Drowning in debt - Breaking point!

bigianw

i know how you feel mate. i owe 2k on 1 c card and 15k on another as well as normal household bills. i wrote to c c company and told them i cant pay £320 min payment they havent wrote back

mel12

Sorry to hear about your partner



Theres a thread on debt relief orders here
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1385275

Also I think you need to actually apply to the council for housing benefit and council tax benefits.


I hope things improve for you soon.

KiKi

Hi Tarka

This sounds like a silly thing, but it may be good if you need to look for somewhere else, as it means you can look for somewhere cheaper. £625 in rent is a lot if it's only 1 bedroom you need and have no job right now - you could get somewhere much smaller (maybe even a studio for now) to pay less. Would anyone in your family put you up for a while if they knew your situation? You could offer to do chores / work for them in return as well? It might be something you hate the idea of, but you may not have a choice in the short-term. You never know, a friend with a spare room might be grateful for the company and help around the house, or if you can pay them token rent in the meantime. It might help them out enormously. Ask your friends if they know of anyone who needs a lodger (then you're not tied into a contract).

There's very little you can cut out from your SOA, so keep up with the job hunting and in the meantime look into a DRO.

Print off your CV and take it round to all your local shops / restaurants / cafes / businesses and ask to speak to someone if you can.

Also, speak to your utilities companies and tell them you're having some difficulties. They may be happy to negotiate lower payments for you for now.

Also, open a bank account if you can with a bank that you have NO OTHER TIES with. Put any JSA etc into this - and it means that your other bank can't take it for the overdraft or any other bank payments you owe.

Speak to your current bank about the overdraft. They may be happy to try and help you out if you go in branch and speak to them face to face and explain the problems you're having. Just don't try and do it on the phone to a customer call centre.

I hope this helps you a little bit.
KiKi

Tarka1981

Yes the £250 is the car.

I have just updated my details on the debt remedy at CCCS and it has come up with the same solution of £1 'token' gestures! I am beside myself. I spoke with a counsellor about it prior to amending the details and he said that they wouldn't recommend the DRO unless the debt remedy had come to the same conclusion. I don't know what state a person has to be in to be recommended for that coure but I didn't seem to fit the criteria. (Even though on all the information guides I've read it suggests that I would be...)

On the depression front, I have already been undertaking active therapy for a seperate issue but am cautious of mentioning depresion/anxiety issues due to their twitchy nature and enthusiasm for anti-depressants. (I don't get on with them.) So I don't think speaking with my GP would help. But thank you for your concern though.

mattkingo

Chin Up. I have been in your situation and I took any job I could to get some cash in.. Got made redundant from my £30k+ job and took a job bringing in £11k. I have worked for 5 years in various jobs - paying off around £15k worth of debt in the process and now work in my dream job. Keep looking and take anything and it will work itself out. Open up a new bank account thou and keep your minimum payments and in 6-7 years (i know it seems a long time but it really isn't when your working your butt off!!) you will be debt free.. Think of this moment as your turning point and make a decision that you will do this for yourself..

Tarka1981

I have never checked my credit history. The reason being that I moved about alot during my time during/after university. I never kept an accurate record of where I lived and when. (Or what details were registered to which address - some items remained at the parental home throughout...)

Is there any way to check your history without accurate address details? At best, I could offer hazy guesses at the information which I suspect won't do it!

There is an old dispute that I would like to check on as I suspect the party never retracted the debt even though I was perfectly within my rights to cancel the contract they were disputing.

Tarka1981

I went to the bank today and after a tedious hour and 20 mins, I was told that actually they did have to do a credit check as they had changed their procedure for basic bank accounts!! What a waste of time! Is this standard now or just with Santander?

I am now trying to work out my previous addresses to do a credit check but am concerned that an old debt may track me down and start chasing. I saw somewhere about an anonymous check that can be done that doesn't alert creditors to your whereabouts. Does anyone have the link to this as I can't remember where it was...

dancingfairy

Hi - I don't know about the credit checking thing - I thought a basic bank account they didn't have to do a credit check - unless just to check your identity through your past addresses? Anyway - co-op and barclays are recommended on the bankruptcy board as being easy to get and useful so maybe try those?
With regards to a DRO - I'm not sure what the qualifying criteria is but your main priority is to get the benefits sorted - perhaps they can't recommend a DRO as your situation is not stable right now - you would also need to find the fees for it so again as you have no income right now perhaps this is why they can't recommend it- so this is something to think about for the future but in the meantime get the bank account and benefits sorted.
Best of Luck
df

dancingfairy

Just remember the creditors can't have what you havne't got - at the end of the day they can huff a lot and make various threats (some of which they make up) - they can't take your house (unles you stop paying rent and get evicted through a court which is a way off yet), they can't break in to your house, they can't send you to prison (the only debt where this may be a problem is council tax and again this is a long way off right now) so basically there is a little your creditors can do apart from huff and puff and make a lot of noise - what they going to do? - ruin your credit rating - um big deal right now.
Chin up
df

Tarka1981

Well I've still not heard from JSA but hopefully tomorrow... As for the bank, I've got an appointment at Barclays tomorrow to set something up with them. So finger's crossed.

Oh, and I tried to check online to see if I had a CCJ against me but they didn't have the address registered on the website so I've emailed them... D'oh! I'll wait and see if they get back to me!