CCCS - Finally Done It!

katic22

Hi,
I bought a house with my boyfriend in Nov 2006. Having previously lived at home where all my money was ‘mine’ I carried on trying to maintain a similar lifestyle when I moved out. It did not take me long to realise that this was not possible. Every £100 I spent on a credit card was not that easy to just pay it off at the end of the month as obviously my money was committed elsewhere.

I changed pretty quickly but by that point I was robbing Peter to pay Paul and my debts were mounting. I had always hoped to extend my mortgage after the initial 2 year fixed term but of course the value of our house plummeted with the recession and this was not possible. I looked up DMP advice many times on MSE and filled out a CCCS debt remedy lots of times but never followed through with it. I think I did not for the following reasons:

1) I was ashamed my debt had originated form silly spending and not from a greater need.
2) I appreciate many people who are not in debt and not reading this will feel angry and there was a definite element of I got myself into this mess and I have to get myself out of it.
3) I did not think I would be eligible as was actually keeping on top of my payments rather than being in arrears.

Things have been getting steadily worse and I have started to fall behind on my payments. Loans and credit cards interest rates have increased (partly through to me missing payments) and I now owe tens of thousands. I confessed all to my boyfriend who is stressed and worried but thankfully supportive. I spoke to CCCS today and have got things moving. I know things will be rough for a while but I am hoping that someday soon my mobile can be switched from call divert and I can switch the home phone back on. I can stop rushing home from work to intercept the post and I can hopefully start to sleep better and I am actually really excited to think that I can no longer get credit and will be living on a strict budget.

I understand that people get angry that people run up debt and then somehow ‘wriggle’ form it but I can only ask that others do not judge until they have been in a similar position. I would do anything to change what I have done but unfortunately I can’t.
So, to anyone reading this who thinks there is nowhere left to turn there is. I am sorry for my ramblings and hope I am not clogging up this board from more important issues.

Thanks to everyone who has posted messages of support on this board as I have read them over time and they have made me feel so so much better. Also a big thanks to the CCCS x

Tixy

Hi

Glad to hear you have spoken to CCCS and are tackling your debts with them.
Hopefully once your DMP is up and running things will cal, down alot. Good to hear boyfriend is being supportive as well.

Good luck.

Ellieseleven

Hi, I too have been on the CCCS website numerous times but have still not gone through with the DMP. Posts like yours make me more determined but then a little voice tells me to carry on struggling. I'm worried that I will never get another mortgage and will be trapped in the house we are currently in (which is now too big for us but if we sell now we will lose a lot of money)

I want to start a DMP and try and get my life back on track but I keep making excuses not to go through with it :mad:

Good Luck and I hope everything works out for you xx

barbiedoll

It is a big step to take and of course, it trashes your credit rating for at least 6 years. I too, wavered about taking the final step but I just considered whether our finances would realistically improve by much in 6 years time and if they didn't, would we be in a worse mess than now? Obviously, everyone has different circumstances, if I knew that I would be due a big inheritance or that my income was going to increase dramatically in a few years time, then I probably would not have gone on a DMP. But I knew that probably wasn't the case and now, I'm so glad that I did it. I hate being in debt and I hate looking at my statements and seeing the balance increase each month because the debtors are STILL adding interest and charges. But CCCS have been so helpful, as have the people on here. Finally, I feel that our finances are under control and at least I'm not lying awake at night, worrying about how to pay for the shopping or dreading the car tax bill coming in. My next step is to take a day off work and write all the letters to the debtors, asking for interest and charges to be frozen and also to reclaim PPI from our loan. It's a journey (as they say on X-Factor ) but at least I know we're not alone!