A bit of help guidance please!

sjf1001

Hi guys,

I really need help but I just don't know where to start.. Basically, I have debts which are just getting ridiculous. I have about £2500 overall, about £550 on a lloyds credit card, £550 on a Vanquis card. £250 on a Capital one card. (Cougar Financial have started hounding me for that.) & on top of that, I have 5 payday loans outstanding amounting to nearly £1000.

I am really struggling to keep my head above water, & don't know where to turn.

Thanks guys!

SJF

shezam

Hi sfj1001.

I'm no expert but I believe the very helpfull people of this thread will ask you to fill in and post a S.O.A (Statement of Affairs)

This will detail all spends and interest rates and then people can advise you on how to cut your spending and what to start paying off first.

Good luck xxx

P.S: There is a sticky at the top of the page with a link to S.O.A

Tixy

Hi sjf

As said above the first useful thing would be to work out a statement of affairs of your income & outgoings and see how much you can afford to put towards your debts each month. If you have payday loans that you are not going to be able to afford to service then you also need to open a new bank account with a bank you don't owe any money to, and different from the bank you have your current account with. Then make sure your salary or income is being paid into the new account.

This is the link to the form we use http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

Once we see that we can help you come up with an action plan.

sjf1001

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household.........
Number of cars owned....................

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 960
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 960

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 130
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 0
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 40
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 50
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 25
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 20
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 265


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 0

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Lloyds TSB Credit car..........550.......0.........0
Vanquis Card...................550.......0.........0
Capital One Card...............260.......0.........0
Wageday Advance................350.......0.........0
247Moneybox....................100.......0.........0
Paydayuk.......................240.......0.........0
Quick Quid.....................300.......0.........0
Lloyds Overdraft...............250.......0.........0
Wonga.com......................500.......0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........3100......0.........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 960
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 265
Available for debt repayments........... 695
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 695

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -3,100
Net Assets.............................. -3,100

Tixy

Are you up to date with the credit card minimum payments?

What was the money from the payday loans spent on? (its helpful to understand where it has gone as it looks like you have over £600 spare a month).

How long have you had the pdls? how much it is costing to roll/extend them each month. If you really have 600 spare each month after paying your cc bills then you should be able to get out of this without defaulting on the agreements and trashing your file further by instead just repaying 1 or 2 each month and extending the others. If you coudl do this you could be clear of them in 4months.

If you don't have the £600 spare each month then you need to work out why and what is not included on your statement of affairs outgoings.

sjf1001

No, I'm not, I've defaulted on the cards the last few months. & I am extending the PDL's each month at a cost of about £60 each. I basically took them out because at the time, I was living with my girlfriend & we were struggling to make ends meet, & I (naively) thought that it would be the answer.

Tixy

If the cards are defaulted then you could write to them all and just offer a token payment of £5 each to them all whilst you focus on the pdls. A token payment instead of nothing reduces the chances of them taking you to court.

That should leave you with over £650 for the pdls this month, if rolling over 4 of them costs you say £240 then you should have over £400 to use to pay one off this month.

The other option would be to open a new bank account, default on everything, contact a debt charity and consider setting up a Debt management plan (DMP). But given your level of debt its probably unlikely they would actually run a DMP for you (usually needs to be £5k minimum) so they would probably only give you template letters and guidance on how to run your DMP yourself.

sjf1001

Okay, that makes sense. I have opened up another bank account to "take the power back" if you will. Is there some sort of service that can help me / merge it into one monthly payment?

Tixy

Not really to merge it into a single payment - a DMP would do this where you would pay them a monthly payment that they then split between your creditors, but you usually need to owe at least £5k for a charity to run a DMP for you. And definitely don't consider a DMP with a commercial company - as they will charge you a lot in fees for very little.

Even though they probably won't run a DMP for you, you could certainly still contact one of the charities for some advice on dealing with your debts. See the charities detailed on this link IMPORTANT - Where to seek professional impartial advice about your debts.