Advice Please

jonjamie1970

In 2007 I was made redundant and luckily found a new job fairly quickly earning more money. However the job was 150 miles from my home and I was relocated by my new firm. They continue to pay my rent in the NW now but have been unable to sell my house in Bucks. This agreement is up for discussion at work soon and Im a bit nervous about the outcome.

Anyway, I manage to pay my bills every month, just, things get a little tighter each month and Im now at the point that some things are being paid late.

I have a default on my credit fault from 2006 which was a £250 dispute with Next catalogue run up by my previous partner. Other than that my credit file reads OK.

Im worried now as I now have no money, I have started to borrow the odd £10 for fuel and its becoming diffficult to manage.

I have no frills in terms of SKY TV, Mobile phone etc etc and eat very frugaly, I lost weight from 14 stone to 12 (im 6ft 3) as I cut out everything that could be deemed a luxury. My family and I eat basic foods, Rice etc etc.

I have an expensive car loan that was taken out before I was made redundant which was to provide myself with a company car, I travelled the uK seeing customers. The car is worth less than the outstanding loan and I cant hand it back, Ive checked.

My only thought now is to apply to reduce payments on this and maybe other items ?

I pay two lots of council tax as I was still unable to sell my house.

Would love some advice please.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 2
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 3000
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3000
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 803
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 317
Electricity............................. 136
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 80
Water rates............................. 15
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 0
TV Licence.............................. 13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 500
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 120
Road tax................................ 44.67
Car Insurance........................... 55
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 50
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 17.5
Contents insurance...................... 16
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 2167.17

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 200000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 13000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 213000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 168000...(803)......5.75
Total secured & HP debts...... 168000....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Car............................14100.....580.......0
Capital One....................1500......80........34.99
Barclaycard....................450.......15........19
Barclays Overdraft.............2800......50........5
Total unsecured debts..........18850.....725.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,000
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,167.17
Available for debt repayments........... 832.83
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 725
Amount left after debt repayments....... 107.83
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 213,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -168,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -18,850
Net Assets.............................. 26,150

jonjamie1970

I should add the £500 Groceries is the money I give to my wife to feed, clothe and pay for kids brownies, swimming etc.

niccatw

You could possibly shave a bit of money off your grocery budget with meal plannig - have a look at the old style forum for excellent ideas and tips.

If you are unable to get a new credit card deal due to you disputing the Next default, have you tried calling your current provider's and asking them if they have any better deals available to you? (Worth a try, worst they can do is say no.) Or have you asked Barclays if they'll increase your overdraft? It's much cheaper than that Cap One 34% card, which you want to try and move or juggle as soon as you possibly can.

If you've any space on the Barclaycard, I'd be inclined as much of the Cap One as I could to it, just to reduce the interest payments being made.

I'm afraid I've no experience of relocation costs when you have a house as I only rented at the time I moved jobs. Hopefully some-one else will be able to help you out on that.

niccatw

Have you checked whether you are entitled to any benefits? Is there anything your wife could do from home to earn extra income (I'm assuming she doesn't work at the momnet as you only have one income on your SOA).

Do you have anything you could ebay? CAr boot? Even a bit of mystery shopping and surveys? I know it doesn't seem much in the grand scheme of things but even if it was just to supplement a pressie fund or something to ease the pressure a tiny bit.

goggle

You will sell your Bucks house if you drop the price
Post on the house selling/buying board for hints/advice on how to get it sold

RAS

Hi

You will have some benefits, so you need to add those.

Your utilties bills are massive, the oil usage is roughtly in line with a 9 bed house?

Whilst giving your missus a lump sum (plUs CB?), this is where you can best economise, so you both need to sit down and work out where all this is going, exactly.

You should head over to the House sellling forum and ask what you cab do to off-load the house for sale.

In the mean-time please go round the house, sort out the kid's toys no longer used, the clothes no longer used, the stff not olonger watched and listened toi an set the missu up to sell that lot for as much as possible. use that to pay off the Cap 1 card ASAP.

jonjamie1970

Hi All, thanks for the great replies.

My wife is currently in the business of starting up a new company, she has an event planning company and has taken her first 3 deposits for events in the next two years, due to the nature of the business there will not be any profit for 16 months as per the business plan.

I have reduced my house so it is now the cheapest 4 bed detached in the area, I dropped the price from £230k to £199k, the next available of similar is £230k. Houses just not moving yet in the area I am selling.

Oil !!!

Your right about this, the house we live in that the company rent is a 6 bedroom house, however, we never have the heating over 17 degrees much to the annoyance of my wife and two of rooms have no heating at all on. I am very tight with the heating, the cost of heating oil has doubled since last summer. I was paying 36 p a litre and its now 60p a litre.

I have also sold pretty much everything on the car boot, and I mean everything I have or owned of value. Kids PS3 etc etc. I also do quidco which varies but have brought in £250 since October as I purchase items for work through the quidco account.

RAS

I suggest you remove details of your wife's company from you post.

In the mena-time she needs to find someway of bringing in a few hundred a month.
And could you ask the company to down-size the house if they will still pay?

jonjamie1970

RAS wrote: »

I suggest you remove details of your wife's company from you post.

In the mena-time she needs to find someway of bringing in a few hundred a month.
And could you ask the company to down-size the house if they will still pay?

Good point, name removed.

The house is part of the deal with the landlord of our business premesis and is at a considerable discount to the company.

Whats the likely effect of asking Black Horse if I can reduce the payments on the car ?

jonjamie1970

Did some work over the weekend on the debts I can work with. Obviously I cant with council tax etc, I dont have any loans and obviously I have made strides to try and pay a bit more of the Capital One credit card each month.

My monthly living allowance after everythign is paid is very low now and I'm struggling.

Black Horse say they can Term Extend my finance on the car without effect on my credit rating, however this obviously comes withy a penalty. I could extend the balance for 3 years and save myself £160per month which would be very welcome at the moment. Downside is that I have a car worth £12k that is financed at £16k.

Has anyone any advice on this ?

RAS

Hi

You really do need to get thart house sold, even if it means dropping the price.

Can you spend a couple of weekends making it look sparkling and get a new estate agent, new pictures etc.