Advice needed please

Avinitlarge

I am after some advice please

I have £13501.33 worth of debt on my credit cards (Im ashamed to say) and i am seriously getting towrds the end of my tether as to what i can do to dig my way out of this mess i am in

My main debt of £8600 is with (Name and shame) HSBC bank who i have been with for the last 14 years, I have never asked my bank for anything or any help until now and i have to say i am very upset and bewildered as to why they will not help me, I have not only spoken to 5 different people on the phone but today i went to the bank and spoke to someone face to face and still i could get no possitive answsers or help from them

My current APR from my banks credit card is 21.9% which i have tried to get lowered but they will not budge or even consider helping me, I also asked for a lower rate for the life of the debt to which the reply was no and now i just do not know what to do as i just cannot afford to pay the £200+ every month that they are asking

I am not sure what if anything can be done but the last thing i need is debt collectors at my door asking me for things i do not have

What i would like to know is who can i speak to that will be able to help me, I would love to pay them off and have offered all sorts but i just keep coming up against a brick wall

Please can you help me to sort out my financial mess that i am in

Any advice would be greatfull

many thanks

myothercarisaferrari

can you do a statement of affairs? SOA, then people can have a look :-)
http://www.makesenseofcards.co.uk/soacalc.html

Tixy

Hi

Unfortunatley loyalty counts for nothing with banks (and its really crappy when you first realise that).

You will get nowhere by talking to them on the phone, much better to keep everything in writing.
Like ferrari says a good step would be to complete a detailed statement of affairs to see how bad things are and if we can make suggestions to save you money.

Also here - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2077631 is a list of free debt advisors to talk to.

Avinitlarge

Ok i am going to fill out my SOA and post it up here as soon as i can, One question though as the debt is mine does my partners income have to go on the SOA or not?

gonzo127

if you work as a couple in most things i would personally put in your partners income and other expenditure, it all depends on how your household finances work and if your partner knows about this debt and will help you

it might be worth while doing 2 SOA's if you have the time to see the difference between seperate finances in the house and joint finances in the house,

Tixy

For the sake of doing your SOA on here its probably worth putting it in so we can see the full picture, otherwise you will get bombarded with extra questions!, when you send to creditors then you might do another one for just your share.

dancingfairy

To be honest - stopping paying them and having a default on your credit record is not the end of the world - they may pass the debt to a debt collector who may stop interest and charges. However - there may be other options before doing this.
It might be worth doing your SOA and contacting one of the debt charities Martin recommends to have a chat thorough your options.
Best of luck
df

dancingfairy

Sadly sometimes the banks refuse to help until you have missed 1 or more payments - which doesn't make sense to me
df

Avinitlarge

Many thanks for all your help, I have now made a quick phonecall to the cccs who i must say were very helpfull and have advised me on what to do next

I feel a lot more possitive than i did a few hours ago and by god it is great to speak to someone who will help (Just like you good people)

I do wonder why it is so difficult to get help from banks and other companys nowadays it is beyond me but i guess that is the world we live in nowadays