Newbie on here, help and advice needed!

AaronR

Hello everyone!

I have only just joined this forum as i have just come out of the closet so to speak and now want to face up to and tackle my debt problems. So, a little about myself...

Im 26 years old and live on my own in a rented property, me and my fiancee split in february, much of which was due to my debt problems and the effect its had on my life. I have been self employed as a courier for the last 5 years which has caused much of my financial problems, but i have got out of it now, and im lucky in that i start a new job in may on £25000 a year!

My debts are roughly as follows (i will post exact figures in due course!):-

Virgin cc 0% £4800
Tesco cc £3200
Lloyds Business Load £3000
Lloyds Cc £820
Lloyds Overdraft £600
Overdue Self Employed tax bill £3300

All this is simply doing my head in and im really struggling to pay back everything and ive spent ages just turning a blind eye to it all in the hope it will go away, this has caused my major stress and misery and i currently suffer from depression, i just feel like its really holding me back in life and ive felt so alone, ashamed and angry.

I was hoping to obtain a consolidation loan but no one will touch me at the moment, however since looking on MSE and this forum ive realised that there is lots of you guys all in the same boat as me, and there is ways of sorting things out, i didnt even realise there where such places as cccs out there etc.

I suppose my main question is where do i go from here? ive opened my eyes up to the problem i face and i want to tackle it head on, but im just quite confused as to where to go from here!

Once again, hello to you all and i am really glad to have found this place, and i hope you can offer some words of advice!

Aaron

purpleheather2810

Hi Aaron

I'm fairly new myself, but welcome, there are some very lovely and helpful people here who will all point you in the right direction. Congratulations on the new job - that's the light at the end of the tunnel!! Start with completing a statement of affairs (SOA) so that you can see exactly what your financial position is - and if you post it here you will be given plenty of pointers and advice. I suspect the most important debt to clear is the tax - this should come first....

DarkConvict

As above you need to post an SOA before we understand what is going on, debts is only part off the information, if you earn £26k a month then that debt is no problem - http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

The tax bill needs to be a major priority, the MHRC are generally friendly but if you do not make arrangements to pay it off within 3 years (1 year preferred) they can get very heavy handed. Tax is a priority debt and they have no hard feelings about making someone bankrupt. Concentrate on paying this off.

Debts should be paid off in the order of the highest APR. http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

nanna58

Welcome aaron

there is lots of support here for you pop in when you can yes we are all in the same boat if we cant advise we will always support;);)

Paul_london_2

Hi Aron,

Like you i am 26 and new to the site and have been struggling with debts for a number of years, I'm in no position to offer advice but from my experience (bad) is that consolidation loans don't always help. I took one out a couple of years ago and have found the debts i paid off have slowly crept back up.

From reading the many posts on here i have realised i am not alone and lots of other people are in the same boat and reading their stories i have had a realisation that enough is enough and i am going to tackle my debts head on and pull me head out of the sand.

I have already received lots of good advice and tips on saving money and more importantly support.

I wish you all the luck and keep us posted

Paul :beer: