Had my lightbulb moment!!! Very scared

had-enough-now

Well, after years of burying our heads in the sand, DH and I have finally decided enough is enough and gone through all our creditors. Now, they're all defaulted on, and recently, our credit has been fine. However, I am shocked to work out that we owe £42, 666!! I feel physically sick just writing the figure down

I have recently been diagnosed with bi-polar, and am also 13 weeks pregnant with our 3rd (unplanned so please I don't need lectures on sorting out finances before having kids).

Anyway, we've tried to work out our financial situation tonight and on our workings it's going to take us 71 years to clear our debts with what we can afford. What we're trying to work out is whether it's best to go down the route of an IVA or whether it's best to go down the route of bankruptcy.
Obviously, the situation is of our own doing and we certainly aren't looking for an easy way out, but we need to do something, anything, to own up to our own responsibilities and mess.

So, I'm looking for advice as to what people think will be the best option for us. IVA or bankruptcy?

Thanks very much in advance for anyone that can help.

Ellie

debt.b.gone

hello!!

Im not sure what help i am going to be but just wanted to say good luck.

And also that 2 years ago we were approx 70k in debt...and now we have that down to just over 40k. We only have one income (OH's) as i am a stay at home mum at the moment.

I guess the first bit of advice you will get here is to post you SOA....someone will be along with a link soon im sure.

Deep breath and good luck. Its the best palce to start here x

Tixy

Hi had-enough and welcome

Well done for starting to face and tackle your debts.
From the info you have posted its not possible to give an opinion on what is right for you and your family.

Have you sought any free professional advice regarding your position?
These are the people to speak to first
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2077631

This is worth a read if you haven't done so already - http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/pdf-iva-guide.pdf IVAs are only suitable for a very small number of people but if you are one of those few they can be a solution.

If you do consider an IVA, make sure you speak to a number of IPs before deciding who to use and never ever pay up front fees or fees just for advice.

When you say you looked at your financial situation did that include writing out a detailed income & expenditure statement and looking at where you may be able to reduce costs? If not then thats also something you need to look at, work through each cost and see if you can get the same service/same purchases cheaper or where you can cut out altogether.

Do you own your own home? are your debts mostly in joint names or individual? it may be that one solution is right for one of you and a different solution for the other.

Good luck, and good luck with your pregnancy (hopefully as its your third you might not have so much baby related expenditure as one tends to for the first).

niccatw

Hey, hello and welcome! I just wanted to say hi and re-iterate what the above posters have said. Take a deep breath and try not to worry (take a look at some of the signatures to re-assure yourself you're not alone. My debt's just under 30k - not all of it fits in my sig! - and it's just me. You need to look into all of the available options before deciding which one is right for your situation)

I do need to go to sleep now, but I will pop in tomorrow, when I can hopefully be more constrctive! :-)

pure_dead_dopey

Hi Had enough

Just want to say get some free advice from one of the links and they will point you in the direction of a solution, there always is a solution, it just sometimes takes a while to find. We have tons more debt than you and its going to take years to pay it off, but now I can see an end in sight and feel tons better. You will be fine and keep posting so that we can all go through the highs and lows together. No one will judge you here, honest!

gonzo127

heres the link to the SOA spoken about http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

use this to put down everything as accuarte and honest as you can, this takes into account things you might not have thought about first time around, also if you feel brave enough you can post it up here and we will help you go through it and hopefully find you some places to save or things that stand out as potential problems

do not automatically assume IVA or bankruptcy are the only options as a lot of people find a DMP (debt management program - these usually include a freeze on interest and charges where you pay what you can afford to the debt charity and they distrobrute it to your creditors) works really well for them, but this should all be discussed with the debt charities posted in one of the above links

and a quick edit - as other people have said do not dispair! i currently owe around £46000 (not including the mortgage) and i am the only worker on £21000 a year with 3 kids and am still coping