New here - first post.

cat64

Hi everyone - new to the board so please be gentle with me! Have a DMP with CCCS. When we started it we were advised to open a new bank account with no overdraft facility, which we did. However, my OH already had a bank account into which we arranged both our salaries would go and all the direct debits for bills etc would come out of that account.

Now however we have started getting into difficulties again, where our expenditure has got out of control and we have been using the OD facility on that account (and have exceeded the OD) - we are going to be charged £35 a day for 7 days, and we have already paid about £75 charges for commission on unpaid direct debits. This is obviously going to cause us to go more overdrawn leading to more charges and so on. I'm really worried - can anyone offer any advice?

Annie_Fanny

Well done on accepting that your expenditure has started to slip. You have come to the right place. I have learnt so much from being on this forum! Yes you really really need to get your spending undercontrol for your own peace of mind. Has a budget been set by the CCCS?

Would you fancy posting up a Statement of Affairs (SOA) up here so we can try and suggest some ways to cut back? Have a look at this thread for further information on how to post up an SOA:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=107280

Also did you know that you can claim bank some bank charges? There are many many threads on this site. Do a search and you will be staggered about how much people have been able to claim back!

Good luck!

dave318

Hi Cat, As Annie says, I understand that your are facing these problems NOW!, but you sound as if you have been there before and reined in the spending.
Also again, don't worry about the long term as these charges are excessive, illegal, and can be claimed back.
Go to https://www.consumeractiongroup.com for more info. Martin :money: also has an article about it on here, just off the first page, and this also gives you links and advice.
First thing is first though, you need to get the OD under control so that you don't end up in a vicious circle.
Good Luck

CLAPTON

perhaps you should post your current SoA here and maybe people can see savings

open a basic a/c (or use the one you already opened) and get our income paid in there. then you can consider trying to get your charges back from your bank

cat64

Thanks all for your replies, turns out I was wrong about the charges (pheew) £35 was the total for 7 days, not each day. Not great I know but better than I thought.

Will try to get round to posting a SOA (am I right in thinking its a statement of accounts?). I've been doing my impression of an ostrich recently and will have to pull my head out of the sand.

The really embarrassing thing is, my OH is on a very good salary. I work part-time, just cant understand why we're constantly getting into this situation.
I hardly ever go out, don't drink, don't smoke (what do you do?!!:D ) and don't buy expensive clothes.

However, we do have 4 kids!

Feel free to ask any questions.

Bestthingsinlifearefree

Hi Cat,

Welcome to MSE.:beer:

Posting a SOA is a great way forward and questions can follow from that.

Would a spending diary for you and your OH be a good idea to establish where the money goes ?

(if you write down evey penny / pound spent by both of you for 1 month, this will help focuss you and help you identify possible areas of over spending.)

Best,