I'm at the end of my tether

binnie

I have sent them all my profits and expenses from the tax people and last year I only made £448 profit, another year £2,000.
But as I bring money in from the sales, I have been using ALL that money to pay bills and not just the £448 per year.
If I bring in say £800 a month off my ebay sales, I know loads of that is expenses, but I have been using £700 a month to pay the mortgage and will pay the tax return as and when it's due. I have loads of stock about £2,000 worth and once I sell it, it will make me more money.
I'm sure lots of people use the incoming money to pay their bills and not take an actual wage. It's my turnover they should be looking at as I've only just lost my day job in January and bought the Ebay stock whilst I had that job.
So now I use all the money I earn to pay my bills.

The loan companies Billie won't do a payment holiday as we have already had them in 2010 and one this year already. Virgin won't do them at all.
HSBC won't do payment holidays on the mortgage. Thats why I've asked for interest only for 6 months, it's affordable and we can pay that.
The strange thing is, we are only a bit over to what they say we can aford. I queried that he had put me down for £200 a month on food and £25 a month on clothing, but I said we don't spend that much. He said they have to put that down just in case. I told him to put £100 a month down for food and zero for clothes as I have tons of clothes and don't need anymore, but he said he couldn't

BFM

i don't understand how much money (ie profit) you make from ebay. is it £800 per month or £500 per year - so is it possible that the bank don't really understand either.

I'd suggest you put it all in a spreadsheet and show the income streams from paypal if you want it to be considered favourably at the bank.

can you take in a lodger - or say you are taking in a lodger for 6 months to illustrate some extra income to help get through the mess

CH27

I can understand the bank being reluctant as you haven't explained yourself very well here.

binnie

It is very confusing. But what the banks want to know is do I take a wage out of my ebay earnings.
Well I do in a way, but can't say how much for definite.
The £800 a month could be what I sell so it's classed as income in the Inland revenues eyes.
But obviously I have to take out the cost of the bags in the first place, my expenses like electric, gas, phone bills etc and maybe I'm only left with a £100 profit.
Last year I bought so much stock that my tax bill for the whole year was only £89, the profit was £448, so I still have loads of stock left to sell.

I've been trying to tell the bank that some months I sell £800, some I sell £900, some I sell £1,200.
The lowest amount I've ever brought in a month was £400 and that was because I was on holiday and closed my shop down.
So out of the £800, I will use £700 to pay the bills, and keep £100 spare to buy more stock.
My outgoings are £1,250 a month and I had a day job earning £700 up until January so that money and the ebay used to pay the whole amount of my bills. Now I've lost my day job, I'm £700 down, so I have to use every penny of my ebay sales to pay my bills.

I have sent the bank all my earnings from Ebay for the last 3 years as they requested and it shows I earned those figures each and every month. They seem to be looking just at my profit which is fine, but I use more than just the profit to pay my bills.
I won't be able to buy much stock until I get a day job, but for now have loads to sell.
I don't understand how I can explain this anymore.

Jesthar

Hey binnie,

I think I understand the e-Bay thing, but I can also understand why a bank might be reluctant to consider it a 'steady' income, especially the way the economy is at the moment. Whether or not you have been good customers doesn't really matter these days, sadly, as computers rule the world and if 'computer says no' it can be hard to get that overriden. It's worth keeping trying, of course, but you also need to prepare for what you will do if they don't agree to help you out.

What is not so easy to understand is your overall financial situation - eBay aside, you mention more than one mortgage (with pretty short terms to go) and loans as well. You can get some brilliant advice on here if people know what they are working with, but you would need to feel up to posting a full Statement of Affairs (link here http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html) to look at.

*hugs* Hope things improve for you

~Jes

corbyboy

binnie wrote: »

It is very confusing. But what the banks want to know is do I take a wage out of my ebay earnings.
Well I do in a way, but can't say how much for definite.
The £800 a month could be what I sell so it's classed as income in the Inland revenues eyes.
But obviously I have to take out the cost of the bags in the first place, my expenses like electric, gas, phone bills etc and maybe I'm only left with a £100 profit.
Last year I bought so much stock that my tax bill for the whole year was only £89, the profit was £448, so I still have loads of stock left to sell.

I've been trying to tell the bank that some months I sell £800, some I sell £900, some I sell £1,200.
The lowest amount I've ever brought in a month was £400 and that was because I was on holiday and closed my shop down.
So out of the £800, I will use £700 to pay the bills, and keep £100 spare to buy more stock.
My outgoings are £1,250 a month and I had a day job earning £700 up until January so that money and the ebay used to pay the whole amount of my bills. Now I've lost my day job, I'm £700 down, so I have to use every penny of my ebay sales to pay my bills.

I have sent the bank all my earnings from Ebay for the last 3 years as they requested and it shows I earned those figures each and every month. They seem to be looking just at my profit which is fine, but I use more than just the profit to pay my bills.
I won't be able to buy much stock until I get a day job, but for now have loads to sell.
I don't understand how I can explain this anymore.

I can understand why the bank won't take this as income. You are not being clear at all. If you sell £800 worth of stock in a month but it cost you £600 to buy then you can't claim a "wage" of £800.

Here's what you should do:
Create a spreadsheet to cover the last 12 months of eBay transactions.
In one column total up your monthly sales
In the next column total up your monthly expenditure.
The difference between the two is your income before tax. I think this is what you should be showing the bank.

What they are saying to you seems very unfair. You can't take reduced mortgage payments because you don't earn enough? What's the rationale behind this?

binnie

Hi Corby boy,

I know I'm rubbish at explaining things. All this has been done on the phone as I was meant to get a phone call from HSBC head office to make an appointment for someone to see me in person at the branch. But they took that long to get back to me and I was panicking, so I rang them instead and spoke to a guy from money management.
It's only a few weeks off when the mortgage is due again, so I didn't want to just default.
I suppose I could go back on my Ebay reports and print them out, it shows sales, fees etc.
But because I have spent so much on new stock last year, it will look like I haven't made a penny if I deducted all the remaining stock I have left.
But I'm still obviously selling that and bringing in money everyday.
Of course all the money I bring in will have to go on paying my household bills including the interest only mortgage if I can get them to sort it, so I won't be buying anymore stock.
I have enough stock to keep me going for some months yet, so if I sell it all, it should cover 6 months mortgage easily at the reduced rate.
That is what I am trying to tell them.

If they can't do that, then I will have to go to Pay Plan and see what they can do.

binnie

Jazzy Jeff, I cannot go to another bank for a reduced mortgage as I am not working in their eyes, so if they won't accept me at the bank we have been for 20 years, then I've no chance anywhere else.
Why do you have to be so rude , your comments are insulting.

corbyboy

JazzyJeff wrote: »

err
yes and no corby

thats leicester right?

ok so
unfair or not the legal position is correct

from me

you want reduced mortgage payments?
then go to another bank for your account...
then they will listen...
when you have no money going into it

jeeze what is this?
finances for retards?

Wow, you are a nice guy aren't you! Not that I understood most of your random, part sentences.

Corby is about 25 miles from Leicester, so not too far.

My point is that saying a person struggling with debt cannot have a reduced mortgage period because they don't earn enough doesn't make sense to me. I ask what the rationale was and you called me a retard. If you are such a financial whizz why don't you explain it to me?

binnie

It doesn't make sense to me.
When we took the mortgages out, they did offer us interest only ones. But we said no and opted for the repayment mortgages. We have paid a lot off them over the years and this year is the first time I've ever asked for help. I could have cancelled the direct debits, defaulted and gone onto a DMP maybe, but no I rang them first.
I can't see what the problem is to reduce the payments down until I get a job. I may get a job next week, or next month, who knows. But as soon as I do, those payments will be going back up to as they were.
My dad would probably pay the £25 a month interest only mortgage if they would let him, as he wants to help. But he can't afford to pay the whole lot for us and why should he. This particular mortgage finishes in 2015, so whats an extra 6 months for us to pay. They will get their money.
I can't even get contributions based allowance when I lost my job because I do Ebay, even though I may only earn £100 a month profit.
Honesty isn't always the best policy in this case.