Lightbulb moment! But which to deal with first?

lush_bucket

Hi guys,

I regulary read this forum and finally decided its time to stop reading and start acting. My partner and I have the following debts mostly accrued by me I might add. We are expecting our first baby next month so this lightbulb moment has come a little late but better late than never.. right? I will list the debts and then hopefully you might help me work out which is the one to tackle first, I'd be ever so grateful of any advice! And just to let you guys know I can't borrow as I have a hideous credit record. I now have a basic bank account with no overdraft or chequebook - attempting to avoid temptation.

Lloyds Tsb - £1550 (My main disaster debt. This is a current account that is still open but that I no longer use. It's a nightmare, the agreed overdraft is 862. Each month they add almost £300 of charges on it. I have cancelled all direct debits on it. But need to get them to close the account and work out a repayment plan.

Council Tax Arrears - £700. (Currently recieving baliff letters about this. They will accept installments but are going to add £50 on for someone to come and visit us to discuss it.)

Old Council tax bill for previous address - £208.60. (Recieved an attatchment of earnings order for this.)

Next Directory - £572.73 - (CCJ received ordering 4 x £125 monthly) installments

WELCOME FINANCE LOAN - £2090 (PAYING £112 MONTHLY - 1 MONTH BEHIND)

Housing benefit overpayment - £528.43 (Currently with Philips debt collection agency - paying an agreed £10 a week)

Additions catalogue - £436.81 ( Credit limit of £500 only ever pay the minimum)

Choice Catalogue - £1054 (Credit Limit of £1800 again only make minimum payments)

NTL - £98

Thames Water - £128

Simply be - £62 (Credit limit - £200)

Vanquis - £250 (apr 39.9%)

Our income - (appreciate it's low) My maternity wages - £450.00, Partners Wages - £670, Working tax credit - £180.

We also make a little extra from mystery shoping and ebaying. Approx £60 pcm from mystery shopping and £70 from ebaying.

When the baby is born we will recieve a maternity grant of £500 which we intend to use to pay one or part of some debts as we already have the things we need for the baby. Hopefully your advice would help us decide which to pay.

Our monthly outgoings not including debts
Rent:545.00
C/tax:100.00 (which we havent been paying hence the debt)
Gas:£35
Electricity:£35
Water:£20 (again we hadnt been paying)
NTL - £30 + £12 calls(tv.phone.broadband)
Car insurance - £40
Petrol - £20
Bus Fare - £30
Food - £130
Mobiles - £20


Car Tax £110 Due end of feb
Tv Licence £128 approx due start of March

Thanks for reading. All advice welcomed! I am a self confessed former shopaholic which is how the debt accrued mostly. My partner however, he has a good credit record. And I would hate for my actions to impair his rating, so need to get this sorted now!

Thanks in advance.

Annie_Fanny

Welcome to MSE!

My advice to you is to get onto one of the following debt charities first thing tomorrow morning as they will be able to give you excellent free advice. You have some very serious debt issues here i.e. non-payment of council tax and you need to nip this in the bud before your child arrives:

Consumer Credit Counselling Service (aka CCCS)
Wade House
Merrion Centre
Leeds
LS2 8NG
Tel: 0800 138 1111
http://www.cccs.co.uk/

Payplan
Kempton House
Dysart Road
Grantham
Lincolnshire
NG31 7LE
Tel: 0800 917 7823
http://www.payplan.com/


You say:

"Lloyds Tsb - £1500 (My main disaster debt. This is a current account that is still open but that I no longer use. It's a nightmare, the agreed overdraft is 1300. Each month they add almost £300 of charges on it. I have cancelled all direct debits on it. But need to get them to close the account and work out a repayment plan."

You need to start reclaiming these horrific bank charges as soon as possible. Have a look at https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk for everything you need to know.

Sorry that my reply is brief but I hope it is of some help to you.

Good luck!

Annie

lush_bucket

Thankyou annie. I will get on to them asap. With regard to the bank charges, I have paid £1600 to Lloyds in charges this last financial year alone. I have drafted my letters to them about the charges as without these I wouldnt even be in debt with them. I'm just nervous as i know that they are now forcing people to take it to court to get them back and with a newborn that could be very stressful for me. Thankyou so much for reading and I will take your advice.

lynsayjane

hiya, welcome to the site!

firstly congratulations on having your lbm, it's the first step!

just saw your post about the bank charges, i felt exactly the same but this week i got just over 800 back from hbos. yes i had to start court proceedings, but they caved before it got that far. go for it, they will give you the money back.

there doesnt seem to be much you can save on with your soa, but you haven't included things like going out, birthdays, clothes etc

Annie_Fanny

lush_bucket wrote:

Thankyou annie. I will get on to them asap. With regard to the bank charges, I have paid £1600 to Lloyds in charges this last financial year alone. I have drafted my letters to them about the charges as without these I wouldnt even be in debt with them. I'm just nervous as i know that they are now forcing people to take it to court to get them back and with a newborn that could be very stressful for me. Thankyou so much for reading and I will take your advice.

Do you know that you can claim back 6 years worth of charges? Please don't worry about the banks (scumbags). Have a look at some of the threads on this site about reclaiming charges. There is heaps of support to be found!

Glad I could be of help Lush. Just try and take one step a day to gaining control of your finances and you will find yourself in a much stronger position in no time at all.

Please report back when you speak to the debt charities.

Wishing you well!

Annie

lush_bucket

lynsayjane wrote:

hiya, welcome to the site!

firstly congratulations on having your lbm, it's the first step!

just saw your post about the bank charges, i felt exactly the same but this week i got just over 800 back from hbos. yes i had to start court proceedings, but they caved before it got that far. go for it, they will give you the money back.

there doesnt seem to be much you can save on with your soa, but you haven't included things like going out, birthdays, clothes etc

Hi Lynsay

Well done on getting your money back. I am now on maternity leave so I guess it would give me something to focus on. Your right, I havent included going out, clothes, ect i guess I hadnt thought of those because being preggars I havent been out socially, where we have had to pay in months! And I refused point blank to waste money on maternity clothes. So have just kept wearing my normal clothes and thanking god that longer tops are currently in fashion! I avoid clothes shops like the plague because I adore fashion and find it very difficult to look and not buy! Luckily we have no birthdays to cough up for, for a while and I tend to get pressies from my work where I get good discount or from my partners work. He works for asda so again the discount is a godsend.
If I can get the bank charges back that would clear my Lloyds account. And a huge chunk of the debt.

nomoneytoday

Is it possible to move somewhere cheaper and dump the mobile phone?

lush_bucket

nomoneytoday wrote:

Is it possible to move somewhere cheaper and dump the mobile phone?

Our house is a pretty low rent for the area, I have looked into housing associations but we just dont meet the criteria. The council say we are overaccomodated because we have two bedrooms so we are uneligible for housing benefit. In 6 weeks there will be three of us living under one roof so how they justify saying this I dont know. Esp as my other halfs mum earns what we do put together and yet the council gave her a two bed flat just for herself! (Can you tell that makes me mad lol!) I intend to reapply for help with our rent when the little one is here. With regards to the mobiles, they are both pay as you go on o2. We top them up by ten pound a month and get 300 free texts for doing so. Its not really realistic to get rid of them at the moment with the baby on the way, we need to get hold of each other incase of an emergency. We are thinking of switching to a network where we can top up from £5 in one go but then this would mean paying to get our phones unlocked.

lynsayjane

lush_bucket wrote:

Hi Lynsay
If I can get the bank charges back that would clear my Lloyds account. And a huge chunk of the debt.

then what are you waiting for my dear?

i sent my letter for statements in august and got the money in january, so it does take time, but i was held up due to the ability of royal mail to lose registered letters :rolleyes: but still, if your strict with your deadlines, ie send the next letter the day the banks deadline runs out it should go through much quicker. and DO NOT settle for any lower offer they make, push for the whole thing. i was tempted but would have gotten half of what i did eventually get due to getting the interest too!

lush_bucket

lynsayjane wrote:

then what are you waiting for my dear?

i sent my letter for statements in august and got the money in january, so it does take time, but i was held up due to the ability of royal mail to lose registered letters :rolleyes: but still, if your strict with your deadlines, ie send the next letter the day the banks deadline runs out it should go through much quicker. and DO NOT settle for any lower offer they make, push for the whole thing. i was tempted but would have gotten half of what i did eventually get due to getting the interest too!

Waiting to get off my bum and do it.. did I neglect to mention that I am very very lazy? But I will print the letters out and mail them tomorrow along with the thankyou card to my aunt for my birthday present she sent in October! Yes I really am that bad! And will keep you guys posted as to the responses.. From Lloyds.. not my aunt .. obviously!

Hannah111

Just wanted to say well done on posting on here.... i too have got myself into some debt due to being a shopoholic, but now if i get a catalogue i throw it away, i dont even look cuz i know i could just fall back into it and ruin all my hard work. The guys on here are all really helpful and encouraging, it gave me the well earned kick up the backside!!!

Good luck!!