My SOA - bitter reading......

miss_missy

bertman wrote: »

Thanks Hellsgranny.

Well - I wrote to the Halifax offering to pay £300 per month, the card has £14400 on it, I went over the credit limit after they allowed me to pay £125 a month but kept putting the difference on the balance along with £24.00 of charges for 4 months. They wanted me to pay £1018 to bring the card back within terms.
I got a letter today telling me to go to either Payplan or CCCS so that they can put forward a reduced payment plan again.
This is the only card or loan that I have problems with I am up to date on everything else. This could mean everyone gets less??
I will ring them on Monday to see what advice they will give me.

hi again bertman

well done on contacting halifax with your offer and i dont think your doing the right thing asking for advice from payplan or cccs, i have noticed on the boards that halifax can be quite difficult at times.
If you went onto a dmp i think that you probably would be paying less to your creditors but often interest and charges stop therefore you may find out that you can become debt free much quicker even tho payments maybe less someone with more knowledge on dmps might beable to give you more advise about that.
I think you have a lot to think about but in the mean time you could try completing the cccs online debt remedy to see what that suggests.

anyway just wanted to say well done again for everything youve done and keep up the good work you will be debt free one day as will the rest of us
keep updating us
take care

bertman

cameron1 wrote: »

Bertman

Dont feel the need to justify or explain your debt. People get into these situtions for a variety of reasons. I am in debt to the tune of £36000 and i can assure you it is certainly not through any fault of my own! I imagine the colapse of your business was probably soul destroying and the added factor of being left in debt has made it that much harder.

So actually, good on you for being proactive in taking steps to get things under control rather than waiting for a "solution" to fall in your lap. You have really put some thought into your budget and it looks like you have committed yourself to getting you finances on track. Yes it will be slow, but at least there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

But irrespective of whether the debt could have been avoided or not, the purpose of this forum is for people to offer productive advice and support. Not criticism.

It takes courage to admit you are in a mess and ask for help. An " i told you so" or "its your own fault" attitude is simply un-helpful and counter productive.

Thanks for this - I really appreciate your comments, woke up early this morning and feel a bit low today, the Halifax letter kind of set me back a bit - But on a positive side I have sold a few thinkgs on Ebay this week, the money is in my paypal account so I am going top transfer this off onto one of the higher rate cards.:)

bertman

rubydoiwannabee wrote: »

Hi, first of all welcome and well done for getting this far.

I wanted to comment on this part of your comments specifically. My husband and I moved the whole of our mortgage over to INT only about 20 months ago so that we could free up £300 per month. It was the difference between us keeping afloat and going under, and it has helped enormously.

As of TODAY we made our first step back into repayment and transferred 60K back onto repayment. Baby steps...

Our credit rating is excellent and fully intact and hasn't been affected at all. However, I was advised today that if we were to ask to change back (e.g. change the repayment part back to int only) we would now have to go through a credit check and apply for a new loan. So things have obviously changed over the last year and a half or so.

Hope this helps.

I was told from Halifax that they would only allow us to go onto interest free for 12 months and they would automatically put us back onto the existing mortgage.

I hope you get yourself sorted OK. All everyone wants to do is pay their dues and get out of debt but these companies seem to put so many obstacles in our way....

hettiecarro

Hi Bertman
Firstly - well done for the steps you have taken so far.

The support and help given here will get you through this.

I am in a debt situation myself at the moment so I am not in much of a position to offer practical help.

The only thing that occurred to me is that you only appear to be 2 adults in your household.

Have you considered selling your property and buying something cheaper/smaller?

Each one of us knows what is feasible to us - so all we can do when posting is plant thoughts for you (and me) to consider.

DON'T be pulled down by the very very few numpties who hang around here seemingly with the black judges cap on. You are facing your debt and dealing with it - and for that you should be extremely proud of yourself.

I wish you all the very best of luck - and if I discover any other ways to help I will post.

Hettie

welshmoneylover

Well done for taking the time to post that lot, but have to ask have you cut the cards up yet?

Sounds as if you are going to be on a long journey to pay it all back, and when you do buy yourself a good bottle of champagne and enjoy!

thewad

bertman

Your debt is just about identical to mine but you beat me on the number of cc's.
I only had 9.
Your income is £600 more than mine but your mortgage payments are also £600 more than mine so all square there.
You sound like your doing what I was doing up until this month, paying the minimum
then spending a bit on them and the amount never seems to come down.
I've just set up a DMP with CCCS, just the paperwork to send back.
Paid just token payments this month and can't believe how much money I have left.
Even when I start the DMP payments in April the payments are manageable and the allowances are good oh and I sleep at night again now.
What I guess I'm saying is get on a DMP and get your life back, best thing I ever did.
They say if you can pay it back in 10 or less years they nearly always accept it and you can.

John

KPR11

zarazara wrote: »

There's over £43,000 available to spend [net income]. This is a huge amount. Its more than double what me and my family have per year and we are not in debt. For goodness sake,cut the cards up ,stop living above your means,save up for things and just dont have it if you dont have the cash. Holidays,TV's,lots of clothes etc are not necessary.

OK "miss I am so great", in case you hadn't read his business failed. Even if it didn't and he piled up so much debt on an amazing holiday at least he intends to pay every single penny of it back so IMHO if you can not offer support or say something good then at least don't say anything. He has had his LBM and does not need you to taunt him!

happyhaddock_2

Hi Bertman just wanted to echo Miss Missy's post re-the debt remedy on the CCCS website. That's exactly what I did on Friday and it was very easy to do and gave me an instant response with a repayment figure. I then rang them and again quickly got to speak to an adviser, really can't praise them enough. Am ringing again tomorrow to get the ball rolling properly and get the paperwork sorted.:)

bertman

Thanks All - Nice to know people do care and that you aren't alone. I rang the CCCS today and spoke to a really understanding lady there, she didn't judge and she genuinely seemed to care.. The upshot is that I have to go through some details at a time that suits and they will offer advice, it's still scary though. I realise that although we are up to date on all our debts apart from one that we aren't really clearing the cards, just paying £5 and the interest.
So I am going to go through what they want - they have already emailed me a list of what to discuss and then take it from there.

A couple of answers to previous posters though - Yes the cards are long gone, I have to keep one to use for work but I get re-imbursed almost immediatley, nothing else goes anywhere near credit. We don't want to downsize, I know that we will get out of this mess one day, we have put a huge amount into our home and I always said I will fight tooth and nail to keep it.

Well - time to go through my outgoings, they are open till 8pm so I will do this tonight....

miss_missy

hi
well done bertman im glad to see things are getting sorted for you
can i just ask did cccs say what happens about the fact you need to use a cc for work as if you go on a dmp you arent allowed any credit so what happens with regards to work just wondered
take care and keep us posted with how things go