mirror your punctuation:rolleyes:

nick1983

:rotfl:lol

gizmo111

Can you list what you owe and when you last made a payment to each debt. An IVA won't be suitable as you have very little disposable income. Have you done a SOA?

nick1983

I don't know what an SOA is?! If I could get my car finance combined into all the other debts then that is worth £195 a month, I'm thinking thats the amount I could pay to a debt management company.

I've not yet gone through all my creditors, I can safely say that I've hardly paid any of them back, I did pay £50 to a collection agency two months ago for a £300 phone debt, I'll be sifting through the paperwork tomorrow so will be updating this thread with the info.