Help with managing my debt

fenwick1978

I Just don't know whats going on. I went to the Citizens Advice back in 2007 and they agreed repayments with most of my creditors and all was going well, but with changes in circumstances and the rise in the cost of living i seem to be back to square one. I've looked into Bankruptcy and IVA's but they all seem a bit daunting

font=courier new]Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 800.49
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 587.28
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1387.77
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 500
Rent.................................... 450
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 74
Electricity............................. 31
Gas..................................... 31
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 21
Telephone (land line)................... 20
Mobile phone............................ 0
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services.......................25
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 50
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 63
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 50
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 15
Contents insurance...................... 15
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 40
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1745

Tixy

Hi and welcome

fenwick1978 wrote: »

I Just don't know whats going on. I went to the Citizens Advice back in 2007 and they agreed repayments with most of my creditors and all was going well, but with changes in circumstances and the rise in the cost of living i seem to be back to square one. I've looked into Bankruptcy and IVA's but they all seem a bit daunting

font=courier new]Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 800.49
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 587.28 have you checked you are getting all you can? does your child's other parent pay any maintenance at all? could they?
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1387.77
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 500 what are these the repayments on?
Rent.................................... 450 is this competitive price for where you live? any chance you could rent somewhere cheaper?
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 74
Electricity............................. 31 have you checked elec & gas are with the cheapest supplier and on the best tariff?
Gas..................................... 31
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 21
Telephone (land line)................... 20
Mobile phone............................ 0
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services.......................25 this looks quite high, can you try to find a combined landline & internet deal for around £25?
Groceries etc. ......................... 200 Could reduce this a bit, maybe to around £160?
Clothing................................ 50 cut back to just the minimum amounts here, obviously your child will need some clothing but should be able to reduce this a bit.
Petrol/diesel........................... 100 is this all essential mileage? do you drive efficently to try to get the best MPGs?
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 63 do you shop around at renewal time?
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0 need to budget something here for servicing, mot, tyres etc. Work out the annual cost and divide by 12.
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 50 what do these relate to?
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 15 why buildings insurance if you are renting?
Contents insurance...................... 15 should be able to get this a bit cheaper for renting
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 40 need to reduce this down a bit
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1745

Hi
How much are your currently paying towards your creditors each month? how much do you owe in total?
What are the £500 secured loan repayments each month? or are these really your payments to your DMP?
Do you pay your creditors direct or do you pay CAB and they pay your creditors for you?

dancingfairy

Fear not. What exactly has been happening with the debts the CAB had helped you with - have they stopped interest and charges or have they started up again? are you still paying them the amounts or are you paying less or have you stopped altogether? if you were making those payments how were you making up the shortfall?
What might have been your best idea was to review the situation after say 6 months and certainly when your situation changed to change your payments accordingly -no matter.

If you can give us more info regarding the debts etc - how many, min repayments, whether on a payment pan etc we can see what we can suggest.
Oh and a repayment plan may still be your best bet (an updated one though) but without seeing all the figures it's kind hard to comment.
Best of Luck
df

fenwick1978

Thank you so much for the replies. The answers go a bit like this...I have checked my benefit entitlement and what i get would seem is all i am entitled to. The other parent does not pay maintenance. Hopefully me running costs of my car will not come down as only yesterday i downsized to a smaller more economical car. Sorry the inclusion of buildings insurance was error. The £500 is what i pay towards the debt management plan, which i pay directly to the companies via DD. When the debt manaement plan was arranged some compaines agreed to stoping interest and charges others started a new loan with smaller payments, although some have now started adding a small amount of interest but with payments staying the same. From the date of arrangment i have made all payment and still am, i simply just manage somehow.

Details of my debts are:-
loan £80.00 pm balance £3788
loan £22.73 pm balance £1431
catalogue £40.00 pm (not on plan) balance £400
credit card £30.00 pm appox (not on plan) balance £700
loan £149.19 pm balance £5272
Credit card £20.00 pm balance £575
loan £48.20 pm balance £3768
credit card £38.00 pm approx (not on plan) balance £1697
total debt £17640

thanks so much for you help

fenwick1978

Clothing................................ 50 cut back to just the minimum amounts here, obviously your child will need some clothing but should be able to reduce this a bit.


I totally agree

dancingfairy

o.k so at the moment you are paying more out than getting in and wracking up more debts - this is crazy - the whole point of a debt management plan is to get the debts under control. It might have helped if you'd had regular reviews with the CAB/ revised your payments as appropriate as it looks like a) either you deliberately hid debt when you started the plan or b) you've wracked up an additional 2,500 ish pounds (plus interest).
I think you probably need to start at the begining to be honest.
O.K so you owe 17k and you have 142 a month to split between your creditors - right?
Your outgoings (without debt repayments) are 1245 a month so you have 142 a month 'spare'.
Now your options would appear to be another debt repayment plan - with 142 a month split between your creditors - making sure that you adjust the figures as things change in your life this time which will take quite some time to pay back at that rate - even if interest and charges are stopped or bankruptcy which would give you a clean slate with the debts but you might have to make a payment into your bankruptcy for 3 years. I think that perhaps you should consider bankruptcy this time around and get a fresh start but it's totally up to you.
You might want to try phoning CCCS or National Debtline to chat through these options as they now stand. Also the bankruptcy board is very good as well for all your bankruptcy questions.
df