Stick at it - a little inspiration..

RiK_2

I've been a long-time lurker and reader of these forums but I felt I just had to register today in the hope that this post might help inspire others to stick to their plans and know there is an end in sight.

I won't bore you with all the details but suffice to say a combination of a reasonably high amount of consumer debt, a fairly serious illness, quitting a well paid job and living off cards for the best part of a year left me in a pretty big hole. When the light finally dawned I ended up turning to CCCS for help.

At the time of my first CCCS statement in January 2004 my total debt was £45,563.96.

Yes, with a debt like that I could so easily have gone down the bankruptcy route but to be honest I didn't want to, firstly because I felt that my debts were my responsibility and I wanted to pay them back, and also because of the simple fact I didn't want to see that notice in the local papers announcing my problems to the whole world (especially as by then I was building up a small business of my own).

Initially I was paying off around £400 a month, I managed to increase this up to about £650 after a few years and last year had a little extra which allowed me to clear one card debt in full (as that one had resumed charging interest). Anyway, here we are at the end of Feb 2010 and I've just had my final statement from CCCS. I'd love to post a scan for you but unfortunately the forum software won't allow me to add images as a new users so I'll just point out the final column looks like this:


Current
Estimated
Balance:
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00

---

£0.00

Yup, that's it. Finally free after six years. :j

If I can do it, so can you, so stick at it folks!

RiK

saxysarah

AWESOME:j

I've just started thinking about my debts and although i don't have a HUGE amount if I discount my mortgage its easy to see how it could get horrific! thanks for the motivation:p

bertman

Well done Rik - it's good to see stories like this on the forum's.

Desperate_to_be_debt_free

Well done Rik. I'm with CCCS, they advised me to go down the bankruptcy route but the thought scared me so I've managed to get all my creditors to agree to a pro rata payment plan. Its going to take me forever to pay everything off but I'm determined to do so.

Spitroast

Good work dude. I love reading posts like this, makes me more determined.

miss_missy

hi rik

well done its always great to see people coming to the end of their debt free wannabes days and moving onto being debt free you must feel great thank you for sharing your news with us all it really does help you stay positive when you see people are managing to get to the end

i hope you have a wonderful debt free future:beer:

mamajojo

:jWow:jRik:j
Thats fantastic and so heartening to read for someone with similar figures just starting out on the 1st March!
Enjoy your debt free future:T

Saturnalia

That is amazing Rik! You've given me so much hope as I start the journey today with £12500 debt and unable to see the way forward.

Happytogetdebtfree

well done xxx

KPR11

Well done RiK and thanks for the inspiration! It is going to help me plug away!

Moneytroubles_2

Well done xx