a new start... hopefully!

happytimesahead

Hi,
just hoping for some advice -
Trying not to do a long-winded explanation so basically through my own stupidity have going myself debt, prodominantly online gambling. (The snowballing affect of losing a little bit, then trying to get back what you've lost, etc etc). This has been going on for about 4 years.
I have 4 credit cards of which I have had many 'default sum' letters, and afew days ago one 'default notice' letter. For the last year or some i have really only been making the minimum repayments, and the last few months really struggling to even do this:-
Natwest £1850
Natwest £1350
Tesco £2000
Barclaycard £1000.
I have a natwest bank account, overdraft of £1600 which by the end of each month i was always hitting the limit.
Natwest loan £2950 left to pay.

Recently I have realised I had a huge problem - and that i was never going to win back the money lost, and it was throwing money away. So have blocked the ability to gamble online anymore and have sort gambling help.

I earn £1100 a month, and in future without the gambling black cloud i would have around £400 spare at the end of each month, *after* paying all minimum repayments of my debt. So really, I could be paying more. (I dont have many outgoings - still live with parents).

So really, the advice im after is that last/this month, wages have all gone already before making my minimum payments, however i know that in future im going to be in a position to make payments - So i dont really want to do anything drastic (I did at one stage consider DMP, but if it can be avoided i'd like to). So that i can get myself back on my feet is there anything i can do to reduce payments i have to make for a month or two?
I've seen people write about token payments... I was thinking about making token payments this month and then back to normal in future? Is that something the banks would accept do you think?

I also thought possibly making token payments next 2/3 months to build up some cash and then try a F&F settlement figure for at least one of the debts?

If i went into Natwest/ rang them, is there any such option to defer payments for a month to allow myself to be sorted?

Obviously credit rating is bad, so no chance of consolidation loans/ 0% balance transfer credit cards.

I hope this all made sense, im trying to get myself sorted but really dont know where to start! I know this is a big mess i've gotten myself into, and I know lots of people will judge - but you wouldn't be able to say anything to make me feel worse about myself then i already do! Ack.

Any advice would be soo greatly appreciated!
Sorry the post was alot longer than i expected it to turn out!!
Thanks.

allen35

Hi happy

I don't really see your creditors taking token payments for a couple of months based on your income and disposable at the end of each month.

Be aware that if your wages go into one of the banks you default with there may be a possibility that they can take monies owed from your current account to pay your credit card in full.

You may want to write them a letter and ask them to stop the interest(see the national debtline website for letters) to allow you to reduce your debt but they tend to only do this when you have defaulted a few times and had a drastic reduction in income.

One good thing is though that you have now realised that online gambling seems easy but doesn't pay.

If you are serious about paying your debt off it would be silly not to pay the minimum over the next few months to avoid late payment fees.

To make you more committed consider setting up direct debits to pay the minimum around pay day and then with any extra cash you have you can start to reduce the card that has most interest, this should be your first goal to reduce the higher interest card to zero.

Good luck and take up a different hobby that doesn't cost a fortune to pass time.