Don't know what to do :(

mojojojo25

Hello All,

Sorry if this sounds like a ramble!

I am 26 years old and my debts have gotten completely out of control. I started getting in trouble straight away pretty much, my relationship with my parents was bad and I moved out when I was 16, barely able to survive and working at tesco's for every available hour to pay rent and stay on top of things. As soon as I was able to get credit I did, and I don't really think I fully understood the consequences at that point. To cut a long story short, my credit has been bad since then, ranging from outstanding mobile phone bills to small credit card debts, thankfully nobody was ever dumb enough to lend me a huge amount of money, so although I have lots of debts, there is no individual debt over £1,000 in value.

I'd say my total debts are under £5,000 but they are the worst imaginable debts going, payday loans (several) a credit card and some old mobile phone bills.

I managed to work my way up the job ladder over the years in insurance and ended up on a £23,000 annual salary job a few years ago. Theats when i decided to try and sort my debts out, because I knew I would have the money to do so. I paid offa few of the old phone bills, credit cards etc and then I was made redundant last year just outside the cut off period for any pay.

I tried desperately to find work for 7 months and didnt claim any benefits for the first 3 months as I'd hoped to get back on my feet pretty quickly and I had some pretty good qualifications by then. It took my sevn months to find work (and that was a job in itself) and in the end I got very desperate and went to work for a payday loan company) paying £7 an hour and paying weekly. I set up payment plans immeadiately for the debts I had outstanding, especially as one was threatening court action for the first time (safeloans limited). Some of my debts were very old and they had never threatened court before but it only took safeloans 4 months of waiting and someone was at my door with a court letter.

Anyway I paid them continously up until march this year where I am now back in full time monthly work but my salary has taken a huge drop from what I was earning before - a £9,000 drop to be precise(simply because the jobs arent there I am qualified and able) and now I'm barely able to manage my bills and overdraft let alone pay them - as I have the worst kind of creditors (payday loans mainly) they arent the nicest bunch to talk to and the APR is awful but I realise this is my own mistake.

I live by myself, pay £400 rent a month and all bills, I have to have a car to drive to work and back and the insurance alone is £170 monthly because I couldnt afford a deposit to get normal insurance (admiral offer me £750 premium but I'd have to pay in full) my bank wants £140 a month for the next 4 months to clear my over my overdraft limit (the charges on this have been crippling me every month) and I'm just so messed up about it all that my mind is just a blur.

What I really want is a total fresh start. I would like to get a proper loan, at a proper APR with decent monthly repayments that I know I can afford (this would cover my debt, my insurance for a year) but I know that is not an option as my credit score is about as low as you can get. I paid my payday loan before any court action every came about but I couldnt do it in the 30 days (I was about a week late) - so they gave me a ccj anyway.

I need some advice. I want to build my credit not make it worse and I have taken out a pre paid credit card to get this started. I make my payments every month to my bank so this also looks good but other than that I'm scattered with defaults and numerous searches for when I have been desperate for money.

Please can someone advise me what to do next - I am completely ready to clear all my debts but ideally I dont want a dmp on my credit file.

Any ideas??

Thank you (please dont judge me, I know I've been an idiot and dont need to be reminded)

throughtherain

Nobody here will think you're an idiot. Quite the opposite - it's scary to sit down and tackle debts and many of us have been there. All I can say is that there ARE options out there for you to manage your money better, and people here will give you lots of advice. However they need more info in order to do so. Look at the sticky at the top of the first page on the Debt-Free Wannabe board to complete a Statement of Affairs (SOA) - this will give us info about your income, outgoings and debts and we can better advise you. Sitting down and writing this and making a list of all your debts is VERY refreshing as it doesn't matter how bad it is, at least you know now and can start tackling it.

DNW_2

I'm still fairly new to all this myself so can't offer much advice, but you certainly won't get me (or anyone else I'd hope) calling you an idiot or judging you - the huge majority of us are here for exactly the same reason.

Just one quick question though if you don't mind me asking - if your credit report has CCJ & late payments on it, why would you shy away from DMP? How old is the CCJ?

The one piece of advice I wish I'd taken several years ago is that consolidation is rarely the answer unless you have really learnt from past financial experiences and know 100% that you won't end up in the same/worse position 2 or 3 years down the line with payments still being made on the consolidation loan and new spending getting out of control on credit cards etc - this is what happened to us a couple of times over and it's taken us until our debts were completely out of control for the reality of what we'd done wrong with every consolidation loan (incl remortgaging ) we'd taken.

As throughtherain says - post up a SOA http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html so you can really sit down and start working this through.

Good luck

desperate+determined

HI mojo,

Well done on joining and trying to sort this out. Reading this reminds me of me a bit. (although i had a lot more debt)

1st you need to put on your SOA its on a sticky or in link in previous post.

Once thats up we can advise you better.

It is hard and at time very tough, but also very rewarding when Debt Free (i hit debt free last month) So if i can do it any one can

Everyone on here is really kind, clever and helpful. And when things get low, we're here to pick you up and spur you on. ITs amazing what you learn along the way.

Good luck x