Soa

boblardo

I think I have missed the point but to clear things up

1) The car is on finance and we intend to keep paying this and have been meeting the commitments here
2) Northern Rock is a personal loan, mostly for a wedding 6 years ago and we paid reduced payments of £142.50 for around 18 months but now are meeting the contracted payments of £249.40.
3) Vanquis - I(we) use the vanquis card regularly sometimes we pay it off in full (when spare cash allows) sometimes we don't. we intend to keep this card
4) Wonga - both pay day loans we stupidly took out, we intend to fully pay these off and never speak of them again. in fact we have agreed full and final settlements for these so they are cleared by december.
5) DLC - a defaulted loan from HSBC who initally wanted £366 per month in repayments and I am happy to pay more back but I don't understand why I should use all my surplus to pay off these people. they defaulted us quickly when we hit a hard time even though it would have been for a short period (Northern Rock were patient why couldn't HSBC). Paying £366 per month will pay it off in 8 years and allow us to live a little, on top of that I am due a bonus of around £2000 in around 6 months and then again in 18 months and that reduces it further still

We want it repaid they want it repaid but I will not let them force me into a situation which causes unnecessary stress and unhappiness.

Sorry to be so blunt but they have really got my back up

HappyMJ

boblardo wrote: »

Sorry to be so blunt but they have really got my back up

Fair enough. Creditors just don't want to see you have fun whilst not paying debts so use the guidelines on the CCCS website. I wasn't suggesting a BR mainly as you seem to be managing but only using the figures that someone would use if they were going BR. If you use those guidelines then a creditor can't say well what's this £20 on Entertainment for? You don't need that so you can pay us that instead. Hide all that under some other category as well as the TV expense. Make it look like you are struggling and have no fun at all.

If you were spending £100 per month on the Gas bill in winter is £60 sufficient all year round to cover next winter? You may want to up that a little.

MFWannabe

boblardo wrote: »

Thanks for the posts

Some replies,

I think council tax is already over 12 months, we pay by direct debit in installments

GAS & Electric - we are on a key meter for both of these in a flat with no double glazing. Believe me this is actual figures. we don't have it on during the day but it gets really cold at night. Last winter we were spending £100 per month on gas as it was so cold

Our children are 3 & 5, granted it maybe high but i have also put dry cleaning in here as I need to wear suits to work. maybe i will seperate this. this also covers shoes and boy do their feet grow fast

We have a 05 Vauxhall Astra, it is on finance. I get a car allowance from work which pays for the car but as part of the finance agreement it is has to be fully comprehensive insurance with my wife as named driver. £85 is incorrect though it should only be £65 over 10 months.

We both already have payg mobiles, we could probably reduce this a little.

Satellite TV is on the lowest package, sorry i don't see how cancelling this will help. i get a combined package of tv, telephone and internet for £47 per month. Surely we are allowed some entertainment as we can't afford to go out

We are determined to pay our debts off, by the end of this year we would have reduced our creditors from 11 to just 2 so are making a conscious effort. One of the creditors DLC are being difficult and I want to send them a SOA that is realistic and affordable. i have been paying them £142.50 per month for 18 months now and can appreciate they want more, but i will give them more when i can afford to

The debts are not all 0% but I don't have the figures available. the 2 wonga's are agreed full and final figures so they are definately not adding interest, Northern Rock is an unsecured loan as part of the old together mortgage we had and DLC is a defaulted loan from HSBC. I don't have a figure for the car finance but it is definately not 0%

thanks for the help so far

Hi
welcome to the board. Car insurance still seems incredibly high for an Astra. Try looking on comparison sites like Money Supermarket

boblardo

I take your point about the insurance but it does include breakdown cover, however this is the cheapest I can get

isy1011

Morning. I am finding that keeping a spending diary has helped reduce ad hoc spending and changed some bad habits we had. Im sure you are well aware of what money is going where but it just helps us focus on reducing debt all the time. Well done for posting. Its the first step.

boblardo

Thanks for all the advice so far, just to put peoples mind at rest. I did check comparison markets and I am currently paying the cheapest I can for car insurance. I have fully comp insurance, including business miles. My wife is on the insurance too but has only been driving 3 years and not many insurance companies will honour the 3 years no claims i gained from work and only recognise the 1 year i have outside that

We have a spending diary which we update daily and we keep all receipts!

We are in a much better position now than 18 months ago and I can appreciate DCA's want to get as much as they can out of us but we are now meeting ALL of our credit agreements and have arranged Full & Final for the Wonga Loans.

We have a plan, which we are sticking too. It is not easy but we are coping and can see a future. £4000 would have been repaid since June 2010, clearing 8 creditors. One of the creditors is Northern Rock and we are making the contracted payments here, we are using our Credit Card again in a sensible fashion, for emergencies and we are really moving forward. That leaves just the money owed to Direct Legal Collections.

You start to feel like you are making progress and then a DCA comes along and starts threatening court action and bailiffs.

I have written to them requesting they only contact me in writing, that I will continue to pay x amount (the same payment we have been making for 18 months) on the 1st of each month and agree to review this on 1st January 2010.

pure_dead_dopey

Hi Bob

I think your doing a good job, being in debt is not a hanging offence last time I looked and sometimes you have to stick to your guns with DCAs cos they will ALWAYS want more, doesn't mean they have to get it though. Your groceries are a bit high, I pay around £360 per month for 4 adults and one very large dog. I understand about your car insurance and having to have business cover and I presume that you have added in your car allowance to your salary? Basically this isn't really "salary" although its taxed, you still have to provide and run a car from it. I'd have a look at these expenses and perhaps take all of this out of your SOA, then you are just working on your actual income. Just a suggestion, you can work it out by taking the percentages for tax and NI off the original amount and then check your expenses against this.

If you have always paid something and have made a concerted effort to pay off your debt, the DCAs will just have to accept what you give them, they would have quite a poor case to take you to court. Your credit record is probably trashed already so actually you have nothing further to lose. No one is saying you can lead the high life, but the occasional day out with your kids is NOT the high life. One of the most common reasons for DMPs to fail is a too tight budget, in the end it doesn't really help anyone.

Good luck I hope it all goes well for you and remember they can't have what you haven't got!

boblardo

Before my car allowance I get around £1600, i recently started getting my car allowance of £370 (before tax) managed to obtain some car finance (although the apr is a little high) this is all covered by my car allowance from work.

When we started paying £142.50 to DLC there was only my salary coming in, now my wife works part time we have additional income and we are cracking through the debts at a great pace. Come January we will be in a position to offer increased payments to DLC and be confident they will be affordable long term

It is not easy and unlike some people i actually know we are facing up to repaying this money. we discussed IVA's and Bankruptcy, in fact we had the money and the forms for BR all ready but had second thoughts at the last minute.

We are trying to do the right thing but we feel like criminals!!!

Thanks again for all the advice and the support

churchrat

hello

I know that it is far from easy to pay back such a large amount of money, even more so when after working so hard there is little to show for it.
May I ask if the house/mortgage was the reason for your debt? I see that you say you will not go BR, and want to pay off all of the debt, but sometimes health and sanity are more important than the demands of dca's.

good luck with it all.

boblardo

The debt with Northern Rock was part of a together mortgage and helped pay for fees, stamp duty etc. We paid back the secured part of the loan when we sold our flat but didn't make enough on the sale to pay the unsecured part off. The DLC debt was a loan with HSBC, my wife and I had a loan each and a credit card each and we consolidated this into a loan plus a little extra to pay for a wedding. when we missed a few payments they offered us a managed loan and then again we missed a few payments the debt was sold to DLC.

We did consider Bankruptcy but decided this option wasn't for us

We are currently renting too so have no mortgage.