Hit a low

john_kent

Hi All

I havent been on here for a while but feel I have hit a low in my struggle.

Up until 2006 , I was in a well paid job. I was made redundant and within days my girlfriend left me with massive debts of 55k.

I have this down to around 28k I believe (still doing the maths)

In March last year , after living with parents for 3 years , my job location moved and I was forced to relocate. Since then , I have been receiving an allowance from my company which ended in November.

This month was the firsy normal pay day for over a year. I agreed a payment with my creditors over a year ago , but now I am back paying rent/bills etc and my allowance for relocation has ended , I find myself with less than £6 a month to live on. Obviously I cannot mange on this.

Is it acceptable to creditors to renegotiate the payment , or should I just hand it all to a Debt Management Company to arrange. I really am not able to pay anything near what was agreed a year ago.

I have made some payments this month as they were Standing Orders , but the others I just cannot pay. Do I make a nominal payment of £1 and cancel all but essential payments (rent,water,electricity etc.....) or do I make sure all are paid this month and struggle through and Speak to them to sort something for February.

I am loosing sleep with worry , and now my manager is saying my performance is dropping and I do not wish to loose my job.

GeorgeUK

You have done well to get this far.

As you cannot maintain the payments, you should write to all your creditors and inform them that there has been a change to your circumstances. You will be receiving professional assistance from CCCS/Payplan and will write to them with a new payment agreement.

It seems companies are more at ease knowing that one of the free debt charities are involved so that they are getting a fair share of available funds. There's no point in you continuing to struggle with payments - that's not what a DMP is for. Your circumstances have changed so you have no option but to amend the agreements.

I would suggest writing to them and providing the £1 token payments. Even if CCCS do not help you to set up a payment plan, they may be able to offer advice and possibly write some letters to your creditors.

If any of them start making threats of court action etc, i would then go down the CCA route incase the debt can be disputed and action stopped.

john_kent

Thanks George.

I have spent the last few days looking at savings. I have downgrade my phone to a tariff that will fit usage. Dropped my second sky box . It was a straight move from previous address but cannot afford it now. My broadband is with virgin. I will switch to Sky when the contract expires. I have removed all additional services from the phone line.

I need to cut down on what i spend but at the same time I knwo I need to be realistic as I cannot live as a hermit