Struggling to pay Debt is DMP CCCS the solution

TAB1981

Recently things have become really hard financially for me and my wife , im self employed and my wife had to finish work due to ill health , we have 3 children 2 boys and 1 girl , luckily for me Ive had a bit of saving to use for the past 10 months but ive now got nothing and im working 7 days a week and every hour I can just to scrape through each month and its leaving us with hardly anything to get by on after all the bills and debts are paid , its really taking it out of me and im stressed out and can hardly sleep at night with worry , we have never ever missed a payment on any loan or credit card so our credit score is okay its just that we have took too much on and now things have changed its difficult

at present we pay £1,328.79 a month , this is just on loans and credit cards , we can only afford to pay the minimal payments on the credit cards which is only really paying the interest , here is a list of our loans and credit cards :

Lloyds TSB credit cards ( 2 separate cards one in my name and the other in my wifes )
£7,512.00 ( minimum payment is £151 a month )
£3,155.00 ( minimum payment is £112 a month )

Lloyds TSB Loans ( 2 separate loans one in my name and the other in my wifes )

£8,063.00 ( ends 2nd March 2013 ) £369.40 a month
£5,524.00 ( ends May 2013 ) £280.00 a month

Northern Rock loans ( 3 separate loans 1 joint names , 1 in my name and the other in my wifes name )

£13,538.14 ( 5 years remaining ) £229.46 a month
£5,563.03 ( 6 years remaining ) £ 77.93 a month
£7,321.76 ( 5 1/2 years remaining ) £109.00 a month

All our loans are unsecured

Our Mortgage is £511 a month and then we have our other household bills etc

I honestly thought work would get better and we could carry on chipping away at our debts but its not going to happen , im fed up of ringing Lloyds and Northern Rock to see if they can change some things and help us but they always say there is nothing they can do , Ive not used our credit cards now for about 18 months

I know we have took too much on and im not asking for the debts to be cleared I would just like a way to make things easier for me to pay the debt back

I called CCCS DMP this morning and they have arranged a meeting with me in the next few weeks

Is there anything else I could do to help matters in the meantime , or can anyone give me some good advice

Tixy

Hi and welcome

Good call in contacting CCCS and hopefully when you have a phone meeting and go through all your figures etc they can help advise you for the best. One thing that you might want to work on in the meantime is looking at all your none debt outgoings and seeing if there are areas you can get things cheaper, save money or cutback. This should give you a little extra breathing space whether or not you go on a DMP. So things like checking your utilities are the cheapst supplier/best tariff and your phone/broadband deal and insurance etc.
If you are struggling to find areas you might be able to reduce it might be worth posting a statement of affairs on here to see if others can spot things you haven't noticed.

Another thing some people find really helpful is to start a spending diary for everything (even tiny spends on a newspaper or lottery ticket etc) this sometimes helps uncover things you didn't realise you were spending so much on.

tigerfeet2006

Hi and welcome to the forums.

You would probably be better off posting on the Debtfree Wanabe board than the Bankruptcy board.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=76

They will probably ask you to do a SoA. Here is the template to use.

http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

fermi

tigerfeet2006 wrote: »

Hi and welcome to the forums.

You would probably be better off posting on the Debtfree Wanabe board than the Bankruptcy board.

Merged with the thread already there.

eyeopener2

Hi

Just had a look at your other post and I see you have 'buy to lets'. Could you sell them and clear the debts? A bit simplistic I know but you will need to consider all options.

As is said above, post up your statement of affairs, you'd be amazed at how giving yourself a realistic budget can help.

Good luck

E2

TAB1981

I posted that for my wifes brother , he wasn't registered on the forum so I posted it on for him

TAB1981

Just had my appointment with CCCS and they've put me on a DMP , if everything goes to plan with my creditors Ill be paying £636 a month for the next 6 and half years then ill be debt free , just got to get everything sorted over the next week or two , this has taken a huge weight of my shoulders I just hope everything now goes to plan.

Thanks for all the help and information , dont know what id of done without this forum

Tixy

Good news TAB - hope your DMP goes well for you.

Debtfreee

Hi, speaking from experience CCCS are definitely the way to go, they have really helped me and I would recommend them to anyone.

Good luck!

Mrs_Arcanum

Don't forget to get your basic bank account sorted before you let your creditors know you are on a DMP. Your bank might take any money to pay debts you have with them.

Well done and don't forget to allow for emergencies within your budget.

TAB1981

Mrs_Arcanum wrote: »

Don't forget to get your basic bank account sorted before you let your creditors know you are on a DMP. Your bank might take any money to pay debts you have with them.

Well done and don't forget to allow for emergencies within your budget.

Thanks im going to call into a bank tomorrow and open a new account for my DMP , then I just need to swap my Direct debits over