About to loose job and worried about debts and outgoings

DanielFullard

About to loose job and seeking debt solutions!
The company I work for has just started offering voluntary redundancies and it wont be long before we seemingly go to the wall.

The silly debts I have amassed in the last few years are now starting to worry me. Its come to the stage where I am earning a decent wage and after all the bills have £150 ish a month to survive on so once the wage goes Im stuck.

Obviously if the worst comes to the worst and I am left unemployed for any length of time savings will need to be made but Im in so much debt and in so many contracts I dont know what to do.

Ideally I want rid of my credit card debt but my rating is seemingly so low I cant get any loans to consolidate all this.

At the moment my situtation.....

£1500 overdraft which is always maxed by the final week of the month, I am constantly in my overdraft

£6000 on credit cards which is £160 a month paying just the bare minimum payment


so thats £7,500 debt

Then contracts....

£35 a month on a mobile phone, tied to January 9owe £103 currently cut off because of this)

£21 a month on Couch payments

£47 on gas
£25 Electric
£16 Water bill
£28 BT
£13 contact lenses

So basically my bare minimimum outgoings excluding rent is going to be £279!!! Which doesnt include overdraft fines etc

What can I do now in my final few months of employment what seems to prepare for if this happens and what, any advice at all would be appreciated

redpete

DanielFullard wrote: »

so thats £7,500 debt

Plus what you owe on the couch and mobile phone bill.

You need to post a full SOA (see other posts for examples) for anyone to offer meaningful advice.

Hannah_10

Hiya Daniel,

I know it wont seem like it but not being able to get a consolidation loan was for the best int he long run. Why? Too many reasons to go into fully but the top two are:
1. That it doesn't address the income/expenditure gap that caused the debts so people tend to get into debt all over again, until they've consolidated three or four times and trebled or quadrupled their issues.
2. It's an incredibly expnsive way of borrowing, high interest rates, low repayments and long terms, it's offen worse than your existing issues.

There are loads of other ways... Snowballing, debt management plans, IVA's, debt reduction orders, making reduced settlement offers, bankruptcy, oh crikey too many options to site here and list out in any kind of meaningful way, so lets do an immediate sift out of what's not going to be at all suitable by having a look at some numbers...

If you can do a SOA please, we can have a good hard look at where exactly you really stand right now and see where we can make a start with the few paypackets you have to come in.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/107280

bexster1975

Hi Daniel

Sorry to hear you think you are likely to be out of a job soon.

Lots of people will be able to help here. Best thing to start with is a statement of affairs. It is a breakdown of what you spend each month based on your wage. When you have posted this up, people will offer ideas of how to cut outgoings so you can use extra cash to throw at most expensive debt.

Here is the link to the SOA
http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

Can you start looking for another job in case the worse happens?

bexster:)

bexster1975

sorry Hannah, you beat me to the SOA!

barbiedoll

Before you do anything else, open up a new BASIC bank account, i.e one that has no overdraft or credit facilities. Get your wages paid into is as soon as it is up and running. One that has been recommended on here is the Co-op Cashminder account, but it must be with a bank to whom you have no debts, so one that is not linked to your current bank or any of your credit card providers. Remember that many banks are linked to each other, so check carefully first. And don't be bamboozled by the bank staff who will try their damnest to get you to open an account with monthly charges for so-called "perks", none of which will be any use to you. Tell them that you only want a basic account and check to make sure that you are signing up for that only, NOT overdrafts etc. If you do lose your job, you will end up spending on your new account and will have even more debt.

When you have moved your wages into your new account, stop all direct debits on your old account and move all payments to your new account and pay them by standing order or by cheque each month at least whilst you're still earning. Tell your current bank that you want to close the account and ask them to freeze the interest and charges whilst you pay off the balance. You could tell them that you have lost your job already, they probably won't be very helpful but tell them that you will pay a few quid into the account each month but the debt will only increase if they keep whacking charges onto it. If they won't play ball, let us know, we can advise you further a bit later on. Looking at your outgoings, your gas and electric seem quite high but without knowing how big your house/flat is or how many people are in it, it's hard to tell. Can you post a proper SOA? (see the thread "Help for first-time posters and SOA calculator") We can see what your total outgoings are and possibly help you to cut back a bit. If your mobile has been cut off for non-payment, your credit rating will already be trashed so if you can't pay for the sofa or the phone, they will just have to wait for their money. Your priority debts are rent, council tax, utilities, food, clothing and travel to work etc, all others are non-priority. It may be worth having a chat with one of the debt management charities, either Consumer Credit Counselling Services or Payplan, who will be able to help you if you do lose your job.
By the way, change your username as soon as possible, you shouldn't use your real name on here, we don't know who's reading this