Large Debt and needing help

natters_2

Hi all

I have a huge amount of debt that until now I have just about managed to keep up with - about a year ago I had my lightbulb moment - unfortunatley for me my husband has only just had his after I threatened to leave him!

To add more flies to the ointment I have just had to go long term sick from my employment due to a back injury - so am in it right up to my neck and there is now no way I can keep up the repayments on the credit cards/loans

All cards are now cut up

There are myself/hubby 19yr old 16 yr old and 8 yr old living here

I have written to all creditors offering pro rata payments and am now looking to reduce the monthly outgoings

My SOA is below - any suggestions greatly appreciated


Monthly Income

Partner's Monthly Salary £ 1,120.00
Child Benefit £ 116.60
Maintenance £ 187.72
Keep from Daughter £ 140.00
Sick pay £ 280.00
TOTAL MONTHLY INCOME £ 1,844.32


Essential Monthly Outgoings
Outgoings Amount
Mortgage/Rent £ 344.98 (water rates included in rent)
Council Tax £ 76.00
Electricity £ 55.00
Gas £ 50.00
Telephone £ 20.00
Mobile Phone £ 60.50 (2 phones still on contract for another 10 months)
TV Licence £ 10.56
Satellite TV £ 6.46
Internet £ 21.14
Contents Insurance £ 12.68
Groceries £ 434.00
Clothing £ 60.00
Diesel £100.00
Car Tax £ 10.00
Car Insurance £ 40.75
Car MOT £ 4.00
Car Maintenance £ 60.00
Medical/Dental £ 20.00
Birthdays/Christmas £40.00
school meals/trips £ 32.00
marriage guidance £ 50.00
sundries/emergencies £ 75.00
TOTAL MONTHLY OUTGOINGS £ 1,583.07
NET MONTHLY SURPLUS £ 261.25


Monthly Debts
Debt Total Debt
Overdraft Barclays 1 £ 1,620.00 - 15.6%
Car Loan £ 5,573.00 - 25.4%
Nat West Loan £ 12,119.30 - 11.5%
Nat West visa £ 5,358.00 - 19.9%
Tesco Visa £ 6,550.00 - 17.3%
Nat West overdraft £ 1,900.00 17.7%
Preference Account £ 8,865.00 - 0%
M&S Storecard £ 4,700.00 18.9%
Beneficial Visa £ 4,434.00 - 24.9%
Barclaycard 1 £ 1,500.00 18.9%
Barclaycard 2 £ 1,700.00 21.0%
Great Essentials £ 1,350.00 - 0%
Virgin Mastercard £ 3,000.00 - 19.9%
Barclayloan 1 £ 1,343.00 -15.9%
Barclayloan 2 £ 672.00 -15.9%
Barclays Overdraft 2 £ 1,020.00 - 15.6%
Washing Machine £ 230.10 - 19.8%
Computer £ 234.30 - 19.8%
TOTAL DEBT £ 62,168.70

oops_a_daisy

Hi there natters and welcome to DFWannabees

wll done on doing your SOA - can you add the interest rates charged to your debts ?

oops_a_daisy

I have copied your outgoings below and added some suggestions

Mortgage/Rent £ 344.98 (water rates included in rent)
Council Tax £ 76.00
Electricity £ 55.00 seems high - does this include arrears ? if not can you switch
Gas £ 50.00 as for electric
Telephone £ 20.00
Mobile Phone £ 60.50 (2 phones still on contract for another 10 months) contact the provider and ask to be put onto a cheaper tariff onc contract is finished go onto pay as you go and only use for emergencies
TV Licence £ 10.56
Satellite TV £ 6.46 get freeview if you absolutely must hav extra channels
Internet £ 21.14there are cheaper providers out there hopefully somebody lse will be able to give details
Contents Insurance £ 12.68 are you paying for insurance on your mobiles as this may be covered under your home insurance - check
Groceries £ 434.00this is always a good one to make savings on - you could probably cut this in half with help from the old style board
Clothing £ 60.00try to cut this by going to car boots, charity shops and ebay
Diesel £100.00shop around for the cheapest
Car Tax £ 10.00
Car Insurance £ 40.75have you shopped around for this - you do not always have to wait for renewal to change
Car MOT £ 4.00
Car Maintenance £ 60.00 this seems high per month but I havent got a clue about cars
Medical/Dental £ 20.00
Birthdays/Christmas £40.00
school meals/trips £ 32.00
marriage guidance £ 50.00
sundries/emergencies £ 75.00get a spending diary and minimise this
TOTAL MONTHLY OUTGOINGS £ 1,583.07

there is a calculator to work out which debts to prioritise called the snowball calculator but you need your interest rates charged to complete this.

tyllwyd

If your monthly surplus is £260 per month = £3120 per year, and your debts are £62,000, even if all your lenders agreed not to charge a penny more in interest, it would take something like 20 years to pay everything off. Maybe you could squeeze a few pounds here or there out of your SOA, but over that amount of time it hardly seems worth it.

Have you talked to Payplan or CCCS - they might recommend IVA or bankruptcy.

natters_2

Have already contacted cccs - but in the meantime I ended up having to go off work sick - Am snowballing as best I can - but obviously a huge drop in the monthly income means I wont even be able to make the minimum payments anymore

Will be digging out as much as I can to sell on ebay and from looking on here have registered with a few survey/moneyback sites

It would take 20 years to pay it all off at the present rate - but some of the debts only have a few more months and they will be clear - so that money will be going onto the next ones

Bankrupcy scares the heck out of me, so I would want to avoid it if at all possible

coldasice_3

Hi All,
Has anyone used Hamilton lock to sought out there debts, if so what happens after 6 years is the debt cleared along with your defaults?

HairyHandofDartmoor

Your food bill could definitely but cut down a lot by buying value products, cooking from scratch, etc, the old style board is good for suggestions for this. I agree that you should consider cancelling satellite tv, it may upset the kids temporarily but they will get over it, and by saving money you are helping to keep a roof over their heads which is more important! Packed lunches are much cheaper than paying for school dinners, it's extra work but when you get used to it it isn't so bad. I second oops's advice, good luck.

angchris

hiya welcome to mse:D obviousely you dont need me to tell you this but your incomings/outgoings seriousely need to be adjusted for you to keep your head above water, now this is going to be hard but both you and hubby/kids need to buckle down and look at where your money is going each month oops a daisy has covered alot of the things you could shave right back. what you need to do is look at your bank statement and then check that every single thing coming out is a:definately needed b: the cheapest you can find, for example car insurance could you not drop down to 3rd party insurance untill things are a little healthier? the school meal + trips at £32 a month... give the kids a packed lunch everyday, diesel when you buy make sure you collect nectar points etc, cut out the clothing budget for now and manage with what you have, marriage guidance £50? obviousely a personal thing to you that i cant/shouldnt comment on but im sure if you cut right back financially you can start to make headway and things/tensions might ease in your relationship.
you have decent money coming in each month although i realise this in comparison/relation to your debts looks quite scary but it can be done!!
what you need to do asap is cut up your cards because if you keep spending on them you will never get off the merry go round of debt, is there a possibility of selling your car and catching the bus? this would save you £114 a month which is a sizeable chunk of your monthly income, could you try and sell some of your unwanted bits n pieces on ebay... get your kids to go through their old toys/clothes and sort it all out so they could turn it into pressies for xmas just save what you make in paypal every £ helps and then you have 6/7 weeks or so to save up in which should buy a few cheapo chrimbo pressies off ebay for them. if you are not at work at the mo then you should be able to dramatically cut your food bill by cooking from scratch each day.my problem was i was just too knackered after work to cook so takeaway it was or expensive micro meal through laziness:o we eat lots of pasta and rice dishes now that are as cheap as chips, buy sacks of spuds from your local farm for about £4 you get loads of meals out of a sack i love potato and garlick bake and sausages . check out your local supermarket for reduced stuff and make meals out of that if you buy meat buy a huge xl chicken and get 2 or 3 meals out of it and then make soup with the carcass have 1 day a week of a cheapo meal ie beans on toast or similar its not gonna kill em
looking at your debts i would probably get shot of the washing machine and the computer first as they are your smallest debts then see if you can shuffle the rest around onto a lower apr. is there anyway you could earn a few extra pennies from home a few xmas`s ago i made loads of xmas puds and sold them to my family and friends as they all knew how skint i was they could see i was making the effort and were more than willing to buy mind you they probably would of given me the money anyway if i`d asked lol :rolleyes: best of luck angchris

CLAPTON

the key issue here is whether or not your income loss is temporary or permanent.

at the moment you have no chance of ever paying your debts off ..basically
net suplus of 260 and debts of 62,000 means 20 years excluding any interest...dont even think about it

an IVA ? well lets say you offer 260 per month = 3120 per annum and
15,600 over five years; lets say the IP charges 8,000 so your creditors get 7,600 for 62,000 i.e. 12p per pound ...absolutely no chance.

your only realistic solution given you have no assetts (i.e house equity) is bankruptcy on your current SoA

contact CCCS or Payplan to get a better view

however if your income will rise in the near future then things will be different.

but thats how i see it.

fatbelly

natters wrote:

Bankrupcy scares the heck out of me, so I would want to avoid it if at all possible

I agree with Clapton's analysis. You're renting so bankruptcy (maybe 2 - you and OH) looks like a good option.

It's not that scary. Here's a factsheet