Pregnancy and Debt

LittleBottle

Hi, I am pregnant, working full time and due in January, during maternity leave I will obviously be paid a reduced rate and after that I will need to work part time hours for childcare reasons.

The problem is that I have outstanding credit card debt to the tune of £8000 and a loan for £11000. I can afford to meet the (minimum) payments at the moment without too much worry but obviously this will all change in January.

Do I need to be contacting the lenders now or wait until January?
Will I need to go onto a DMP or something else? I really don;t know where to start.

I'm fretting that all this is looming on the horizon but obviously it will need to be dealt with, I'm just not sure how. This is my first pregnancy and the first time I've faced the possibility of not being able to make payments.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

abby1234519

LittleBottle wrote: »

Hi, I am pregnant, working full time and due in January, during maternity leave I will obviously be paid a reduced rate and after that I will need to work part time hours for childcare reasons.

The problem is that I have outstanding credit card debt to the tune of £8000 and a loan for £11000. I can afford to meet the (minimum) payments at the moment without too much worry but obviously this will all change in January.

Do I need to be contacting the lenders now or wait until January?
Will I need to go onto a DMP or something else? I really don;t know where to start.

I'm fretting that all this is looming on the horizon but obviously it will need to be dealt with, I'm just not sure how. This is my first pregnancy and the first time I've faced the possibility of not being able to make payments.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I personally would contact them now via letter (make sure you have proof they get it) as that way they can never come back at you and say that you weren't trying to be a good customer!

McKneff

What about your OH, can he help you out with your debt problems.

sarah1111

Hey LB,
Welcome and well done on your forward thinking!! First things first Do an SOA (incomings outgoings) and post them, people will hopefully be able to help you make saving. Also, you may find none of your creditors will be interested until you start missing payments etc. Unless they issue you with another loan over a longer term, but remember YOU WILL BE PAYING BACK MORE IN THE LONG RUN!!!

Are you in England/Wales or Scotland? Just wondering because legislation is slightly different depending on where you are.

Is there anyway you can put aside some money before your bambino is born to help tide you over?

Also definitely speak to the professionals, National Debt helpline, CAB or CCCS to talk though your options, they are free and amazing at putting things in perspective.


oh and almost forgot CONGRATULATIONS.xxxxx

LittleBottle

Sorry should have put those in for info. Thanks for all the responses (and the congrats!)

My current incoming is approx £1k per month, this covers all of our bills then we live off my OH's income. Unfortunately he has been out of work for a little while so we have no buffer at the moment and have literally been meeting payments then scraping grocery together. He starts a new job this month and we're hoping this will bring in about the same as my wage. Due to outgoings my OH has this would leave us about £100 excess per month which will be able to go towards paying above the minimum but of course when my wage is under half of the current from January he will need to pick up the slack.
We are hoping to sell our property but this is not going to be a help as current mortgage is £400 p/m and rent for a two bed will be considerably higher so extra charges to cover.

This is where I'm unsure what to do as I'm not actually in dire straits at the moment but I can certainly see that beginning in January as our total monthly income will be about £1500.

dancingfairy

It might be worth doing 2 SOA's 1 for now with a list of what needs to be bought/obtained before the little one is due and one for when you are on maternity leave in January - you may find that you are able to claim certain benefits in January - worth a look - have a look on entitled to website or there's a benefit checker on here somewhere.
January is 5 months away so maybe if you have some slack at the moment you can really try and get the debt down so it's more manageable?
If you post up the 2 SOA's it will be a lot clearer but it seems like you are saying that from January you will have 500 to put towards debts - if your living expenses are 1000 a month - how far short of the minimums does that leave you?
Are there any cutbacks you can make now to get that debt paid down?
df