An absolute mess!

Belle_de_Jour_2

Hey folks,

*i should just warn you there's a bit of an essay ahead, so you can opt out now before it drags out*

I joined this site hoping to get some advice as i'm trying to get myself out of the mess i made when i went to uni.

I have to admit to being a bit daft when i started uni...actually make that VERY daft. I got given a couple of student accounts with credit cards and as you've guessed i maxed them all out stupidly thinking it was free money. Anyway that's done now and i'm trying to make amends.

1). I graduated 2 years ago. To date i've managed to pay of one credit card and once overdaft account with Barclays. My HSBC credit card was stopped and combined with my overdraft into a Managed Loan Account. I have about £1450 left to pay and haven't missed any payments in 4years. Only had 1 missed payment and that was the first month it was put together. I repay £23 monthly, which is quite fair i think.

2). I had a phone contract with 3G about 4 years ago. The phone got stolen and i called in to cancel it. Didn't realise i still had to pay the line rental (duh!) Since i moved accomodation as a student, all letters and warnings didn't get forwarded to me. 4 years later i get a letter from Lowell Group who bought the account from 3G. I owed about £250 and managed to work out a payment plan to pay it off in 4 installments. The final payment comes out in about 3days and i'm quite happy about that. The account shows up as a default though on my credit report. So i rang them up to confirm if that will be removed once my final payment is through, and they said it will *fingers crossed*

3). This is the killer. Got a bit desperate about a year ago and borrowed from a loan shark - Welcome Finance so to speak. I still keep kicking myself about it. They're absolute rogues, but i guess it was my fault for being so naive and not fishing around properly. I wouldn't have gone down that road if my bank didn't refuse me a credit card. And i didn't want to apply for another credit card elsewhere and risk getting declined again, thus ruining my credit report further.
Anyway, i borrowed £3000 from them. The worst bit is that after about 6 months of paying £130p/m and now £65p/m (in the last 5 months), my balance is still £2762!!!! Kill me now..

Now i've been out of a job for about 7 months (credit crunch cut-down from previous employer ). I decided to start my Masters as this is a good a time as any. As it stands, i'm currently unemployed. I study full time and because of the hours i study i'm advised not to work. I want to see how strenous it gets in a few months and then see if i can work a part-time around that, but for now i can't. Also can't get a JSA as i'm seen as a full-timer and students don't get that.

Basically i'm out of job, i've used all my savings to repay my outstanding debts and live, and it's now got to the point where i'm not sure where to get money from to carry on repayments, unless it means robbing a bank..:(

I want to know if the following options are possible:

• a way to freeze repayments without affecting my credit score? I told Welcome Finance about my employment status but now they are threatening to demand full payment if i stop repayments...whatever happens it'll ruin my credit report further i imagine.
• a credit card i can get with either low monthly repayments/interest? Or is there one i can get that won't charge interest for about 10-12months or so? I don't know much about credit cards i'm afraid. I've been refused only once from Capital One about 2 years ago.
• writing off the loans without affecting my credit score? Wishful thinking i know..

I don't really understand my credit report as there's no scoring (it's a free one from Experian i got today). It says i have 7 accounts:
1. O2 - my current phone contract - shows a couple of missed payments, but i'm up to date
2. HSBC x3 (Current account, credit card and overdraft - now managed loan account). Current account shows about 10 warnings from late payments since 2005..the majority done in2005.
3. 3G from years back - now closed and settled
4. Lowell Group - bought 3G account - only 1 payment left for £48
5.Welcome Finance - shows 2 warnings for late repayments in the 1 year i've had it.

I have 1 default from Lowell Group - but this should apparently be removed after my last payment due in 3 days.

This is all the info i have. I would be seriously grateful if someone/anyone can advise me on a way to get out of this mess, or a way to make it easier to pay off. Thanks in advance for any help and if you've read this far!

Degenerate

The solution is in your name.

Joe_Bloggs

MSE Martin used to be a student union president.
Can your student union offer you advice on where to find part time employment and how to claw your way out of debt ?
J_B.

superdood

Did you have any ppi insurance on any of your credit cards/loans? If you were made redundant you may be able to claim....worth checking as a lot of people don't even realise they have it, hence all the claims being made for ppi mis selling.

Are you getting all of the benefits that you are entitled to? Have you done a benefits check?

Are you willing to take any job going, ie, cleaning bogs, serving at mcdonalds or are you aiming too high for someone in such a desperate situation?

Talk to your bank/lenders about what they can do to help and would be worth mentioning the banking code in whichthey promise to be sympathetic and helpful if you find yourself in hardship?

Have you gone down any of the reclaiming routes? It looks as if overdraft charges reclaiming is out of the window but credit card charge reclaiming is still open?

Have you visited your local CAB? Should be the first port of call in your situation, they can help you negotiate with lenders and give you all the advice you need for free?

In desperation visit all the moneysaving thrifty threads to learn how to live on next to nothing so you can throw everything you have at your debts and don't get any more credit, borrow interest free from friends or family if you really cant get by without borrowing

PNPSUKNET

I think you need to avoid taking further debts out, you wont get a 0% card thats for sure and seek ccs advice or payplan. Inregards to the default it will be marked as satisfied it wont be removed, if they say it will get them to put it in writting as normaly they dont

Belle_de_Jour_2

superdood wrote: »

Did you have any ppi insurance on any of your credit cards/loans? If you were made redundant you may be able to claim....worth checking as a lot of people don't even realise they have it, hence all the claims being made for ppi mis selling.
I've just had to look up what a PPI is and don't recall ever getting one. Is this something i should consider or am i better off without?


Are you getting all of the benefits that you are entitled to? Have you done a benefits check?
I didn't think i could get anything else other than JSA, so will look into it. Thanks

Are you willing to take any job going, ie, cleaning bogs, serving at mcdonalds or are you aiming too high for someone in such a desperate situation?
Seriously yes. I did apply to McD's towards the end of my search before i started my Masters. I heard back from them when i started my course and asked if i could change my hours to part-time and was told 'they'd get in touch' which to me means no..but we'll see. So no, i'm not adverse to any job as i did similar jobs when i was an undergrad.

Talk to your bank/lenders about what they can do to help and would be worth mentioning the banking code in whichthey promise to be sympathetic and helpful if you find yourself in hardship?
I did speak to them a few months back and they were completely unsympathetic. Thanks for the info, i'll call them again.

Have you gone down any of the reclaiming routes? It looks as if overdraft charges reclaiming is out of the window but credit card charge reclaiming is still open?
I have no credit cards to pay off. As i said, the last one i have was consolidated together with my overdraft into a Managed Loan Account. Or does this still count?

Have you visited your local CAB? Should be the first port of call in your situation, they can help you negotiate with lenders and give you all the advice you need for free?
I'll get straight on this tomorrow - thanks so much

In desperation visit all the moneysaving thrifty threads to learn how to live on next to nothing so you can throw everything you have at your debts and don't get any more credit, borrow interest free from friends or family if you really cant get by without borrowing

They were the first people i went to, unfortunately, no one's in a good enough position to lend me the amount i need. I know they would if they could though. If there's another way to borrow interest free i hope i find it.
Thanks a lot for your help. Really appreciate it.

Belle_de_Jour_2

Joe_Bloggs wrote: »

MSE Martin used to be a student union president.
Can your student union offer you advice on where to find part time employment and how to claw your way out of debt ?
J_B.

Like i said i just started studying again full-time and it's quite intensive, moreso than when i was an undergrad. I want to see how the first 2 months go so i can gage whether to get part-time work around my studies. The last thing i wanna do is strain myself from the start. Right now though, i'm looking for weekend bar jobs as that tends to be easier to get..but even that's not kicking off yet.

PNPSUKNET wrote: »

I think you need to avoid taking further debts out, you wont get a 0% card thats for sure and seek ccs advice or payplan. Inregards to the default it will be marked as satisfied it wont be removed, if they say it will get them to put it in writting as normaly they dont

I didn't really want to take out more debts, but i thought it would be better to owe the same amount with a company that has a better repayment plan than with the loan sharks i've got on my case. Kinda like swapping my situation if that makes sense?

binaryuniverse

Belle_de_Jour wrote: »

I didn't really want to take out more debts, but i thought it would be better to owe the same amount with a company that has a better repayment plan than with the loan sharks i've got on my case. Kinda like swapping my situation if that makes sense?

Replacing debt with cheaper debt is always a good thing if you can obtain it and stay strong willed enough to not increase it.

superdood

PPI- theres not much point in you getting it now if you are now unemployed it is to protect your payments against things like unemployment- however it might be worth you writing a few letters as if there was ppi added to any of your loans and credit cards (even old closed accounts) you would be able to claim the money back if you were unaware/ did not request ppi. Worth checking out as a lot of people don't even realise they have been paying it.

Default charges-If you have payed any late payement credit card charges you can also claim these back, even on old closed accounts, they are disproportionate to the actual cost to the credit card/loan company and therefore unlawful, there are template letters and loads of info round this site on how to do this.

Go see the CAB about everything else, they should be able to help you get organised

Good luck