My SOA... any advice very much appreciated!

Jonny_Red

Hello all

Thanks for taking the time to read my first post. Any advice that can be offered to would be very much appreciated.

My brief circumstances... I was made redundant back in February this year. I'm back in work now but have had to take an £11k drop in salary in order to do so... as a result my finances have taken a bit of a kicking.

My SOA right now is:

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1131
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1131

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 550
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 97.44
Electricity............................. 22
Gas..................................... 26
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 33.46
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 30
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 54.99
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 173.2
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 90
Road tax................................ 23.33
Car Insurance........................... 39.2
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 5.86
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1187.6


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 1000

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Nationwide Loan................11000.....252.4.....7.9
Nationwide Overdraft…….2000…. ???.??..... 17.43 (1.453% per month)
Capital 1 Credit Card..........1000......30.25.....16.9
Total unsecured debts..........12000.....282.65....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,131
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,187.6
Available for debt repayments........... -56.6
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 282.65
Amount short for making debt repayments. -339.25

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 1,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -12,000
Net Assets.............................. -11,000



I might be able to do some overtime in my new job but this is not guaranteed unfortunately. In the circumstances my plan is to do the following:

a) write to my creditors to explain the situation and make an offer of reduced payments until I can get things sorted out... how much would be reasonable to offer?
b) try to reduce my outgoings where possible.
c) try to find ways of boosting my income (through overtime etc)... should I tell my creditors about this... what should I say?

I've always had a good credit rating and have always (until now) paid my bills and such on time. I don't have any arrears at present but will start accruing them over the next month.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Cheers


Jon

MrsTUS

Ok, first of all, before I even make an attempt at seeing where you could make cuts etc, go to entitledto.co.uk and input your details and see if you're entitled to any help, even a small amount of housing benefit as I see your rent is taking up 50% of your monthly take home wage! Eeeek!

CountingPennies

Didn't wanna read and run so just wanna say someone will be along soon with some fab advice for you i'm sure. How about your Sky package? Can you not reduce that? xx

staffie1

Hi Jon, I think you could trim your groceries down a bit, and also do without cable/sky tv. How do you get internet access...do you have a landline phone line?

MrsTUS

Jonny_Red wrote: »

My SOA right now is:

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1131
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1131

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 550If you can't find a new job, it might be worth seeing if you could a) move somewhere cheaper or b) rent out a spare room(s) you may have...
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 97.44I presume this included single person discount of 25%>
Electricity............................. 22
Gas..................................... 26
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 33.46
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 30Could you change your tariff/provider or go to PAYG - they would be cheaper...
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 54.99Get this taken out and get a freeview/freesat box off Freecycle, thats an immediate saving.. and then see if you can get a cheap telephone/broadband deal
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 173.2We have a monthly grocery spend of £220 for a family of 5, including all household cleaners and nappies/wipes for babies. You can definitely make some savings here. Have a look on the Old Style board on this website or go to https://www.cheap-family-recipes.org for some great cheap meal ideas..
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 90Is this all essential travel i.e. work commute? Do you drive fuel efficiently? Is your car fuel efficient?
Road tax................................ 23.33
Car Insurance........................... 39.2
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 5.86
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0should have something here...
Haircuts................................ 0...and here...
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0need something here..
Total monthly expenses.................. 1187.6


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 1000

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Nationwide Loan................11000.....252.4.....7.9
Nationwide Overdraft…….2000…. ???.??..... 17.43 (1.453% per month)
Capital 1 Credit Card..........1000......30.25.....16.9
Total unsecured debts..........12000.....282.65....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,131
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,187.6
Available for debt repayments........... -56.6
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 282.65
Amount short for making debt repayments. -339.25

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 1,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -12,000
Net Assets.............................. -11,000




Jon

That's what I can see so far... if you can get any overtime in at work, obviously that would be a bonus, or in the meantime applying for jobs with a higher salary.. :]

staffie1

Good post MrsTUS - just one thing - the correct link to that website is https://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk

MrsTUS

staffie1 wrote: »

Good post MrsTUS - just one thing - the correct link to that website is https://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk

Oops, my mistake, sorry :]

dancingfairy

Hi - at the moment you are overspending by approx 56 a month before making any debt repayments. Getting on an even keel or with a small surplus is going to be the first priority for you.
The biggest areas to save/earn more appear to be sky and food for savings and checking if you are entitled to extra benefits or taking in a lodger in terms of increasing income.
Generally you would take your surplus and split it proportionally towards your debts so if you had 10 pounds spare and 1 debt made up 20% of the total debt they would get 20% of your 'spare' 10 pounds etc etc. As it is at the moment though it seems you will have to literally make token payments of 1 pound each and ask them for breathing space for a while.
You may find it helpful to look on National Debtlines website for sample letters or go through a debt charity (CCCS, National Debtline or your localCAB) who can provide that little bit of distance between you and your creditors.
Best of Luck
df

Jonny_Red

Thanks everyone for the helpful advice so far... I'm on with dropping the cable tv and looking into getting a lodger to split some of the household bills a bit. I'm also trying to find ways to get that grocery bill down to a more manageable level (which as has been pointed out should be do-able) and I'm looking into getting a second job doing a bit of taxi driving.

I've looked at some of the websites out there with the template letters to send off to creditors so I'l be making use of those over the next few days. I'm still a bit confused about as to the best way to take things forwards so I'd appreciate any more advice that people could offer... especially with regard to these questions:

a) how do I explain to my creditors about the possibility of overtime? None of its guaranteed but I think I *should* be able to generate at least another £100 per month after tax which I could put towards repayments so long as circumstances at work don't change (I'm worried that if I agree to it up front and then find I'm not able to meet any agreed repayments I'll do even more damage to my credit rating)

b) what actually will happen to my credit record when I approach my creditors and explain I can't meet my current repayments and secondly, is there anything I can begin doing (other than paying off what I owe) to improve my situation?

Thanks in anticipation... have a good weekend all!


Jon