Panic! Sole trader in debt-advice please

jellycat40

Just a practical suggestion here. To stop getting screwed by the bank bouncing your DD's open an account with the Co-op or similar. Ask for a basic account which gives you just an Electron Card to get money from the ATM or to pay in shops if you have the funds.

When you have it open move all your DD and SO to the account and pay your money into this account.

Pay a minimum payment to your current bank to cover some of your OD.

This will then at least stop some of the confusion with who has and has not been paid.

Make your essential payments like rent, council tax etc and then contact your other creditors and negotiate with them to accept a lower payment. Egg do payment holidays of 3 months so that will buy you some time from them. Many of the creditors will not respond well to this but explain that it is for a short time ie 3 months and then you will review it. Send them a SOA. Send it recorded delivery or they will insist they have not had it!

Speak to your landlord and see if the idea of hard cash will soften him up. Write to him telling him what he has not done and what you have done to the building and offer him a third of what he tells you that you owe him. Tell him that you will make the payment in December in cash.

Good luck with taking the bank on re charges, if I had done this I probably would not have gone bankrupt as the charges made my £80k debt into £130k!!! I did not know about trying to reclaim charges.

Finally, I want to echo what the others are saying, you are actually doing a good job, you are not a failure. Make sure you keep time for you and your kids and know that you are doing your best.

Louise

Pobby

Certainly not a failure!I traded very well for a good number of years but due to more competition and a radical change in the market,I was forced to close at the end of my lease.I would have liked to close earlier but the premises I rented would have been very hard to move on.I was in a very tough lease.Landlords are pretty good at arranging leases in their own favour.

Storm

Hi! Just read through the whole post and you've had one hell of a time haven't you? Couple of suggestions - if you contact your local CAB they'll give you a list of local solicitors that do a cheap initial consultation (£10 when I had to go a few years back) cos they'll be able to let you know if you've got a case against your landlord.


QUOTE: I also think when you are in debt you panic and this this has been my logic:
a)you need to make some money to keep it all moving(to a point)
b)you never get the time in a working day to make vital phone calls as you are too busy trying to make money
c)so you get home from work and work some more,your home life suffers,you are constantly tired through late nights/stress/long hours
d)you spread yourself too thin for your kids/partner/friends
e)you feel like you are on a treadmill and can't get off
f)you panic if you are feeling ill in case you have to have time off from the business

Couldn't agree more with you - it all keeps building up and escalating, and if you're like me, not wanting to open letters/answer phonecalls etc.

Where are you btw - I need to get my haircut (and have budgeted it into November's money!) - would rather give the dosh to a fellow DFW than a gleaming salon!

Storm

fabianne

Hi Storm (used to work at a salon called Storm years ago)

Thanks for your input-I am in Manchester,which is a long way from you(shame).
I am slowly untangling my plate of spaghetti...
I have just had confirmation about a new current account -my applicayion has been accepted so I can get away from Barclays! Just need to see about changing my business one now.

fabianne

Waiting for my call back from Payplan now-am nervous.
Had a letter in post from Egg card-the bank has bounced the payment,made a payment on line and waiting for it to go through.I also asked if they would return the charges they have applied (£48)but got an email saying they have acted within their T and C's and will not refund them.
Shucks!

fabianne

Well,that call went ok-very nice lady who went through everything with a fine toothed comb..
Been told to do an informal arrangement for creditors and then will send me the info out in the post-has anyone got any 1st hand knowledge of this please?Does it work?
Bankruptcy was also an alternative-am very unsure what to do for the best here guys-please help!

debzi

Re: being undercut on your ebay business

Have you contacted your suppliers about this? It's possible they may be able to put a stop to it, as it would be in their interests.

bky_cpl

Hi fabianne,

We were in a very similar position to yourself at the beginning of the year. Our commitments were higher than yours, both personal and business, and we had already started to consider bankruptcy although we were desperate to avoid it if at all possible.

Ultimately the decsion was made for us because the landlord issued a Statutory Demand against us for the amount outstanding. We owed approx £2,000 but the lease had another couple of years to run so total liability would probably be closer to £12,000; we were made bankrupt at the end of June and we've had some bad moments but overall things are better than they were before.

From our experience you should be ok with all your debts as they're generally very open to negotiation but landlords and property companies - different story.

Jane

fabianne

Hi and thanks Debz-I was asked to supply the eBay seller id's and locations by them and Head Office are looking into it.....and still are.The rep is due in on Thurs but instead of putting in my order for all the lovely xmas gift ranges they do-I will be telling her I am closing and also asking if they will take back my stock to reduce my bill owed..oh and will be bunging her some money to pay off my balance.

Jane-hi and thanks-the Payplan woman suggested it and when my reaction was "Erm,ah..." she asked why not and was it the fact it would get published?I didn't even know it got published and don't care about that aspect(does anyone read that bit in the paper btw?I don't)
Once she told me that my family and b/f would not be affected by it in the future,it was better,so am thinking of it now-I just need more info on it all.
Did you find it very stressful and is there tons of paperwork to do?I am basically frightened by it all.

dottyanne

Hi - g;ad the call went well today - try to keep positive = things will work out in the end - especially now your facing the problems head on !