Help & Advice please...

HueyBuey

Hi All, Had a lightbulb moment just after Christmas and have been reading through the site at various times since, been trying to manage things and now have got to the point where I seem to be going round in circles but not actually achieving anything. Basically I have approx. £50k of credit card debt in my name together with a loan for £14k with AA financial services in joint names with hubby and a loan for £9k with Nat West in joint names. The trouble all started just over 2 years ago when hubby was sent to prison - long story but basically he got involved in a fight in his local pub, injured someone albeit not horrendously the injured party went to the police and the case went to court, despite it being a first offence & previously never even been in trouble before he got 10 months - was sentenced on 17th Dec so that was a great Christmas present, we had just signed up to the loan with the AA to clear some of the cr.card debt and I had to use most of this to live on & pay our monthly outgoings whilst he was away so didn't pay off what I had hoped to with it. When he came out he was very lucky in that his employers offered him his job back he went back to work & then in June of that year (2004) he had a motorbike accident and smashed his leg to smitherenes was off work for 3 months (SSP only) so the monthly outgoings were supported by cash advances on credit cards. He then went back to work but was unable to drive so I was making a round trip of 150 miles per day to take him to work, then myself and then back at night to pick him up before going home - this obviously increased our petrol bills which were coming in at approx £350 pm again subsidised by cc. This went on for 5 months and eventually his leg was repaired sufficiently for him to drive - by this time I was doing what I realise now was a stupid thing of using one cc to pay another but not reducing balances at all and now we are in a situation where they are all maxed out and we can't afford the repayments. In the meantime his company let him go (no redundancy) and he decided to start his own business - its going ok but his monthly income is still £500 less than it was when he was employed - he is enjoying it so much & it works better with all the hospital appts etc. that after all the heartache of the last few years I don't want to demand that he gets a better paid job. I wrote to all the cc companies at the start of the year asking for time and making token offers (as recomended on the cccs website) - Goldfish accepted and so did Citicard the others have either continued to ignore or have refused my offers although I have continued to make them - I now have 3 default letters & have today received a call from a company called Newman & Co who are pre-legal debt collectors for Amex, they have apparantly passed my account to them despite arrears of only £200 - does anyone have any experience of them ? and I don't know where to go next, I was thinking of contacting the cccs to set up a DMP - will they take us with hubby being self employed ? We sold our house at the end of Mar with the intention of paying off the cc. debts but we had a First Plus secured loan and because we have gone into rented acc they had to be paid off - as per some of the other threads running, our loan had been for £30k but the settlement fig was £37k - apparantly of the £298 we were paying per month, only £60 was going to the loan, the rest was interest or PPI. This left us with just £4K from the house sale £1400 of which we used for first months rent + deposit and the remainder I threw at the cc's to try and clear the arrears, hence 6 weeks later the money has gone and as I said at the start, I don't seem to have cleared anything. The Nat West loan was forced upon us in Dec last year - we had a premier adv acc with them with a charge card which we had racked up £6k on and I had been taking cash adv each month to clear it - no interest just cash adv fee (same thing effectively) and an overdraft of £3.5k they phoned out of the blue to say that we had not been using the card in the correct way and therefore they had no option but to close it down but would offer us a loan providing we took sufficient to clear the od as well - hence we now have no od but additional outgoings of £198 per month. All the cc are in my name and I haven't actually told hubby exactly how much I owe or what trouble we are in - he has been so fragile since everything that I can't bear to add to it, so I am struggling alone. If I go to cccs will they take just my debts with my salary despite us having a joint bank ac - would it be best to set up a separate one for hubby ? - Up until all this happened although I had debt I had always managed it very well - bought my own house at 24 etc. and now we seem to have nothing to show for it - my own income is £1800 per month and hubbys is £1000 per month so we have a good income but just too many outgoings - any help from you all would be so much appreciated - Sorry to go On Thanks xx

Anniek1969

Hi, you seem to have a rough time of it the last few years. I know what you mean about using the CC's to survive as this is how most of our debt was accumulated, then we'd take a consolodation loan and pay them off but no time at all and we were using them again. I think the problem is that we are unrealistic about how much we spend and don't realise that we're spending more than we earn until it's too late.

The main thing is that you speak to your HB and tell him about all the debt so that you can face it together. You will feel so much better when you share this with him and then you can sit down and look at what your outgoings and incomings are. As you said you do have pretty good incomings but they still obviously outweigh what you have going out. If you post your full SOA (incomings and outgoings) I'm sure that some of the more experienced people on here will be able to help you find ways to cut back.

I'm not sure if CCCS will take you on with your husband being self employed but someone else here may be able to tell you or you could give them a call. The most important thing is your health and your relationship both of which will be suffering if you are worried about this which no doubt you are so it's important to share this with your HB and when you've started to face things and maybe speak to someone at CCCS then you will feel much better and things won't seem so bad.

I'm sure someone will be along soon to give you some real financial advice but I just wanted to say that there are many of us like you and there is a light at the end of the tunnel. It might take you a few years to get back to financial stability but it is possible and the most important thing is that you have taken the first steps.

southernscouser

Your PPI on the loan stands out to me! Did you not claim on this when hubby wasn't working?

Have a look at this thread about possibly reclaiming it! You may have a case if you were mis-sold it! Defiantely worth a try!

chevalier

The first post is the worst. I hope that you are feeling a bit better having poured out your heart.

I agree that you should tell your other half, but if this is too much for you at the moment then in order to help you, could you do a statement of affairs (SOA).

This is a list of all your income, be it from work, tax credits, child benefit etc

Then a list of your outgoings - ie rent, contents insurance, utilities, phone, mobile phone, broadband, car maintenance, car tax, petrol, tv licence sky etc...

And finally what each credit card or loan has on it, plus the apr for each one.

In this way, we may spot something that you can cut down on. The other thing this does it make you open all those letters, and see what your debt is really. This can be a pretty scary experience, hence me agreeing that you should tell your OH, what is going on.

I do not know about payplan/cccs with regards to taking you on to do a DMP, but the best people to call about that are payplan and cccs. That way you will know one way or another.

Hope this has given you some pointers. Best of luck and keep posting.
chev

HueyBuey

Ok here goes with an SOA: -
Me Income: £1830 / Hubby £1000 - Total £2830
Rent 625
Counci Tax £123
Home Ins £11.37
TV Licence £10.99
Barclays Grad Loan: £144.62 (£1891 remaining) don't know APR finishes 2007
AA Loan: £364.22 (approx.£14 remaining) 3 years to go No PPI
GE Capital £55.62 sofas 2 yrs to go
Black Horse £157.06 Hubbys Motorbike 3 years to go (includes PPI have written to canx which should reduce to £138 although having read some other threads not too sure now as seems although they state a monthly amount it doesn't actually work in that way ?)
Sky: £36
Nat West Loan: £198.14 (£9800 taken in Dec 05) not sure of APR No PPI
Orange £80 (Hubbys mobile for work) have asked him to try diff tarrif now up for renewal
Petrol me: £100
Car me: £253.44 - Renault Fin Servs up for sale at moment as planning to get bus to work (if there is one, trying to find out at moment) if not will hope to borrow money from family to buy a runaround..
Car Ins me: £28.73 (Tesco cheapest having searched)
Car Ins Hubby: £41.04 (Only had licence 1yr - cheapest having searched)
Bike Ins Hubby: £39 (Cheapest - bought down from £53 in Apr on renewal)
Gas: £53 - have just set up dd to clear last bill will not reduce as don't yet know our consumption - moved to them when moved house 24/03/06 as that is who our landlord is with - going to shop around to see if we can reduce
Elec: Not currently on a dd
Water: will be £29 when Anglian Water come & install meter at house
BT Phone: £12

Housekeeping/Mthly spending approx. £150

Total: £2572.23

CC's:
J Lewis - os 545.76 15.5% current mthly payment £27
Citicard - os 3036.93 No Int as in DMP with them £30 pm
Goldfish - os 9533.81 No Int as in DMP with them £50 pm
Barclaycard - os 2085.2 17.9% current mthly payment £50
Amex Blue - os 3003.62 17.4% Std but some is bal tfr at 12.24%
NW Gold Visa - os 9837.04 16.6% Std (7380) 20.9% Cash (1224) 6.74% Bal Tfr (1233)
Marbles - os 9000 19.9% Std but some is cash adv so higher
Cap One - os 6402 11.6% Std but some is cash adv so higher
Egg (mine) - os 8200 14.9%
Egg (hubby) - os 2000 14.9%
BoS Pref ac (hubby) os 2772 26.6% (can this be right ?)

Thanks for all the supportive comments so far - had my car on ebay in Jan for 2 weeks but didn't get sufficient offers to clear finance have looked today and similar models & year are now making what I would need so going to put car on ebay tomorrow

Also called an ad about delivery catalogues as thought I could do this when walking the dog - get fit and make money hooray ! - was for Kleeneze, does anyone have exp of them as they want an investment of just over £100 up front, don't know if its a con ? Have an appl form for local Tescos night staff working from 10pm to 2am but not sure whether i could manage this with a full time 9-5.30 job - any other suggestions ? Have done a couple of car boot sales and so don't have much of any value left to sell - made £200 at first one but only £45 at second yesterday (bit depressed about that as it was a 6am start)

HueyBuey

Hi, not sure whether Monday was a quiet evening...anyone got any suggestions please ?
Thanks so much

lynzpower

Hi there

Right, Ive had a look at this and to be honest most pof my usual advice doesnt really work here, you dont have a lot to cut back on Id say

One thing, you have a car you are considering getting rid off, but OH has both a car & a I presume motorbike? thats threee vehicles, surely your OH can get rid of one of them too?

Its the cards & loans Im not too hot on, Im presuming you cant get 0% or low LOB, to consolidate onto one card with thus low interest? Could you add these into your DMP ( not sure how this works) or if not your CAP one card has the lowest interest, could you see if they will extend your credit limit to encompass some of your higher interest cards?

I would suggest, surely you have stuff to sell, be it ebay? Car boot? Loot? Anything.

Have you cut all the cards up?

earwig

hi you need to phone the cccs or payplan now its only going to get worse and then you could get to the piont where bankruptcy is your only way out at the moment you have a good income so a dmp would proberly suit you best but give the cccs or payplan a ring they will advice you better and talking to someone who knows how these things work will make you feel better to i have had dealings with the cccs and they was nothing but nice frendly and gave good advice i have read on here they people say the same about payplan good luck with it all but dont put it off anylonger make that call

System

Welcome

That first post and subsequent support is the first step, you must feel better now that you are facing up to it. A lot going on there. I would defo recommend you phone payplan or CCCS, get an appointment and see what they can offer - they will usually offer something - whether its what you want it will at least begin to clear the way. Keep posting and good luck - you deserve some.

Lenny

HueyBuey

Just wondered whether anyone could advise on the Newman & Co question (Debt agency for Amex) or on the Kleeneze part time job bit - is it worth a £100 investment ?
Thanks again all
x

lynzpower

As Lenny says, your best bet is to speak with Payplan or CCCs, and see what they can do.

I know this is probably a stupid question, but is there any chance you can find this £200 - oir a proportion of it?