Help And Support

purplelaurel

HI

I'm new to the chat room and just wanting to talk really. Over the last 8 years since being together my husband and I have got ourselves into a real financial mess, we have unsecured lending of £86k not sure how this happened just overspending, kids and sticking our heads in the sand I guess. Anyway to cut a long story short we got into the last 6 months of using credit cards to pay for general living expenses as when paying all monthly amounts to creditors had nothing left. Just before Christmas we were at the final stage of managing to rob peter to pay paul and knew that with 2 kids under 4 we needed to deal with this. You just feel so embarrased and ashamed we have got into such a mess.

I called National Debtline last week after looking on CAB website and after holding for what seemed like days spoke to someone, our options seem to be dealing with it ourselves, a DMP or IVA, we worked out personal budget as advised and have just over £100 at end of month to pay 10 creditors! I think a DMP is a good option as I've read an IVA they can force you to sell your house? How does an DMP work? If we are only paying £118 a month off a debt of £86k we will never pay it off, I don't understand it all?

Can anyone advise, how likely are creditors to agree to such low repayments? Are there ones who are particulary difficult to deal with, I just have a feeling of dread that the next few months are going to be awful, I already have a history of depression and worry that the stress will tip me over the balance and being self employed if I don't work I don't get paid! Can anyone help?

bobbie78

Hi well done on posting you are taking the first steps to dealing with this and getting back in control of the situation. If you are up to it can you post an Statement Of Affairs (soa) if you read this post it explains a bit about it. Then people will pile in with ideas to help. Once we have a gander at this then we can see if it looks like you are getting enough child benefits or if you are being charged a lot for certain things (like insurance etc) that we could help you get cheaper else where.

I'd recommend looking up the following people in google and giving them a call as they will also be able to advise you of your options, they will probably as for an SOA as well so it is worth doing just so you have a better idea of where you are at. OK national debt line, cccs and payplan also see if there is a Citizens advice near you (also called CAB for short) and they can help confirm things like benefits etc.

Please just keep posting, don't feel bad, there are lots of people here who are in or have been in the same situation as yourself. Have a read through some of the debt diarys on here as they can be quite inspirational and encouraging to know it can be done without too much hard ship. Now you are making these first baby steps it will not be any way as bad as you imagined. Just post your SOA (or even the bits you can find today will be a start) and we can start you on the road to debt freedom.

dmo73av

Hi Purple,

You are in the right place if you need help. A lot of good and understanding people in this forum.

I am myself just starting a DMP. I have £38k and will be paying c.£115 off a month. It in theory should take 24 years, but I am hoping to pay off more in time.

If it is off help, some people pay as low as £5 per month per creditor. So £100 over 10 creditors is twice the minimum.

I think there is alos a thread of tips for people on DMP's. How to handle the calls etc? If anyone knows it could they post it for my own reference as well?

Dmo

From what I can tell, in an IVA, the creditors can ask you to remortgage your house to pay them some more. This happens in year 4, but would depend on your circumstances.

Janey51

Hi purplelaurel and welcome to MSE.
Our debt is pretty much the same amount as yours so you're not the worst

We have been in a DMP for 10 mths through CCCS and although it took a while to sort out, we now pay about £5 per month to our creditors with a total monthly payment of £125.

It can be sorted out. We went with CCCS because we couldn't face talking to creditors although most of the ones we did talk to were OK when we got past the frontline troops.

You might want to change your phone number or get caller display if you don't feel brave enough to talk to them.

Good luck :A

Fizog

You've taken the first step... it must be a relief to have got it all out and got a plan of action. Creditors would rather have a little money than no money. If you read some of the amazing experiences on this site of people who are managing their debts. There are chat rooms devoted to saving money, bargains, cheap recipes explore!! good Luck..

purplelaurel

Hi

Thanks to those of you who replied, I have managed to get through to National Debtline again tonight and been through all our options, we are applying for DMP and will be referred to CCCS who will deal with this for us. The lady I spoke to at Debtline was fantastic, she went through everything in our personal budget and explained everything, we will be paying £173 to 10 creditors to reduce our debt of £86k and although in therory this will take us 38yrs I will sleep tonight!

The sad thing is that we won't be allowed to continue paying £25 a month into our children's trust funds which is v sad as it isn't their fault but will put away any spare cash I have a month to do this where I can. Also you can only budget for £5 a month per person for birthdays and christmas so that is only £30 each child for their birthday and christmas again I feel v sad about this!

How do I go about posting a SOA on here? Also does anyone know if Sky will allow us to cancel our subscribtion or will we have to pay up to the end of our contract?

Gosh I feel so much better about everything, just wish we had done this ages ago.