Help needed on my journey !!

Issuma

Hello All

I'm a long time lurker who has only just plucked up the courage to post !!! - what a wimp.:o

I firstly have to say how reading the posts on this amazing site has inspired and motivated me to do what I've managed to do already but I'm beginning to feel rather overwhelmed and in need of some support.

Anyway just a brief bit of background......no excuses.

Looking back we we're obviously over commited to start with but somehow managing mostly on credit I suppose, then my darling OH had a heart attack at the end of 2009 which thank god he recovered from but had to remain off work for nearly 6 months the company he worked for didn't have a sick pay scheme so we lost his salary over night and went straight on to SSP, thankfully he was able to return to work in June 2010 but it then became obvious that he could no longer carry on doing the same job he'd done before so to cut a very long story short he's been very fortunate to secure another job which is less stressful and less hours but of course you know what coming..............yes less money our income has dropped by over £300 per month plus everthings gone up (petrol, food etc) so its tough.

Trying to be pro-active and taking advice from what I've read on this forum I contacted all our creditors and have been self managing my own DMP since last July which I have to say has not been too bad none of our creditors have frozen the interest but they have reduced it however I feel I'm nearing the end of that road now as our mortgage provider agreed for us to go on interest only for a period of time (which has been a massive help) but this is now coming to an end so now I have to face returning to paying my 'full' mortgage payment and I'm now seriously considering contacting CCCS to see if they will take this on board for me as I'm finding it extremely stressful dealing with this, working full time etc.

Sorry to go on but I would like a bit of advice while I pluck up the courage to ring them:

My OH has only just started his new job and I'm assuming that we will have to provide at least 3 months payslips for CCCS which in my OH case this won't give a true reflection of his income moving forwards.

I'm in a sharesave scheme at work (call this my safety net) which if I come out of I will not get back what I've paid in - can CCCS insist I do this as our car is on it's last legs (OH needs it to get to work) and if it dies on us altogether that would be our only means of ever being able to get a little run around that would at least get my OH to work and back everyday as there is no more credit for us EVER in the future.............lessons well and truly learnt !!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry to have rambled on any advice or support would be very welcome.
Don't feel quite ready to post SAO yet I know I'm being a wimp but it's all about small steps for me at the moment.

Nicky321

Issuma wrote: »

Hello All
Don't feel quite ready to post SAO yet I know I'm being a wimp but it's all about small steps for me at the moment.

I think it would be to your advantage to post your SAO (why do you not feel ready to do so? no one will judge). Once your SAO is posted people will be in a better position to advise you i feel.

[Deleted User]

Hi, It seems as though you do really need to start with a full and acurate Statement of Affairs - even if you do not yet feel ready to post it here, it will be a good opportunity for you to see all your income, and expenditure in one place.

When/if you do post it here, people will give you non-judgemental advice on your SOA - but this of course is up to you.

Here's the link - even if only for yourself, it'll be worth doing: http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

D9

beanielou

Would be good if you could pop up your SOA.

Issuma

Thanks for your replys it's not that I haven't done a SAO I suppose I'm just not ready to 'go public' with it at the moment I'm embarassed to think that by my original post someone may realise who I am, we've already cut everything back as far as we can and no matter how much more we cut back (although not much left to go at) we will not be able to make up the shortfall as it's hundreds a month, at the moment I was just wondering if anyone could advise me as to what information apart from the obvious - proof of income and expenditure etc CCCS may want from me and as to whether there's anything that's 'not allowed' such as me staying in the shares scheme at work, do they contact your employer, etc.

antk4

All CCCS required from us was proof of income and our bank details in order to set up our direct debit. They also required copies of our latest cc statements. We did their online debt remedy and so far have done everything by email.

antk4

Forgot to say they don't contact your employer. All they need is your latest payslip. Honestly it's all been straight forward. Just bracing ourselves for lots of phonecalls.

Issuma

antk4 thanks for your reply, very helpful I didn't realise that you could do the whole thing on line, we've done the debt remedy but then my next step was to ring them, as I said in my original post I've been self managing my DMP for several months but now I've got a feeling that our creditors aren't going to take too kindly to us reducing our offer to them for a second time, it was just before Xmas that we had a serious talk and my OH decided that the job he was doing working long hours really was proving too much for him, his health is far more important than anything else, after seeing the state he was in this time last year I really didn't think he would ever go back to work so he's done really well but now his health issues are more under control we really need to concentrate on the finances it's going to be a long job and I'm sure sometimes not very pleasant but it's got to be done.
Not sure whether to contact our creditors again myself with a revised SOA explaining how our circumstances have changed since Xmas or whether to go down CCCS route now, I don't seem to be getting very far on my own as none of them will stop the interest so some of the balances are going up not down !!!!

Good luck with your DMP and stay calm as I've read many many times on this forum they can't have what you haven't got !!