Jeremy Vine show

FuzzyCub

Surely not dealing with this debt, paying down the mortgage and building up equity could leave the OP in a situation where creditors may feel it is worth petitioning for the OPs bankruptcy thus losing the house in the future anyway. Own goal.

Time to take action OP.

JimmyTheWig

OP, you are not a homeowner. The bank own your home (and more).

GaryBC

Hhmmm.... Interesting range of comments! From the "we're all here to help" right through to, "it's you're own ******* fault, pull yer socks up and quit wining"! Which, I guess, pretty much mirrors the spread of attitudes in society at large! (Although a common thread seems to be the use of acronyms! Sure, we can all ask, but can the experts here not just simply make the presumption that, the fact that I am here asking for help/advice/opinion in the first place, pretty much defines me as a layman!)

I hadn't set out to leave such a gap between my last post and this but the weekend sort of got in the way! A summary of my situation.

First of all, and contrary to many presumptions, our level of debt is not down to profligate spending on our part! I was made redundant from a £3k a month job just prior to 9/11 so, following the resultant total collapse of the jobs market, I was out of work for nine months rather than the weeks I'd expected. Believing always that we lived off our credit cards (any opinions on how good a call that was are irrelevant - so don't bother to make them). Nine months times £3k (plus interest etc) - that's how much our additional card debt was when I eventually got back into work. But it goes on. That job was both £1k a month down on previous, and 50 odd miles further away. So we're still short on our commitments and topping up our income with the cards (remember though, 'next month' will secure me a proper job). Well that job turned out to be several years down the line but, by then, no salary I could reasonably command would meet our card payments. At that point we realised we were beyond the point of no return so went to CAB. (See? It's not due to designer clothes, expensive holidays, new cars etc!!)

As for a summary of our level of debt we have (rounded) £200k main mortgage; £100k second mortgage; property value £200k - £250k; £100k card debt.
Both mortgages are fully up to date with no missed payments.
The card debt is subject to a payment plan brokered by Payplan about three years ago. We are paying £85 a month (we have analysed our income/expenditure to within an inch of it's life to arrive at that figure).
We are both in full time employment. Two kids - 15 & 12.

It is a fragile but stable and relatively peaceful existence! There is no incentive to increase our payments as, short of a massive pay rise making hundreds of pounds available a month, we will never get the payback period within our lifetimes. We are reluctant to rock the boat as, uncomfortable as it is, all alternatives would appear to be worse!

So. Now you know! Various "experts" have looked at our finances in the last three years and concluded that we probably can't do much better. But with Martin's "there's always a solution" statement I thought I'd check to see if a fresh set of eyes could come up with something that nobody's spotted before!

If nothing else it gives loads of people an anecdote to tell their friends!! ("I read about this guy .........!")

ViolaLass

So you earn c£2k a month (post or pre tax?). What does your wife earn?

shellyruby

elsiepac wrote: »

Hi NeverAgain

After the bit of talk on her about accronyms, I just wondered what OP was please?! :embarasse

Thanks in advance!


LC

id always wondered what the O stood for in the OP as well lol.

nonnatus

I thought OP stood for Original Poster, as in the person who started the thread in the first place?

SuziQ

So angry about acronyms but uses CAB LOL!
I have read this thread with my mouth open. Ypur debt appears to be because you were either living beyond your means (living off credit cards) or living bang up to your means when you had the sort of income many people could only dream of with no thought to the future. Anyone-layman or not-know that no job is for life, therefore that showed an element of recklessness on your part. You may not think you had an extravagent lifestyle but to spend £3,000 a month sounds pretty extravagent to me (I live on the expensive south where mortgages are highest and have worked as a nurse/midwife/health visitor all my career, so have never had a huge income but still managed to buy a home here and not have a massive mortgage-mine is just over £80,000. We were offered a larger mortgage but decided to lower our sights in case of problems-fortunately, as I developed cancer so my career like yours has been ruined.)

Your story is by no means unusual and no less sad because of that, but it is your debt and yes it's painful to pay it back-I am in debt due to a rogue builder who ruined my home who chose to go bankrupt rather than pay for the court ordered repairs-I had to go into debt myself to put things right, which is a pain especially as I am currently not well enough to work, but that's life. No point being angry and bitter-I want to enjoy my life as I don't know how long I've got, noone does!

You don't say what your second mortgage is for, was that before or after you lost the £3,000 a month job? I can't imagine what anyone would spend £3,000 a month on if they weren't, as you say, spending on holidays, cars etc. Being allowed to only repay £85 a month towards such a massive debt seems a gift to me-and lets face it, these people you owe money to have effectively 'written off' a massive part of your debt, as you point out that the debt can't be repaid in your lifetime! You scoff at offering even a few pounds more towards your debt as you don't see it will benefit YOU-how about it benefiting the people you owe money to? Had the builder who wrecked my home offered even a small payment a month it would have made a difference to me, aand we all pay for unpaid debts through more expensive loans and businesses going belly up through non payment-like my ex whose business went bust because he was owed over £11,000 in total from many small creditors who refuse to repay him.I am paying almost £300 towards my much smaller debt of a round £5,000 and have to manage around that as a single mum. My debt-my problem.

As other people have said, there were solutions to your debt and you chose one of them. That choice means you are unlikely to be debt free in your life time, but on the other hand you may have been offered a different unpleasant solution-years ago people were sent to prison for being in debt like we are, you could have been forced to leave your home but had a choice to stay, to go bankrupt, to accept a payment plan. Maybe things will turn around, you will once again become a high earner and the debt will be snowballed off quickly-it's not outside the realms of possibility so try to look at it as glass half full instead of half empty!

dancingfairy

It's going to depend on how the debts are split between you. As has been said with bankruptcy they are unlikely to want to sell you house if it's got 75k negative equity but the Official Receiver will look at your mortgage and if it's way more than the rent then they are likely to say that it's too much money and you will need to rent.
With your income also I suspect that bankruptcy may preclude you from going bankrupt or perhaps doing an IVA?
Depending on how the debts are split perhaps you wife could go bankrupt only - although you would need to find out how the house would be dealt with?
df

shellyruby

Ronaldo_Mconaldo wrote: »

I've just read this. So the OP hasn't said anything about themself like whether they work, howmmuch they earn, what they owe, how many kids they have etc. Some people get what they deserve, this person doesn't seem to want any help, just to rant. Come back when you're 165 and let us know how it feels to be debt free then.

sorry but that did make me laugh..thanks ronaldo..i needed that lol

Mowgli87

You seem to be having a go at everyone at this board for trying to help you... we're all in the same boat, maybe not all to the same extent of debt - but with the right attitude and information a lot of people here can help you.
You keep moaning about what is wrong with society, but I think you need to take a good hard look in the mirror and realise that its blameless attitudes like yours that is wrong with the country.

How you got into debt is all academic now... You are in a hole and you need to get out. Let people help you and make a positive commitment to this rather than moaning and playing the blame game - thats not going to get you anywhere.

Post a proper statement of affairs (no one here knows you and certainly wont judge your financial circumstances) and then listen and be grateful for the advice you are given. Nobody here HAS to help you, they do it because they empathise and CAN give advice based on real life experience.