Here we go....

Frenchbloke

I have been looking at the DFW board for a little while as I knew that I would eventually get here at some point. I have a really rough year but managed to rescue my business. I have lost a lot of equity but will recover a majority when I am back in profit.

Now that the business is sorted, I need to sort out my own finances... I have been playing ostrich for too long and got myself in debt. I used to pay my credit cards in full every month but have not been able to do this since the start of the business nearly two years ago.

I am not even sure how much exactly I owe but I have debts with Egg, MNBA, Amex, BMW, I am in arrears on my mortgage by three months but then my mortgage payments are every three months so I am only one payment behind. I also owe money to the management company on the flat that I own and rent out. There is no equity in the flat so can't really sell it as it would not make things any better. The good news is that the mortgage is only £175 per months end the income £500 less charges. So this is actually bringing money in...
The bad news on the flat is that it needs a new boiler as the gas certificate failed on this last week.
I am also well behind with the council tax, so much so that it went to court and is now in the hands of a debt collector. I have a payment plan with them and have stuck to it.

I have some equity in the house but we can't re-mortgage because of the very poor credit rating I have and the mortgage company will not allow a second charge on our house.

I am just about to write to the credit card companies to let them know that I can no longer pay. I have had at least three to four phone calls a days from those guys and therefore need to make this stop somehow. I also need to address my debts problem. I managed to stop BMW calling on a daily basis on my mobile, home and work by using the harassment letter from this site. Since then, they have not even contacted me by letter. Not sure whether this is good or bad but at least it stopped. Actually it was not BMW anymore but definitely as DCA.

I will work on a SOA shortly and post it when I am ready. Our income for a family of three is £1,000 net per month.

All of the agreements I have with the credit card companies are well before 2007, I read on the board that you can write to the credit card companies to dispute the debt, etc… I am not sure whether I want to take this route as I feel that I actually borrowed the money and therefore should repay. However, I also want the credit card companies to stop the interest on the cards as after all charging well over 20% on this type of loan when they themselves can borrow the money for a fraction of this amount seems unfair.

I guess that if I write to them and ask them to stop the interest and make a repayment plan I will basically acknowledge the debt and will not have the recourse to later dispute it. Can somebody clarify this? I only want to dispute the debt, if they are not willing to stop the interest.

I have so far not claimed any benefit whatsoever despite knowing that, in view of our income, we should have had benefit, tax credit, etc… I guess this is misguided pride as I have always paid my way and regularly heavily criticised the layabout that don’t work and claim benefit that, as a higher rate taxpayer, I used to subsidise. Where do I start?

Is the fact that the council tax has now gone to court mean that I cannot claim for council tax benefit for this year?

Thank you for your help!

avizandum_2

I have a similar problem with CC interest. The cc companies are ignoring my pleas/letters for the interest/charges to cease so I am heading to the debt organisations as they have more influence. I would get them to mediate for you.

If you cannot get CT benefit speak to your local council tax office. In my area people with a low income can fill in a form, showing all income/expenditure and apply to pay less. (This is seperate from CT benefit so you may be successful)

Good luck with it all

sofababe

If you have children then you are certainly entitled to Tax Credits. You will probably be entitled to WTC even if you don't have children. View it this way- you have paid tax all these years for this reason, so that in difficult times you can get something back. You can't afford pride at the moment I'm afraid

Have a look here http://www.turn2us.org.uk/benefits_search.aspx

Frenchbloke

sofababe wrote: »

If you have children then you are certainly entitled to Tax Credits. You will probably be entitled to WTC even if you don't have children. View it this way- you have paid tax all these years for this reason, so that in difficult times you can get something back. You can't afford pride at the moment I'm afraid

Thank you sofababe, I have looked and we are definitely entitled to a few things, that I will apply for.

I have just sent letters to the CCCs to ask them to stop the phone calls and only communicate by letter and remove my phone numbers from their database. This should stop our fear of answering the phone. I have started on the SOA but need to spend a bit more time on the expenses to ensure accuracy.

Marisco

Hi French, It's difficult to advise without figures, but the thing that struck me was, you have a flat, and a house that has equity in it. Would it be possible to sell your house and live in the flat, and pay some, or all of the debts with the raised equity? I'm assuming they are in the same town and not hundreds of miles apart:o If you put up an SOA, there will be many who can advise you on cutting down. Once you stop paying - or pay reduced payments - the companies will default you, which will trash your credit score, and make getting future credit very difficult, if not impossible (thinking of your business here) Good luck.

RAS

Hi

We really do need to see a full SOA before advising you what you can do to sort this out.