Im new and in debt

skintio

Hi everyone, new to this so forgive me if im posting this in the wrong place or anything...
Well my s.o.a is like this

Incoming

Income support £43 a week
Child tax credit £44 a week
Child benefit £69 a month

Outgoing

Electric £9 a week
Gas £8 a week
Tv licence £5 a week
Nursery fees £6 a week
Home phone £8 a week
MObile £2.50 a week
Sky £2.30 a week
Food shopping Inc toiletries etc £30
Bus fare £3 (have broken it all down to weekly)
Aol internet £3.75 a week

I am a single parent with a four year old daughter.
I live in a council house and get my rent and coucil tax paid, although i do have council tax arrears from a previous time. I pay £11 a week back to social a week for a loan i had off them, this is why i do not get full benefit.
I cannot get any credit and am totally blacklisted.. i have debts going back years to when i was 18, i am now 27.. i have lost track off all the debts that i owe and am at a loss as to where to start... im in debt with banks, store cards, phone companys, internet/tv companies, mobile companys, the water company, council tax arrears, catalogues, etc etc.. and i just dont know where to start. I am also very embaressed by this and would really like to sort it out but just dont know how.
My boyf is very helpfull with money and helps me out, and has persuaded me to try and sort this out.. so round off applause to him :T

Please can anyone help and try and give some pointers to try and sort this mess out.

Many many thanks,
Skintio! x
Ps forgot to add am at college p/t and also pay out for this but in dribs and drabs, so dont know set amount i pay out x

saintly_2

im sure someone better than me will be along soon, but welcome to the forum, these lot can sort u out, they are all absolutely brilliant!!!

skintio

Thanks saintly, i hope so x

Kazonline

Hi Skintio - I'm no expert but as saintly says, they're a great lot on here so I'm sure you'll get excellent advice.
In the meantime you might like to look at the following website and fill in some information (it's anonymous initially anyway).
http://www.cccs.co.uk/
The website is that of a debt management company that are FREE. If you fill in your details it should then produce a booklet with some advice for you. Don't forget to come back and check for more replies on here, and to bump up your question if need be,
Hope that helps for now,
Kaz x

skintio

Thanks Kaz, il have a look now x

chevalier

Hi there
Welcome to the site.
The first thing I would suggest is that you get your credit reports. There are 3 main companies, Experian is one but I don't know the other two. I am sure there will be someone along in a minute. What the credit report will tell you is who you owe money to. However you need your report from all 3 companies as some creditors may only register the debt with one credit record company.

I notice that you said that you have debts going back 9 years? What you may not be aware of is that any debt you have where the creditor has not been in contact with you for more than 6 years, basically the debt can't be collected. So if you have any debts like this, then ignore them for now and concentrate paying off the ones that are more recent.

The most important of these is the council tax. I am assuming from what you said that you have an arrangement to pay these arrears off? The reason being that council tax is one of the very few where you can go to prison for non-payment.

As to the rest, my suggestion is that you give up sky and your mobile phone. From your figures this would free up £20 a month to put to your debt. It isn't much but it would give you some breathing space.

Will the course you are doing put you in a better position to get a job once your child is at school? Best of luck with it if it does!

Hope this helps a little
chev

gallygirl

Hi Skintio!!!! :hello: and welcome!!!!

OK, 4 plans of action:

First, debts. The 1st thing to do is get in touch with experian or another credit ref. agency and get your credit history. Will cost you £2. Once you are in a position to quantify them you can come back to us and get more advice as to your best options.

Secondly, expenditure. You have an income of £103 a week and outgoings of £77.55 so you should have around £25 a week left over..... no, didn't think you did.... You need to keep a record of exactly what you are spending - write it down in a diary. All those 40p bars of chocolate etc add up!

Thirdly, your outgoings. You have not allowed anything for Xmas, birthdays, clothing etc. What about contents insurance? You really should find a few pounds a week for this (see below for tip!). You need to find out exactly what college is costing you and include that. Are you sure you are not entitled to it for free as you are on benefits? The only obvious area for cut backs is the food bill. Go over to moneysaving old style for tips, at a push you could probably cut £10 off. Get used to meal planning and cooking from scratch. If you don't have a slow cooker request one on www.freecycle.org.uk - this is a great site to get unwanted stuff from other people.

Lastly, income. Sign up with:
www.quidco.com - the best site (apart from this!) in the world!!!! You will need a debit card - if you don't have one maybe BF would help? This is where to look for your contents insurance. Lloyds are offering £120 cash back when you take out a policy (£125 with Barclaycard, but they didn't track my purchase so can't recommend them!) I have organised my mum's insurance with this - only cost £55 but still £120 cash back! Before you do something as big as this do a search through 1 of the seach engines like Kelkoo and make sure it tracks, you need to enable cookies etc, quidco site explains it. It takes a few months for the cash to come through - but it does work!

www.pigsback.co.uk - 'points for clicks' site - you will soon have enough points for a £10 Boots voucher etc - this all helps!

Mystery shopping and survey sites - there are other threads on here about this. You could do the mystery shopping easy - and sometimes they want people with young children to visit play centres etc. None of the surveys pay much - but it all adds up.


Good luck! Oh, one more thing - have you been in touch with welfare rights, council etc to make sure you are getting all you are entitled to - e.g. house insulation, which could slash your bills.

skintio

Hi ali007,

Lol at the choc bar thing, so true!

I do get help for college, but we have to buy equipment, im doing beauty therapy, and we have to buy cotton wool, wax, wax strips, manicure equp etc to use at home and its not cheap! and sometimes we have to pay for extra courses that arent included in course but that we need, i.e fake tanning... and yes hopefully this will help in the longterm with money, am in 2nd year will finish june .
I tend to only use my mobile for txts, im with 02 and get 300 txts a month for £10 and still get the £10 to use as cred, and i would be lost wihtout it (rubbish i kno but is mainly how i keep in touch with people),as for home fone, i need it for internet, and my college h.work, i kno its not a neccesity (sp) but i do use it alot for cheap shopping, and banking etc (not that i have much to bank!).
Luckily my boyf has paid for nearly everything for xmas for my little girl and my family , but i got alot on the internet and some really good deals, took advantage off alot off promo codes and 20%off for new customers etc with catalogues, and then did it again in boyf's name, saved loads... am quite good at things like that, have just been burying my head as far as debts are concerned.. I joined rpoints tonite and will make sure i join quidco too! You are right i dont have £25 left over as disposable money, wish i did, like you say it is all the rubbish that i buy that it gets wasted on..
The council have just insulated my house so that is good, and i keep all lights off that we dont need and try and not leave things on standby, am trying to educate my boyf for when he stays over, lol can cause many a row!
I really appreciate your help, i am def going to get hold of my credit reports as i guess this is the only place i can start, and then at least i will know how much i do actually owe..

xx

Hi Chev, thanks for your reply..
Does this mean debts over 6 years old are wiped? If not what happens to them xx

Kazonline

Have you spoken to student services in your college to make sure you are getting all the help you need?
I currently get an Assembly learning grant (for students in Wales) and as I am on income support the college helped to pay for part of my kit. I also get help with my travel expenses - that isn't a lot, but it does help.
You are also entitled to do a small amount of part time work while on Income support, so perhaps you might be able to do a few treatments for friends for a few pounds? Check with your Benefits agency first and see what you can do.
Best wishes,
Kaz

skintio

Hi Kaz,
Yeah i got all my course fees paid for and my kit in the first year, but it is only a one day course and alot of the work is practicing at home which is where the money comes in, i had a loan of off social security to help towards it, but its the little things that add up, like wax strips etc, i do get a discountin sallys beauty supplies but it still costs quite a bit, i did an acrylic nail course with creative nails which was £800 originally but we got it discounted thru the college, still £600 , and to buy things for your kit for that it is unbelievably expensive , so kind of swings in round abouts, you have to spend out for the kit you use at home and dont always make a return doing it on friends and family... especially as not yet qualified and dont want to charge too much... also can be awkward asking friends or family to pay. (maybe i need more balls lol).
i dont qualify for travel as its less than a mile, also one other thing, dont know if theyve done it in wales but we get help from the learner supprt fund for fees etc, theyve virtually stopped this where i live as no funding, most of the help now goes to help pay 16-18 year olds stay on at college , where they get paid for attending, so our funds have been slashed, luckily my daughter gets her free nursery places now, but before it was £30 a day at the college nursery so god knows how other people in my situation can afford it now theyve stopped helping x

Chewbacca_3

You could ask for your loan weekly amount to be reduced, I believe if you can't afford it there is a maximum they can enforce. If you have a bank account and can pay somethigs by DD this can reduce costs of things such as energy, we get £50 a year back from NPower for paying for our electricity and Gas this way. Go to your citizens advice for help in dealing with the companys you owe debt too, they mey be able to help deal with it and take some of the worry away.