Urgent advice needed. Already spoke to CCCS

Moneysavingginge

Ill get onto that tomorrow then. Cheers

Anyone else have any suggestions?? Can anything be done about secured debts?

NorthernLas

Sorry, no idea about the secured debt.

For un-secured it would be useful to find out the interest rates and when the cards/loans/overdrafts were opened.
Priority debts in arrears need to be sorted first.
Water people should be able to tell if your Mum will save having a meter installed (united utilities have something on their website that I used to check).
Surely, British Gas must be able to give more information on the debt - how did they let it get that bad??

Are cards still being used/cut up? Are there any purchases that are not required that could be sold?

Is Mum on board and does she know how she got in the mess?

fatbelly

tonydtiger wrote: »

Plan of attack atm, Is to do the house up and sell it, but, it won't be for another year until this can happen.

Tony

Where's the money coming from to do the house up?

She's only showing £9500 positive net worth at the moment and, if not careful, that will go negative.

I think she should look at selling up and moving into rented accommodation now.

Moneysavingginge

NorthernLas wrote: »

Sorry, no idea about the secured debt.


Surely, British Gas must be able to give more information on the debt - how did they let it get that bad??

No idea, Im looking through all of last years bills and also checking how much she paid them last year to see if it adds up.

Are cards still being used/cut up? Are there any purchases that are not required that could be sold?

Cards ain't being used at all now, many of them are way over the limit as they kept on lowering them, but she doesnt seem to be incurring any charges for that. Also, we are in the process of gutting the whole house and selling everything that isnt needed.

Is Mum on board and does she know how she got in the mess?

She isnt using the board at the moment, Im gonna show her how to do it tomorrow.

In regards to how she got in this mess, About a year or 2 ago she became pretty ill and needed a few months off work, while waiting for insurance policies to kick in she started using CC's and loans to get by, this has happened a couple of times. She has also made the mistake of consolidating a few times. I guess things have just caught up with her.

Thank you for your help and reply

Moneysavingginge

fatbelly wrote: »

Where's the money coming from to do the house up?

She's only showing £9500 positive net worth at the moment and, if not careful, that will go negative.

I think she should look at selling up and moving into rented accommodation now.

The house is in no state to be sold yet. I gave my own estimate of 105,000 which should be the very least of what she should get. Plus, its not gonna cost alot to throw some paint on all the wall and do the garden up.

And hopefully, this time next year when the house is more attractive, the housing market may have picked up.

Happytogetdebtfree

Hi tony and welcome, itvsounds wise to offer token payments and sort out the mortgage, also seems appropriate to liase with British gas re this bill how can someone collect 1k of debt it's absurd! Good luck with it all :-)

Moneysavingginge

Happytogetdebtfree wrote: »

Hi tony and welcome, itvsounds wise to offer token payments and sort out the mortgage, also seems appropriate to liase with British gas re this bill how can someone collect 1k of debt it's absurd! Good luck with it all :-)

Im gonna get onto them tomorrow.

Thank you for your input Happy

Moneysavingginge

Almost forgot, Upto checking my mothers credit files, I have noticed British Gas have recorded 6 months last payments against her name in regards to the massive bill which is damaging for credit rating.

Is there anything that can be done about that??? I've never known a gas bill being recording via credit agencies and she was never made aware of that. Is that right??

Happytogetdebtfree

To be honest I don't know :-/ hope someone can clarify this.. :-)

podperson

Hi Moneysaving,

Not sure on the British gas, as far as I am aware most companies can put something on your credit record if you are behind but am sure someone more knowledge will be able to advise on that.

In more general terms:
You put your mothers income as £1100, I'm assuming that she is working, has she checked whether she is entitled to working tax credits or anything off her council tax for low income?
Her gas seems a bit high, might be worth shopping around and could probably cut down the mobile phone if she's not tied into a contract. Also if she is spending a lot on medical prescriptions you can buy cards that cover you for all of them for say 3months which often work out a lot cheaper.
I would say the first priority is to try and cut down the expenses a bit so that she is at least not having a shortfall every month and getting into more debt.

Would look into claiming back charges on the credit and store cards which should knock quite a bit off the balance (I am currently in the process off doing and am hoping they will clear off a large chunk of them). There are guides and templates for doing this.

Regarding CCCS when they say they are sending out additional information this would possibly include the options she has available, one of which would be a dmp. Did they go through a budget with her when she contacted them? If they did and didn't suggest a dmp it was possibly because she is currently on a negative amount each month and therefore wouldn't have anything spare to pay to one?
Could be worth ringing the secured debts and saying that she is having financial difficulties at the moment and could she make reduced payments for a short-term plan, say 6 months to start with. Depends on the company as some are more helpful than others but if you don't ask you never know.

Good luck with it!