£30,000 gambling debt need help!!!

gamblermug

hi, im in serious debt, due to gambling using credit cards and would be gratefull if anybody could advise me in how to get out of this mess.
i owe:
£11,000 hsbc personal loan
£4000 hsbc credit card
£4800 halifax credit card
£1500 mbna credit card
£4300 virgin credit card
£3500 barclays credit card

i am in fulltime employment and earn £35,000 before deductions. would i be eligible to apply for an iva due to the fact that £20,000 of my debt is due to gambling?

Tixy

Hi and welcome

I'm glad you have joined and admitted that you have a problem. Are you getting help with the gambling now?
It would really help if you could post up a detailed statement of affairs (using this link - http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html) so that you and we can see the full picture and see how much money you have left each month after paying your mortgage and basic living costs to put towards repaying your debts.

As far as I am aware the reason for the debts does not matter but IVAs are only suitable for a very small number of people and without seeing more info we can't say whether you would be one of those people.

Well done for posting and there are some other ex-gamblers around on the board who may be able to offer you specific support and advice with regards to that.

pinkneonmartini

firstly well done for facing your debts, it's not easy! I have to agree with Tixy that without a full SOA it will be difficult to advise you, but based on the info you have given i would say:

1. Tackle the credit cards first! They all seem to be for relatively high amounts apart from the MBNA one. So if you were to focus on paying off that card, while meeting the mimimum payments on the others, you'd have the satisfaction of clearing one card fairly quickly.

2. I'd then tackle the other credit cards in order of interest! Pay the most off whatever is charging the most! It's called snowballing, you essentially save yourself from paying extortionate interest, by clearing the highest APR cards first.

3. Leave the loan til last! Assuming that you can manage the payments, and have not defaulted, then there is no reason to pay this off early.

Good Luck

frankfish

Hi

First step needs to be to tackle the root cause, the gambling. Once this is under control you will have a clear head to enable you to tackle the finances.

Over 2 years ago I was in a similar situation but with the help of GA, I have never gambled since and can focus on my debt

Please feel free to PM me if you want further info

FF

twirly09

I am only 19 but i am a recovering gambling addict and (I did get into quite a bit of debt which is now all cleared because of it!)

I must say the advice to gamble more is the silliest thing ive heard. STOP now.. it wont get any worse then... if you try to "recoup" lossess your only go in deeper. Thats how i got into debt of 2k in about the space of 40 minutes chasing losses!

Wolfgang_Lake

I would speak to your employer tell them everything.. and stress that you need time off due to stress... in this time declare yourself bankrupt.. use your mums/dads/friends account, go back to work and start again with out the "betting"

Good Luck

seeya23

im ex gambler i lost over £25.000( not on credit cards) over one year in 2008 and i had to stop and have not had a bet since you can do it it,s hard to start with but you can do it

lil-bit-skint

jamesey07 wrote: »

Do you have any more money on your credit cards? If you do i would suggest you put it into your gambling account and try and recoup some of your losses, What type of things were you betting on? If all that fails i would look into when the cards were taking out, There is something about that if they were taking out before April 2007 you might get out of paying anything back which would be even better

I thought the point of this board was to offer support and guidance to fellow posters. My ex-boyfriend was a gambler and as a result of following "advice" similar to yours from a "friend" he has lost everything.

I don't think your suggestions in this post or subsequent ones are relevant, supportive or constructive. This is not the place for childish comments; It is a place to offer support and guidance to others.

TheMunk

gamblermug wrote: »

hi, im in serious debt, due to gambling using credit cards and would be gratefull if anybody could advise me in how to get out of this mess.
i owe:
£11,000 hsbc personal loan
£4000 hsbc credit card
£4800 halifax credit card
£1500 mbna credit card
£4300 virgin credit card
£3500 barclays credit card

i am in fulltime employment and earn £35,000 before deductions. would i be eligible to apply for an iva due to the fact that £20,000 of my debt is due to gambling?

First things first DO NOT try and gamble your way out of debt and DO seek advice on your gambling problem.

I was in a similar financial positon earnings/debt 4 years ago and as of september last year i am debt free. Post an SOA so that the helpful people here can trim back your spending to free up as much cash as possible to put towards your debts.

Start with the high interest debts first and over pay them with any spare cash, this will start to clear more free cash as you pay off more! This starts the snowball effect. Snowballing of your debts is a slow process but once it gets going it will eat through your debt in no time(ish).

Its hard work and you have to live very spartan but you can clear it without effecting your credit rating it just takes time and persevirance.

-M-

Verbatim

ex and would be ex-gamblers support thread
Hi
There is a thread on here for people having debt problems through gambling.

RecoveringAlcoholic

jamesey07 wrote: »

Do you have any more money on your credit cards? If you do i would suggest you put it into your gambling account and try and recoup some of your losses, What type of things were you betting on? If all that fails i would look into when the cards were taking out, There is something about that if they were taking out before April 2007 you might get out of paying anything back which would be even better

If you end up going bankrupt the Official Receiver will not take kindly to behaviour of this nature.

.