A New Start

New_Bill

Hello Debt free wannabees

Before I start, I would just like to say how helpful this forum has been to me over the past month or so. I have been very worried about my debt for some time, always managing to make minimum payments on cards and a loan I took out some time ago. A month or two ago I found myself in a bad way emotionally, some stuff happened to a close friend and it forced me to seek out some kind of way from where I was. The fact is - which I didnt want to admit even until last week - the route of my problem/troubles was the debt I had and the fact it was taking over my life.

To summarise I am nearly 30 and started taking credit around 10 years ago whilst a student. As mentioned, I have previously made payments monthly and found it relatively OK as my living arrangements were fairly basic and I have no immediate responsibilities in terms of a family or a mortgage. Yet fairly recently I began to notice I was struggling to make ends meet every month once the rent/c tax/bills/cards/loans were paid. The increase in the cost of living had not been matched by an increase in my salary and the stress of day to day things was getting on top of me leading to sleepless nights and days wandering how I was going to meet my commitments. I wont lie, I have been as down as I have ever been and it is only in the past week I have been able to see some light at the end of the tunnel. Much of that is down to this forum. One night a few months ago I found myself on here after a google and simply couldnt believe some of the stuff I was reading. So embarased was I ( and still am ) about the fact I have accrued what I percieve to be a large amount of debt - spent on nothing in all honesty - that I felt I had nowhere.

Basically I have read many threads on here and decided to take positive action. The call to payplan was a life defining moment for me. This may sound overly dramatic but I assure you that is how it has felt. Last week I rang them and explained my situation. Which is as follows;

Credit Cards
Virgin £2550 ( limit £2500 ) - I was paying £100 per month and using the £50 under at the end of every month
Barclaycard: £1000 ( right on the limit ) pay around £30 minimum
Post Office: £1330 ( limit £1300 - I was paying £50 and using the £30 as per the Virgin card )

Loan/Overdraft
Coop: £6500 ( £145 per month, havent missed a payment since I took it out last July )
Coop: £200 ( this is my current account which has this overdraft which I am in most weeks apart from the week I get paid )

So somewhere in the region of £11400 and the payments were totalling around £330. I have applied for a 'Step' Account at Natwest on the advice of the Payplan operative and am currently awaiting confirmation of account number/card before I give the final authority for Payplan to begin negotiators with the creditors. I have made two token payments of £10 to Virgin and Post Office whilst meeting the minimum for the Barclaycard. I have paid the loan amount for this month (£145) and that is where I am. I am very worried about ringing the Coop to cancel the loan payment ( it is current account linked ) for August - is this something they are likely to catch onto? I want to make a token payment for all for the next month and begin the Payplan DMP for September if at all possible. The token payments have been made on line up till now? Is that advisable. I am a very shy person and am dreading ringing up these companies to tell them I cannot meet the minimum payment for the next month and incurring charges. The DMP monthly payment will be something like £230 which comes in £100 cheaper than what I am currently spending. More to the point it will be a way of clearing these debts in 4 years and a few months whereas at the moment they are simply 'there' and not reducing due to interest/charges.

So in essence I just wanted to thank you all for the inspiration and for giving me the confidence to tackle something that was taking over my life. I have tried to be as realistic as possible when completing the Incoming/Outgoing form and hope that once it is all started I can look forward to becoming a more relaxed person who has sight of his debt actually reducing.

As mentioned, I am now awaiting confirmation of my new bank account before I begin the process of transferring my salary payments/standing orders etc. I will keep you informed if you are interested.

New Bill

isy1011

Well done. Its all uphill from here.

isy1011

He he. Sorry I meant to say its all downhill from here. I'm sleep deprived I think. Sorry.

andrea1968_2

Most of the people who contribute to these boards have been in the same situation - its just the numbers that are different. To 1 person a £1000 debt would be horrendous, to someone with £80,000 debt a £1000 debt is what they dream of having.

This board makes debts seem manageable - It gives you hope and guidance because sometimes you cant see the wood for the trees and no matter how much you try and make the numbers work you can't, until another poster points out something really obvious that you just cant see for yourself.

The fact that there's always someone in worse situation than you makes you realise that, although your debts are a problem, you could be in someone else's shoes and have a whole bigger mess to worry about.

It's about shared experiences- good and bad & that's where the success of this board lies, you won't be judged because the vast majority have been there and got the T-shirt, badge and gold medal to prove it.

Good luck with your journey