I think I have had my 'lightbulb moment'!

CLAPTON

a bankrupt can't be a certified accountant but in general there is no restriction for those entering an IVA or DMP.

a DMP trashes your credit record as you are defaulting on your debts... some landlords/letting agents will carry out credit checks so it may be difficult to get rented accommodation ... are both you and OH is the same financial situation?

and yes do post a full SoA...include the value of your property and how much the mortgage and secured loans and general details of OH, children etc

nicnox

Yes I'm afraid that we are both in this mess together....Just to put in context we own a house, but had to move for work. As we could not afford to buy in the new city and we had only been in the house 10months we decided to rent out our house and then rent an apartment...

Ok here it is...quite scary I am afraid:

Net Monthly Income:
Husband £2,050
Me £1590 (this is net of company car)
Rental Income £617 (net of mgt charges, gross rental income £700)
TOTAL income = £4,257

Monthly Expenditure:
Mortgage £765
Rent £750
Council tax £161
Home Insurance - contents and buildings £55
TV License £12
Husband's law course £378 (he is doing part time LPC, till July 07))
Critical illness and life insurance £78
Electricity (estimate) £30
Water rates (estimate) £20
Telephone £38 (direct debit with BT, this is the lowest they'll allow)
Petrol £170
Food £300
Vodafone £70 (2x £35 contracts,have tried to reduce but we have to wait till Feb)
Gym for both £104 (Esporta, think we signed up for a year - till next June)
Lottery £18
Student loan £126
Natwest Loan £377 (unsecured)
Total expenditure excl. credit cards = £3,452


Outstanding credit card debt:
Tesco card £3,156
M&S More £3,352
2 x Natwest £12,726
Capital One £3,815
HSBC Bank £4,507
MBNA £5,176
2 x Egg £13,993
(the minimum payments on these are approx. £1,000 - 1,300 per month)

Outstanding Loan Balances:
Natwest Loan £23,386
Student loan (approx) £2,500

Overdraft: £3,000

Total Debt = £75,611

House value - c£175k
Outstanding mortage -£152k

There is no reason why our landlord should do another credit check on us, but I am afraid if we enter a debt management programme and he decided to sell up, then we would end up homeless!!

I don't feel like we have any other options, we have tried secure loans, non-secured loans, balance transfers....we are really at the end of our tether and I don't see how we can avoid wrecking our credit history with entering into a dmp....as lets face it, it isn't going to be good anyhow from now on....

We have been really terrible (till now) at sticking to a budget, saying no to ourselves and consistently overspend evey month (by somehwat more than the £195 above)....somehow in the last 3 months we have managed not to put any further transactions on our credit cards. BUT now the problem is that the interest we are paying is probably more than half the repayments and we can't switch the balances to 0% because of the transfer fees now in place!! It has been building up over time but I feel like we have tipped ourselves over the edge by living in denial.

We are currently up to date with payments, but we won't be able to manage much longer....

Any help would be appreciated!:eek: