i'm new to this, please be gentle with me!

pania

thanks for all the comments and advice.

With regards to the car, unfortunately it is a need. I work approx 25 minutes drive from my house and public transport would cost as muchh as fuel each week. However i'd love to sell it and get a cheaper one as it is very expensive to run.:mad:
It has an engine problem and i'm not sure how much i could get for it. It's not in the best of condition as financial pressures have overcome servicing!!

Have tried to contact orange this morning to lower the tariff, does anyone know if it would be cheaper to just pay the line rental and go back to a pay as you go sim?

Just been reading through the quidco site, opened my cahoot savings account with a pound and should get £26 in a week. :rotfl: This site is great and has helped so much within a short space of time. thanks to everyone.

pania

with regards the mobile phone, the ex took it out for me on his contract as my credit rating is awful. it was taken out in march so i'm 7 months into it. He doesn,t have any use of my account thank goodness.

Jesscat

Wouldnt it be cheaper to cancel telewest, you can get your phone and broadband internet for £20 from Talk talk and this includes landline calls for free.
You could live without cable and when you get yourself more organised you could save up for a freeview box their around £30 and you can get living TV on it (thank god!! )

And phone CCCS asap or their websites really good to give you an idea of what they can do for you, if your already on a DMP you might as well be paying off your debt rather than lining someone elses pocket whos trying to take advantage of your situation :mad:

I changed my tariff last week with O2 to a lower one so you could try and speak to your mobile phone company not sure if your ex would have to do this on your behalf though if its in his name?!

And I really feel for you about your parents if my Dad knew I think he'd have a heart attack on the spot _pale_ , luckily I dont live with him so I can cover my back so to speak!!

Hope it all gets sorted for you xx

lunar_Andy

Don’t worry, I am newish here and still have not had the courage to post a message

pania

hi jesscat

would love to cancel telewest, unfortunately the ***!!!they conned me by saying as i was an existing customer i could have the tv with no contract, guess what they now tell me it's a 12 month contract!!! :mad:
i'm going to lower it to the basic package, i think i can still get living and animal planet on that. the long term plan is a freeview box just need the contract gone!! Best i can hope for would be £5 a month but it's a start!
unfortunately i have to pay dial up instead of broadband as my computer is archaic!!
i would love to swap to cccs but just scared re my previous experiences of getting hammered for interest and back dated charges as a result. :eek:

I don't live with my folks but unfortunately the house i live in is owned by them and i rent from them so eventually they put two and two together and got the right answer Was possibly the most sad, painful night of my life nad things have been incredibly tense since.

still i want out of this situation and doing this has really spurred me on.
keeping my first two pound sealed in a glass jar, waiting to be joined by it's mate!!

thanks for everything.:T

pms

I told my parents a week ago about my debt and they went balistic, more so my dad than my mum. BUT they have calmed down now.

I now have to prove to them that I'm serious about getting rid of my debt and sorting myself out once and for all but at least they are supporting me and helping me to do this.

I'm sure once your parents have calmed down from the initial shock of it all they will help you sort yourself out.

Good Luck

pania

dear lunar andy.

Confronting it hurts. you'll feel scared, you'll get upset you'll get angry, but at teh end you'll feel relief that you've done it. Look at all the people that have come forward with words of comfort and advice for me in less than 24 hours!

Come on, get off that sofa and go do it. you'll feel so much better when you have.

we can share tales of woe and progress reports as we're starting at roughly the same time if it helps.

Best of luck mate, now get to it!!

jessicamb

Pania

I guess you live alone - are you getting the single persons discount on your council tax?

Have you tried to sell some of your things on e-bay? That may help with a one off cash injection.

I really would call CCCS/Payplan for the free advice - I think you need their professional help with the DMP.

Honeybee_2

pania wrote:

with regards the mobile phone, the ex took it out for me on his contract as my credit rating is awful. it was taken out in march so i'm 7 months into it. He doesn,t have any use of my account thank goodness.

Do you have authority to speak on the account? Even then, I think that major changes like tariffs have to be altered by the account holder only.

I think that cheapest tariffs are around £15 per month so if you dropped to this and had a pro forma, you would need to pay around £75 and you'd be free of the contract. In the meantime, you can get a PAYG sim so there's no chance of running up a higher bill, watch out though as some Orange phones are locked onto the network so it'll need to be unlocked if you want to use Voda or O2. (they're on a different band to Orange and T Mobile.)

pania

sorry for the delay in replying.

I am claiming the single persons discount on my council tax at the mo but stil struggling to pay it. however i know it's one of the priority payments so try to keep up with it as much as i can.

I have tried to sell a ring i have an e-bay, is brand new but no one wanted it!! it's worth about £200 so would be good to convert into cash:rotfl: . Have lost my faith with e-bay a little since then so not tried anything else. I have loads of books and cd's that i know i'm not going to read or listen to again but i'm not sure if it would be worth trying these due to packaging etc.

i do have authority to manage my own account on my phone so may be worth doing that and then try to save the money to pay it off. i have free minutes and texts but am always scared of using my phone incase i go over so never get any pleasure from it anyhow. atleast on PAYG i can see the punds dripping away which would be a good deterent!:eek:
i've found out that i can cancel telewest and go for talktalk instead who apparently are free line rental and free local and national calls. this will definately help.:j

I am going to call the cccs on monday to see what they say. i don't want an IVA or anything similar. i want to work through this and come out the other side.

On a plus note i've joined quickco, got my £26 cashback from opening a saving account, got my solitary £2 still sitting in a jar, is my birthday tuesday so i've asked my mum for a freeview box and am hopefully starting to make changes. It's amazing when someone else looks at your state of affairs and spots things that you didn't realise were costing you so much.:T

I really appreciate all your advice. xx