Help needed! £70,000 owed

smokybabe

Wouldn't you agree that if people were made to face up to the consequences of their actions then the number of people getting into this sort of situation would be dramatically reduced?

This forum is meant to offer unbiased, non-judgemental help whatever the causes of the debts. This also applies to ways of dealing with the debts.

Any other discussions should be held on the discussion time board, where I am sure you will find plenty of takers.

CFC

Listen, this is a board to help people who are in debt. We may not approve individually of the fact that they ARE in debt, but for heaven's sake, they've finally faced up to the fact that they are and they have to do SOMETHING about it.


Simplybroke, you are still living beyond what you can afford, by the look of your SOA. The first thing you have to do is to cut your living expenses so that there is more incoming than there is outgoing. Until you do this you are in 'nowhere' land. If you go for bankruptcy you simply won't be able to spend beyond your means any more, because there will be nowhere you can get the money from, unless from friends or relatives. It may mean you have to sell your car, or move to a shared house, and you will simply have to do whatever you need to do to reduce your expenditure.

There are many people on here who will be able to suggest cutbacks to you to get you into that position.

As for going bankrupt, it is a serious decision and you do need to look into it to see if it's the best answer for you. It is the best answer for some people, but it's a painful road for several years. People who decide to go bankrupt suffer a lot. I do not believe it is an easy option, and for people who are working and who will go on working, and hoped to own a house one day, it's no bed of roses. It's often not the best option, but sometimes it is.

As for everyone who feels the need to offer a simple moral solution ie what the hell did you do with the money, you should pay it back - get a life. Doubtless the people who are in this kind of debt have families to have a go at them when they have to admit how foolish they've been. They don't need anyone on here to sing the chorus.

To be honest, people never seem to have anything to show for it so it's rarely gone on wonderful jewellery and cars that they could sell to recoup the money. It would be better if it had.

Simplybroke, I'm sorry you've been met with a moral chorus. It does sometime seem that some folk on here have a knee jerk reaction when the word 'bankruptcy' is mentioned.

Quasar

A few years ago I was £6000 in debt, which is by no means a huge amount of money, although it was to me. Anyway I paid it off and never been in debt since.

Happily the few friends and relatives to whom I told about my debt were supportive, because they saw I was doing something about it. Nobody asked me how, where, when this debt was incurred, but just accepted it was there and I was addressing the problem.

How much more supportive should we all be here, a forum dedicated to those who have faced up to their troubles and are seeking help? Criticising their lifestyles doesn't pay off debts, neither helps them acquire less wasteful ones.

However I agree that the social malaise of "borrow, borrow, borrow" should be addressed, but in DT, not here in DFW where new posters are already at their wits ends, and the last thing they need is a sermon telling them what they have already found out the hard way.

smokybabe

I could not have put it better myself Q. The debt free journey is hard enough without judgemental posts, I wish this place had been around for support when I was paying back my 7k debt.

Quasar

smokybabe wrote:

I could not have put it better myself Q. The debt free journey is hard enough without judgemental posts, I wish this place had been around for support when I was paying back my 7k debt.

Cheers, smokybabe. I cannot imagine what it must feel like owing £20,000 never mind £70,000. Peeps who come here have already realised something has gone badly wrong in their life and need a helping hand, which often comes in words of support and advice.

Heaven forbid that some criticism or insensitive remark should drive a newbie away! I would urge everyone to post in the spirit of the forum.

CFC

Yep, I think poor Simplybroke has probably run away screaming from this place now. When people are at their wits end the last thing they need is a Greek chorus intoning moral simplicities to them. When people are in debt, it's a bit too late to say 'Oh, you didn't want to have done THAT'.

Tr@cker

It puzzles me a bit why they're piling on the interest rates and fines when they know you cant pay. Surely they must know this can only hasten your decision to go bankrupt (?) and if you do it there wouldn't be much at all in it for them as you dont own anything of real value (like a house) The institutions have some very logic to my way of thinking.
I wouldn't think twice about it, go bankrupt and in that period of bankruptcy you can tackle the underlying problems.

davethecue

Hi
This is only a theory..
The reason that they pile on latecharge/pay fees and interest is so that they can try and tempt you to repay them with a cut price payment. I had several of my cc companies offer ' pay x now and we will write off y. When i looked into this 'y' was an amount not dissimilar to the amount of interest and late payment/over limit fees.
I see it as a carrot to try and get some people to repay. (My actual amount of charges added up to nearly 13k on 73 k debt)

I see it as similar to 'sign tonight as a showhome and you'll get a 40% discount !!

Tr@cker

Insert 'strange' logic. I see what you mean but it looks like our friend has no chance of servicing that kind of debt. I personally know 2 declared bankrupts and they said what a number of people on here have said-it was like having an enormous weight lifted off their backs once they'd made their minds up to do it.

ally1974

I wanted to just add my support to the OP, in the hope he might come back. I'm not in the kind of debt where I need to consider bankruptcy and hopefully never will be, so cannot really understand what you're going through...I do sympathise though. It will be a clean slate for you and the only problem I see is if you don't learn from your mistakes and do it all over again. A bit like being on a diet perhaps...you have to learn how to eat healthily, or rather not eat badly, so you don't put on weight again.

Sorry that's probably a really bad analogy