Time to stop being stupid

krillarbran

Hi everyone, I am newish here (have posted a couple of years back but not since). Just making a post here to detail my situation and what I plan to do to get me out of the dangerzone and I will post subsequent updates as the situation changes.

I am a 24yo single male who lives in a council flat. I have been unemployed for 8months. I have stupidly put myself into debt with multiple payday lenders and a credit card even though I have been on JSA for some time. I understand it was stupid and all my fault but wish to get out of my silly mess.
My debt is currently small (though large compared to my benefit income) but has the potential to spiral out of control. I wish to get out of this mess asap, as do probably all of us, as it is slowly taking my depression to a whole new level.

Currently, I owe £995. This also includes the contract cancellation fee I will incur from Virgin Media, who is my ISP, once I close my account (tomorrow). Here is a summary of my monthly income and what I owe.

Income:

JSA - £188.88
(thats it :S)

Debt:

Vanquis Credit Card - £525
Wonga.com Payday - £45 (inc. finance fee)
Payday Express - £120 (inc. finance fee)
Minicredit Payday - £100 (inc. finance fee)
Quickquid Payday - £65 (inc. finance fee)
Virgin Media - £140

In regards to the payday lenders, I do not know what will happen once I default, I have never defaulted on this type of loan before. Some I can setup a payplan with and others do not have that option in the contracts, so I will have to deal with that when the time comes. I know I signed a contract with them but can anyone tell me please wether they have got payday lenders to freeze interest so you could pay them back what you originally owed over time? I hope someone here was able to. Any suggestions or advice on what I can or should do with this issue would be greatly appreciated.

After adjusting and relooking at my budget (gave up smoking two days ago :T) I have £38.88 to spare which will go towards paying my creditors (£6.30 each).

I have contacted Payplan for help and they have given me a reference number and phone number I can ring for more advice in the future.

Well this is my "getoutofmessasap" story so far. As I said before, any advice is appreciated and I hope my subsequent posts will help anyone else in similar trouble in the future.

Many thanks for reading ^^

Phelpsie001

Good luck!!

You have done the right thing with getting them in hand before they got too large!!

Payday loans seem like horrible beasts? Never used them but they just seem really sinister...

All the best

krillarbran

Cancelled my Virgin Media contract today, just asked for the bill to be posted to me, no hassle. Things are slowly going to plan... I hope. TY Phelpsie for your GL post. Most appreciated. I worked out that on one of my loans with no repay plan option in the contract that after 1 month into defaulting, I would owe them £650 on top of the £100 I borrowed. They are beastly traps. Yes I did abuse them but in the end, they are banned in certain countries/US states for a reason.

415SanFran

Have you got a local credit union?
You could perhaps get a loan from them that is much more manageable to pay these lot off.
Their interest rate is something really low like 2%.

krillarbran

The last time I tried to join my local credit union, they required from me proof of identity, this could be either drivers license or passport only. Unfortunately I have neither . Seeing this was 3 years ago I will give them another ring to see what they say. Thank you for your advice as I forgot about that.

Edit: OHHH. Benefit books are accepted as proof of identity. I will give them a call now and see what they say.

Edit2: They are currently closed. But I will definitely go visit the local credit union in the next few days (requires £2 to join, I literally have no cash until Saturday) to join. Looking forward to it and I hope they can help me.

415SanFran

Might also be a good idea to take along your rent book, or proof of address