Help - feeling trapped

dubgirl

Hi everyone, I am new to the site and the forum, but so far I think it is great and already found some extremely useful advice and it is nice to see that everyone is so supportive about an issue which is still considered taboo by some people. In brief, here is my story, by the end of 2004 I found myself in debt to the tune of over £40,000. For a long time I had acted like an ostrich and tried to ignore the problem, whilst merrily still spending. Eventually I did admit to the debt and my then new partner was the first person I told. We are still together and he has been very supportive.

With his support, I contacted CCCCS. I found the whole process of admitting and 'owning' up to the debt to be very difficult process, but freeing at the same time. The monthly repayment that is arranged with CCCS is £54 and here is my problem. I felt trapped by my debt and whilst I should now feel happy that it is no longer keeping me awake at night and getting me down, I now feel trapped that at £54 a month, it is going to take forever or at least my life time (that is what CCCS told me) to pay off the debt. At the moment, I have zero credit rating and it is starting to get me down that I will never get any credit and never be debt free. For sure, I dont want more debt, but it would be nice to have a debit card in my purse and feel that if I wanted to order something of the net, I could do, rather than rely on others. I'm sorry if I sound miserable - any advice would be gratefully received.

rog2

First of all dg - welcome to DFW and well done for having the courage to deal with your debt.
I know it seems as if it will never end, but it WILL improve.
You could get a basic bank account with 'VISA ELECTRON' at the cooperative.

yung

Welcome to the forum, coming here is sometime very daunting but knowing that you are not on your own make it a bit easy, so do not despair there is lots of helps and advices from folks who has been in the same situation as yourself. it will bevery helpful if you can post an S.O.A look here for example:http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=107280

good luck

sheryldoc

Wont they allow you to pay a higher amount therefore clearing it faster if you found yourself in a better position to do so?

Verbatim

Welcome from me too db.

If you post a list of your incomings and outgoings (SOA) the good peeps here will no doubt offer many helpful suggestions on where to get the best deals to bring down your outgoings.

dubgirl

thanks for your replies. Here is a brief SOA - hopefully it is all there.

Incoming salaries 2699
benefits 232
Total 2931

Outgoings 2630
this includes the £54 to CCCS each month, as well as food, petrol etc.

debts as follows as of beginning of December
Loan 1 18169.65
Loan 2 17627.10
CC 1 978.61
CC 2 3247.41
O'draft 680.98

total 40703.75

I can see that I could pay more each month to CCCS, but it never seems to work out the same way in the bank account and day to day as it does on paper.

tobedifferent

If its not working out the same on paper it means your money is being taken up elsewhere. You should start a spend diary and not down every purchase. I didn't count money withdrawn from the ATM but I did count everything I spent it on. Its an illuminating experience! Tot up those small daily spends over a year and its suddenly a serious issue.

Also, for your SOA can we see a complete breakdown of what your outgoings are?

Hugs

TBD

dubgirl

Thanks for the reply - a spending diary sounds a good idea. I am one for withdrawing small amounts of cash from the hole in the wall at times, probably without thinking how this will all mount up. I will get my OH to join in with the diary as well.

HeadInSand_2

You can get pre-pay "credit" cards nowadays, you load £xx on to them and then you can use them as any other Visa card, perfect for buying online etc independently if you can't get a debit card.