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Finally Stopped Burying My Head In The Sand!!
Comments
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If I were you, Id contact the CCCS and get a Debt Management Plan (DMP) arranged. The debts are always yours to pay, but the are like a mediator between you and our creditors, you pay them, and then the ypass it on. These are hard times and by no means are you in the minority in this situation.
I'd second this advice. Get in touch with the CCCS or CAB and let them contact your creditors, they will be taken far more seriously. You need to try and get your interest frozen on your debts or you will just continue to tread water than to actually reduce the balances.0 -
CCCS are great and will help if they can.
If you get phone calls from the creditors, write to them and tell them to deal in writing only - otherwise your parents might get a phone call telling them what is happening.
Open a basic account for your wages and do not keep using your current account if it has an overdraft. You might find that suddenly you no longer have an overdraft or access to any of the money that was in that account!0 -
Hi,
A few random thoughts for you... I'm afraid I'm no expert here, but here's my 2p worth.
First off, £34k debt is substantial and if you can't talk to your parents, I really would suggest you find someone to talk to. Having banks chasing you for money you don't have, making threats about what will happen, etc is not a very nice experience, and having someone to talk to will help you cope with that stress. Whether talking on here helps, or you prefer talking to debt counsellors at the CCCS (http://www.cccs.co.uk/) or National Debt Line (http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/) or wherever, don't be afraid to ask for help when it feels too stressful.
In terms of the debt itself, the interest alone on £34k will be:
£3,400 per year @ 10% interest
£5,100 per year @ 15% interest
£6,800 per year @ 20% interest
£10,200 per year @ 30% interest
(I don't know what level of interest you can reasonably expect to pay. I haven't included any late payment charges, overdraft charges, etc either.)
Your job pays you between £7,176 a year (at 23 hours a week) and £11,544 a year (at 37 hours a week) minus tax, national insurance, etc.
So, once you subtract the debt interest from your annual wage, you're not left with much money to live on, let alone have any spare to start paying off the debts.
As others have said, it sounds as though it would be worth getting someone (CCCS, CAB, or whoever) to help and start negotiating on your behalf. I know you don't want to consider bankruptcy, but the alternative may be having this debt hanging around your neck for years or decades to come. Money is just money, and your parents won't stop loving you for making mistakes. You're only 25 and getting this debt problem solved quickly (and, I admit, possibly painfully) may well leave you in a much better shape to get on with the rest of your life.
However, if you can come up with a long term, realistic plan for paying these debts off, then brilliant.
But what do I know? All I would say is, get some proper advice, because you need to look very seriously at the amount of interest you're paying. Don't underestimate your parents. And keep an eye on your stress levels! If it gets too hard, find someone to have a good rant to.
It sounds like you've taken the first steps and they're very much in the right direction.
Good luck.0 -
Im sorry for you but you have only one sensisble option. You simply must go bankrupt. You will never ever pay off this 34k (and rapidly rising) debt on a carers wages, never mind with student fees on top. Simply put forget your pride and sort your self out now. You will go to uni with no debt and will feel free and happy to do the course. THere is nothing to Stop you. You dont have a house to lose, no dependants to care for only yourself.
You will also probably get to keep your car due it it being an essential tool for your job. With this debt burden weighing you down you will have no chance of completing Uni or having any sort of enjoyable twenties.
In 3 years or so when you graduate college your bankrupcy will be over and you will be halfway to it dropping off your record completely.
When you are 31 you will look back on this chapter and think phew!! Lesson learned, whilst you enjoy your job in social work/care armed with your degree or whatever qualification you have.
Do it now!0 -
laura-19851 wrote: »Just transferred £59.40 from my paypal account (from selling things on ebay). I'll put this into the smallest overdraft account when it comes through. I know I should deal with the largest apr 1st but I would like to get rid of the 2 smaller debts 1st so that overall I have less debts.
I feel worse about all this today as I'm getting all the figures down in black & white but know this is what needs to be done. Need to log off now as I can't think about this anymore
Lx
Use this website to put yourself together a plan as to whether paying off in an interest-first or a balance-first strategy will work out best for you!Pugzy...aka Mike
DFW Nerd #13550 -
Hi Laura
It is HMRC that you need to contact re travel expenses but all you will claim is the tax refund on the mileage so if its cost you £500 in mileage and you have earned £11,000 then you will be able to reclaim back £100. I am not sure how the rules work though for claiming back your mileage presume your employer has told you the rules.
Sorry to hear that you are not able to talk to your parents at least you have people here to chat to! Is it possible to find time to get a part time job perhaps in a pub I used to work in a bar and would allow me to socialise i bit while still earning money. I have never looked into bankrupcy so unable to comment but you have to do whats best for yourself x£10 a day challange Feb 27/435 Jan 530/465
2012 to pay off CC
After snowballing should be debt free by Mar 2016
2011 Target to be overdraft free this year and get debt down!0 -
Havin sat and thought some more about your situation, and reading what moocowone and pugsy have said, I too think that bankruptsy is probably your best route.
Speak to the CCCS now! Dont delay any longer, and dont waste time putting small amounts of money into paying them off.
A plan is needed!0 -
I would also say to consider bankruptcy again, your 25 just now sure you wont get credit for the immediate future, but you wont have this debt hanging over your head
can i also ask what did you spend all that money on - im assuming one of the loans is for a car, why dont you sell the car and get a cheaper one?0 -
I would say that you need free impartial advice from an organisation like CCS / CAP / National Debtline. You can use the CCS online tool immediately and it will suggest what your best course of action is. Of course, only you know what is best for your situation e.g. becoming bankrupt excludes you from certain jobs.
Go on, use the on-line tool!0 -
laura-19851 wrote: »A little bit more about me & my debts:
My wages vary month to month, a bad month would probably be around £600. I don't get travel expenses, I need to claim this back from HMRC next April.
You need to be very careful about this!! You do NOT reclaim travel from HMRC at all - you are allowed tax relief on your mileage.
If in a week you do 27 hrs at £6 per hour, you will earn £162, or £8424 in a year. Over the tax year your personal allowance will be £7475, so you will have a gross taxable income of £949.
If you are doing, say, 40 miles a week to do your job, over a year this would be 2080 miles, and the allowed rate is 45p per mile, so you would get tax relief on £936 of your income. You will therefore only be due to pay tax on £13 for the year! Your tax bill would be £2.60. If your company are taxing you PAYE on your gross rate, you nay be paying £189 over the year, so you would get a tax rebate of £187 at the end of the tax year.
Don't be misled into thinking that you will get all your travel expenses back! An average small car gets about 8 miles to the £1 at the moment, so if you are sepnding £5 a week on petrol for work and expecting to get £260 back it won't happen! Obviously if you do greater mileage than this the sums will be bigger.0
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