Second Opinon Needed

podperson

Hi Kumana,

Chevalier has covered loads of cut backs you could make on your budget so don't think can add much to that
It seems like you are getting some rather odd advice from cab on some issues and I really would suggest getting a second opinion on them, maybe try cccs or national debtline. I know cab do try and help but at the end of day most people there are volunteers rather then qualified advisors and since they have said themselves it is an unusual case I would double check on some of their points. At the end of the day bankruptcy is a big step and you don't want to be taking it without making sure you have all the correct information.

Some points I would want to clarify are:
Are you definately not entitled to anything on Mortgage Rescue scheme, I would try ringing them up direct.
Regarding tax credits overpayments - if you think it's wrong then write to them and ask them to check it. Yes you might have paid some of it off but if it's wrong you should get it back.
Why are you unable to work for 3 years if you're not being made bankrupt? I have never heard of this before.

I don't really understand the reasoning behind your partner going bankrupt but not you. Unless I'm missing somethng on your debts lists - partner has about £4k in his name, you have about £8k in your name and there is around £28k in joint names. If partner goes bankrupt and you don't then the creditors for the joint debts won't be able to chase him for them anymore but are still going to be chasing you.

Kunama

Sorry, I forgot to include information on the current set up with my DMP

I am currently making token payments of £1 to these creditors with 2 months to go till our first review.

Abbey Joint OD
Abbey My OD
Abbey Partners OD
Cahoot Loan No1
Cahoot Loan No2
Cahoot OD
Black Horse Unsecured
Halifax Credit Card
PayDay UK
Moneyshop
Body Tech

Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 900.00 Holy cow this is a really low wage. Can he get a second job, or help you gear up the online shop quicker?
Yes this really is all he earns, for the last 3 months he has been making planters and selling them on EBay which has got us by but it is not a guarenteed income and has really slowed down this month
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 I take it this is going to change when you start working on the online shop again? Yes, I should start getting an income by October, I am cureently getting a few pounds here and there cleaning, but it is not guarenteed so I have not included it
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 1,196.00 If you have been overpaid, but CAB think you haven't been then what is a letter querying this going to cost you? CAB told us they never pay back money they have taken in incorrect overpayment charges so not to bother. I will look at presuing this myself outside of the CAB.
Monthly Expense Details

In Your Home

Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 can you bundle you mobile, internet and home phone together and get a better deal? Are the phone PAYG? If on contract can you ask to go onto a cheaper package. Do you have any old handsets, that you can sell to envirophone? We are both in contract but are looking to use our mobiles to reduce landline costs
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.99
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.99
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 I know you have nothing against this, but star drops are your friend! Have a look on the old style forum board! Will take a look
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00 Is this stuff you are contracted to pay, or stuff you are saving as a rainy day fund for when the boiler blows up or something? If it is contracted stuff can you end the contract? It is rainy day money. I could go without it, but would rather maybe reduce it as I need to get the boiler fixed before winter.
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45.00 check that these are the best deals, would a combi account be cheaper? It is a combi account with E-ON we have only just switched and got a much better deal than we previously had with EDF. Im sure our monthly repayments should be less than this but they have asked us to pay htis untill our first bill comes in. Do you think I could explain to them our situation and reduce the payments. My family are very bad with electric and this is one area I am keen to get tough on.
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111.00 ask to pay over 12 months not 10. As you are in receipt of benefits this should be easy to do. Also as you are not working at the moment, can you get council tax benefit, single persons discount or whateever? Currently is over 11 months as we missed a payment, will not let us spread it any further, lady was adament about this. Have submitted an application for Council tax benefit even though CAB have said we do not qualify.
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.00:eek::eek::eek: please tell me that is for contents and buildings, otherwise that is very very high, and you can get it down. Yes this is buildings and contents. I can get it much lower (25 a month) but I seem to be tied into a 12month contract with them (halifax) I never realized you could get tied into insurance policies.
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440.00 Is this interest only or repayment. Have you asked to extend the term, or get a mortgage holiday to give you some breathing room? I would also ignore the CAB lady in this case and submit your mortgage rescue application. If you don't ask you don't get. Mortgage is interest only. our monthly payment is £330 and the extra £100 is a payment of our arrears. I have written more about this at the end as this is a bit of a grey area
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28.92 Is this for 1 or 2 of you. can you get this cheaper. do you need it at all? Will it pay out for a self employed person (alot of them don't) This is for 2 of us but I have never checked how it pays out with me being self employed - will look into it - :T
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.75 do you need this and mortgage life cover? this is an income protection, if either of us die it will pay out a wage for 10 years. I beleive it is not tied to us working. I have kept it in place as I know we are under insured on our mortage life insurance. our mortage is 155000 and we are covered for 100000.
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400.00 For a start do a store cupboard and freezer inventory. You need to know what is in there, so you can plan your spending in this area better - ie not need the runs to the probably very expensive corner shop! Again the money saving old style forum board has literally 1000's of recipes that can be made very cheaply to stretch budget. And if the family don't like it explain to them that this is the new way now, and that the next meal is a long way away..... This is another area I believe I can save. I used to be very good at stretching the food budget but have fallen off the wagon. This one is all about planning more than what we eat. we work late into the mnight and forget to eat to earn the money, and then spend what we have earned on junk food cause it is too late to cook a meal. Baby products (nappies, wipes ect)areeating into this buget alot at the minute Will take a look at old style forum!
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Motoring & Public Transport

Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150.00 if you spent this say all at tesco at least you would then get a lot of clubcard points to change into deals. between tescos and morrisons. hoping to make kids walk to school in the new term which will hopefully reduce my petrol bill
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.68 again is this the cheapest you can get. Yes it was the best deal
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Debt Repayments

Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
family loan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320.00 Ok need to fess up here to the family. And ask to stop paying this for a bit. You need this money to raise your debt payments to creditors who can start charging you interest again, if they feel like it..... Sadly my mum is very aware of what is going on. She was helping with repayments untill she was made to take early retirement/ redudency package. she is now only on state pension. She has offered to go to the bank and see if she can go on a DMP type thing for us. Up untill now I have said no. She has had good credit all her life and it makes me very angry that she has to get into this situation because of me. If it keeps a roof over the kids head I may well have to accept if there is no other way.
DMP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00 Ok I don't understand this, you aren't actually paying the proper repayments are you? You are only paying the £12? Or are these repayments that are included in the DMP for some reason? This should read £11.00. They are token payments to the 11 companys on our DMP. We have yet to enter into a pro-rata agreedment as we do not have the spare cash.


Family

Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 is this a month? Holy cow! I would suggest that you may need to swallow some pride, and admit to the school you can't afford this. School generally have a fund to help out....This is more general trips than school trips, but yes it can be knocked on the head
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26.00 Shouldn't school meals be free? We do not qualify for free school meals
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400.00:eek::eek::eek:So nearly half your OH take home pay is going on child care!!!! Wow is this worth it? Are there family who could look after the children one day a week to help out? What about childcare vouchers from his employer? Can he up his income. Is this including the free child hours when they turn 3? This is for one child for 2 days a week at nusery and one child to be dropped and picked up from school one day a week as I cannot be there. The price is insane for childcare. Good news is that in september I finally qualify for free hrs which should reduce payments. However when this happens my tax credits will go down as most of my most of this £400 is paud by child tax credits (around 80%) I beleive. We can do vouchers but it is more viable for us to get child tax credits instead as you cannot do both. I only wish I had family to help out. We only have my mum who isn't physically able to look after a toddler on a long term basis.
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Entertainment

Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 really sorry but these will have to stop for the time being. enjoy the park/woods etc museums whilst the weather is still good. Ask family for a national trust or similar family membership, so they can still get some outside play...I do have national trust and a few other memeberships we can use through friends to knock this on the head.
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 Again sorry you can't afford this. This is one of our pit falls. It is never a planned meal, we hardly eat out as such, biut when you add in all the take aways and sweets we sneek in it probably totals up pretty close to £50
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 so you all have really long hair? This one really is true, I have long hair and I cut everyone elses
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 even nhs you have to pay for the check up? so need to budget something for this. this is one of those bills I worry about when it happens. myabe £10 a month?
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 can you stop this - running if FREEEEE! this would probably be the one lesuisre activity i would hate to lose as we get so much for the price for the whole family to use within the price
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00 do they have to be new? charity shops often have barely used clothes, or ask on freecycle for clothes. They are free you just have to go and pick them up. What about at car boots? I dont think ive bought new clothes for the kids in years as I am lucky enough to get alot of hand me downs which I am more than happy to accept. I could probably get away with reducing it but I cannot remove it completely as I do buy new shoes and especially this time of year new uniforms
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00 As above - Could easily drop this one, i very rarely go clothes shopping for myself
diet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.90

Education & Courses

University Tuition Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Big One Offs

Funeral Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 be creative and see how you can make free things into presents, have a look on the freebies forum for samples. Or look on the competitions forum board for things to enter....Will take a look at these. Its the children I find hard to buy for, the million and one party invites. I can never find anything nice for the child so end up spending my money on tat that I know will get broken or discarded in 2mintues flat. I've put my foot down on paying money for cards but can't quite manage it with presents. Don't really no how to procedd with this one.
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Odds & Sods

Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00 read theses online. Good Idea!
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 good luck when you want to quit. wouldn't you get free prescriptions for the anti smoking stuff? Very sore point. this is hubby, he refuses to give up. I have tried forcing him but he just scrapes every penny he can find or raids my purse. I now figure better to factor it in than fool myself that he will give up
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 £240 a year you could put towards debt. How about the first challenge being getting this spend included in your food budget, so that you save this bit a month? This is a big area I am hoping the diet will help. now I no longer smoke I am eating for comfort more and more which is costing alot of money
lottery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00 If you don't do the lottery you would win a guaranteed £120 a year..... He wont give up works syndicate so again better to factor in that pretend it isn't spend.


Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,096.00


Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,161.68


Before we fell into arrears with our mortagage and secured loan we phoned them to ask if there was anything they could help with as we had fallen into difficulty by way of an extension of the term of a holiday break. They both said to send an up to date SOA and they would look at helping us out in some way. We went back to CAB and told her what we had done an she said not to do it. She has told us above all else we have to keep ontop of these 2 payments. She beleived that if they knew we were having trouble making payments they would put a charge on the house and the DMP would collapse and we would lose it all before we had started.

Kunama

Hi podperson.

Thank you for your time, I do not really know anything about CCCC or the debtline, Are they more knowledgable to discuss these things than the CAB? WHen we very first went for help we got conned for £500 from a company claiming to get you out of debt. After this I went to the CAB simply because it was a name I knew.

Originally with the mortage rescue scheme we went directly to the council for inforamtion. The lady was fantastic, talked us through everything, said it would take around 3 months to complete, once completed we would becaome council tenants. We would get help in benefits to pay the rent and council tax, we would have much less risk of being evicted than if we were a private tenant and there may have been a change to buy back the house in a few years time. We were very relieved with all she said and signed up straight away. When we went to get the SOA from the CAB that was required to proceed with the MRS the lady at the CAB gave us loads of information that went against everything the Council lady had said. The lady at CAB said she was in the process of completing a MRS for another client and it had been dragging on for years. She showed us documents that said there would be a chance that we would NOT qualify for any benefits to help us pay the rent and in this case we would be worse off than what we are now. There was so many if's but's and maybe's we decided not to proceed at this time, especially if there was a chance things would improve, but to keep it in mind for the future.

I really do not know what the plan is with the new bankrupcy idea, she only ran it by us to see if we wanted her to research it more, which she is now doing.

I really am at a loss. every idea we have had to get ourselves out of this situation has been dismissed by the CAB. I guess that is why I came here as I'm at a loss.

I am working on some of the tips been given here so far already, I am desperate to get out of this hole we are in. thank you all so much again for the help you have given so far x

podperson

Hi Kumana,

I have found cccs quite good in the past and they are a registered charity so all advice etc is free. There is a thread at the top of this forum with places where you can get free advice and debt services, never pay for it as these companies won't offer anything different.
I am not knocking cab as I know they do a lot of good work but in my own experience I have found that if something isn't a fairly straightforward problem then they don't always seem to know how to handle it (and having my luck the problems I have tried them with in the past have always been complicated!!).
I just think if you aren't getting very far with them it can't hurt to get another opinion