I need help!

catflea

I've gotten in hugely over my depth. Over the last fornight or so I havn't slept properly, havn't eaten properly and I am feeling like a full on wreck and all because of debt - there are a number of background issues going on too which make this ever more complex. After a long time I thought I was finally getting in control of my life and my finances but a number of letters have come through the door from my previous letting agent and that prompted other things in my mind

At present I have a salary of approx £1100 a month (but this fluctuates) - not huge but better than some. This position is subject to not getting CCJs - a CCJ would be deemed by my employer as gross misconduct and I would be fired.

Debts are

£75.00 owed to DCA - re BT (I thought this had been settled, but transpires otherwise)
£574.00 - owed to DCA1 re HSBC overdraft - settled by parental loan
£614.00 - owed to DCA2 re QuidQuid Loan
£810.00 - owed to DCA3 re Abermarle and Bond (I've never heard of them and have no idea what this debt it)
£6106.73 - owed to DCA4 re a previous bank account (I thought this was going to be about 3k :eek:)

And the ones that are in control
~£700 Zopa Loan (£36 a month)
~£300 capital one (min payment ~£15 but normally pay ~£60-70)
Vanquis card that gets repaid each month.

How would you guys suggest I approach this? I dont wish to have anything derogatory come about from the three that are working, but I anticipate defaults all over the place from the others. I will fill out an SOA once I can find a template.

To top this all off, Im currently living with the old folks and they are heaping the pressure on me with regards this whole situation and the added stresses from them are pretty much destroying what little sanity I have left.

immoral_angeluk

What disposable income have you got before your debt repayments? What are your household circumstances? You need to do a financial statement so we can get a better idea of your situation to be able to advise. See the post for first time posters at the top of the board and the 'soa' guide.

catflea

Forgot to add theres Sofa Finance as well, thats approx £600 :mad:

Horace

The template for the SOA which you can copy and paste here (MSE) is..https://www.makesensofcards.com/soacalc.html

jamesd

Contact CCCS or one of the other debt charities. Your situation seems readily solvable with their help. I don't see any reason for an IVA or CCJ to be needed in your circumstances, arrangements to adjust payments and/or freeze interest should be sufficient.

Declaration of interest: I've both loans via Zopa and offers and lending via Zopa. I've no idea whether I'm one of those who lent to you and don't care but if you see a lender with my name please privately let me know so I can refrain from communicating with you here.

catflea

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 5
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 7

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1000
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1000

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 100
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 0
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 80
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 0
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 11
Car Insurance........................... 38
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 50
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 255
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 5
Haircuts................................ 5
Entertainment........................... 25
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 669


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 120
Car(s).................................. 800
Other assets............................ 200
Total Assets............................ 1120

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Zopa...........................700.......36.09.....18.9
Capital 1......................350.......17.5......39.9
Creation (sofa financ..........600.......14.14.....0
DCA4...........................6106.73...0.........0
DCA3...........................810.......0.........0
DCA2...........................614.......0.........0
DCA1...........................75........0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........9255.73...67.73.....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,000
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 669
Available for debt repayments........... 331
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 67.73
Amount left after debt repayments....... 301.27

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 1,120
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -9,255.73
Net Assets.............................. -8,135.73

Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.

and jamesd, you are not in my lender list

Looks like I may be able to sort most of this mess out by way of parental loan so lets see what happens. I'm likely to be asking for advice about the DCAs in future though.

Thinking that if I offer them a lump sum settlement they may accept less? any pointers at where to begin negotations? (i.e 30%, 50% etc)

katsu

catflea wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 5
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 7

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1000
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1000

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 100
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 0
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 80 - look into reducing this - what are you paying for? International calls can be cheaper through rebtel, you can use other providers, make skype calls, for domestic calls and texts look at the best package. Stop getting flash handsets.
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 0
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 100 - how many non essential trips?
Road tax................................ 11
Car Insurance........................... 0 - you don't insure the car?
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 50 - yet you pay to maintain it? I'm confused.
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 255 - can you do this cheaper or cut out non-essential trips? £355 on travel feels a lot for one person.
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 5
Haircuts................................ 5
Entertainment........................... 25
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 631


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 120
Car(s).................................. 800
Other assets............................ 200 what is this?
Total Assets............................ 1120

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Zopa...........................700.......36.09.....18.9
Capital 1......................350.......17.5......39.9
Creation (sofa financ..........600.......14.14.....0
DCA4...........................6106.73...0.........0
DCA3...........................810.......0.........0
DCA2...........................614.......0.........0
DCA1...........................75........0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........9255.73...67.73.....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,000
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 631
Available for debt repayments........... 369
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 67.73
Amount left after debt repayments....... 301.27 - do you really have this much sitting in the bank to make additonal debt payments each month? If not you need to add more into your SOA.

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 1,120
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -9,255.73
Net Assets.............................. -8,135.73

It is nice that your parents can help you, but you need to be sure you will not get into more debt.

Got anything you can sell on Ebay etc to clear the cap1 card?

catflea

The cap1 card is getting paid off - thats not too much of a problem to be tbh. If it wasn't for the DCA issue that would def be cleared within 3 months. The only saleable assets I have are my pushbike (worth £750 new, maybe £200 now) and my "toy" car (worth maybe £100 and currently say unisured, and unmot'd on the parents drive)

To answer the questions you rasied in addition

Car ins is £38 - read it as breakdown cover for some reason?
Mobile phone, I am tied into that till xmas
You are right £355 a month on travel is a lot, but thats how much it costs to get to work everyday - I make very few non essentail journeys
The other asset is premium bonds, getting cashed in as soon as I can find the forms....

And no, i dont have that much sat in my account at the end of the month, because I go oooh, unaccounted for cash and spend it on stupid and unnessecary things.

jamesd

For the DCAs say that a family member is considering lending you some money provided a settlement seems sensible and say that they are offering 20% of the amount owed to take over the debt. That'll be more than the DCA paid for an old debt, perhaps less than for a new one.

If any of the debts are more than six years old and you haven't agreed that they are yours or made any payments for six years, say that now because they may be statue barred from collecting any money from you. If you don't know what a claimed debt is, tell the DCA you want them to prove it's yours and genuine. No reason to pay money because a random company claims you owe them money without telling you why.

Looking at some of your spending, how much could be put onto the Vanquis card each month? I'm wondering whether you can put enough of the spending on that card to clear the Capital One card balance once and get to the point where you're able to exploit the interest free period on credit cards to cut the amount of money you're paying interest on. This would be a good short term use for any family money as well.

Glad I'm not one of your lenders, that means I don't need to worry about the unfair debt collection rules when writing to you or that I might accidentally discourage you from seeking help here.

catflea

I'd just re-iterate that zopa is 100% ok and up to date.

Statue barred is not relevant. I'm putting all of my train tickets on the vanquis and paying it off each month. There is no spend on the cap1 only repayment - however once the cap1 is cleared it will be used for tickets and the vanquis closed.