Any advice? Feels like an impossible situation.

foreversomeday

OH moved in about 4 months ago. It's me, him and my 3 year old son. I'm not working (I'm a part time student and wanted to be around for DS as well) and DS hasn't started nursery yet but hopefully will after Christmas. We're currently paying out around £50 per week in childminding fees to allow me to go to uni but this should drop after Christmas (if he starts nursery) to £12/£24 per week depending on whether OH can get the regular days off to look after him.

When OH moved in initially the housing benefit/council tax benefit didn't get changed because they were waiting for our updated tax credit information. For some reason I then completely missed a letter and didn't realise that we were now ineligible for council tax benefit so the council tax is the full £130 per month.

In addition to this, last year at uni my funding didn't actually come through in time, so I am having to pay back last year's fees at around £95 a month. When we agreed this we thought we were able to afford it, but hadn't factored in the extra council tax. Anyway, with this and the council tax, things would have been tight, but just about doable. My funding looks like it's on track for this year which is a relief.

Then OH's car broke down It's not only an expensive repair, it looks as though it's unlikely to pass the MOT due soon, and all in all it's going to be cheaper to buy another used car. But we don't have the money to do this, either. So now he can't get to work - his workplace is in a fairly rural area, and being night work, there is no public transport which goes there at these times. At the moment he's getting lifts but this isn't possible long term. Cycling would be an absolute last resort as it would take about 2 hours and I am worried it wouldn't be safe in the coming winter months in the dark.

We've been to various places looking for loans but been turned down by everyone and the only banks who didn't give a flat out "no" wanted him to transfer his current account there, have his wages going in for 6 months, then switch to another account for 6 months, and only then will they consider him.

His family have had massive problems with credit card debt in the past and he doesn't want to touch one with a bargepole, and he thinks that he will be rejected for these too. He has in the past. I don't think there's any way I could get one as I've been on benefits the last two years.

I will probably get a part time job, but this isn't realistically going to bring in enough in the short term. If I drop out of uni now I'm going to be liable for this year's fees and not be eligible for the funding. I have a few hundred pounds in savings but again this isn't going to be enough to buy a car which isn't going to break down in another year and tax, insure it etc. We are both 23 which bumps up costs quite a bit too. Just looking for absolutely any options to explore or advice etc. I'm a bit worried we've just killed our credit ratings stone dead as well by applying for so many loans.

Tixy

Hi

You might find it better to post on the debt free wannabe forum for suggestions to improve your financial situation and some advice on how to manage going forward.

Just regarding a loan - it doesn't sound like he will get a loan from what you have posted but -
Who has he applied to for a loan?
Has he checked his credit files? what do they show? does he have any adverse credit history (missed payments, defaults, CCJs etc)? does he have any credit history at all?
Is he registered on the electoral roll at this address?
How much does he earn? how much is he looking to borrow? How much can he afford to repay a month?

Also has he considered a moped/small motorbike? which would likely be cheaper to buy and certainly much cheaper to run.

Niv

HI,

Pop over to the debt free wannabe then post up an SOA. There will be someone there that should be able to give you some additional pointers.

Niv

foreversomeday

Ah okay. I didn't think of DFW because the debts that he has I don't think we can reduce at all. Can't really reduce outgoings - possibly electric and gas, but because of faffing around with DD amounts there's a fairly big debit on the gas account which would probably need paying off before we moved to someone else.

We have applied to Barclays, Santander, Lloyds (all of our native banks), Tesco and Sainsbury's.

Credit files - waiting for the PIN for the website, only applied for it yesterday.

Electoral roll - someone came to the door checking it was up to date yesterday and I added him on, thought I had sent off the letter but clearly not. Anyway he is on it but I don't know how long it takes to update things.

He earns £16,000 and is looking to borrow either £3,000 (in which case we could afford about £100 monthly repayments) or £5,000, which would also clear his overdraft and save the interest/charges on that, and I'd be able to pay off the uni fees in one go (although this makes no sense TBH because it's interest free) so would go up to a total of £200 maximum per month (this includes the uni fees though so might need a rethink.)

I mentioned the moped idea, not sure how keen he is - he's never ridden one before. And it would still cost to buy one. But it's certainly a better option than the push bike!

dresdendave

foreversomeday wrote: »

Ah okay. I didn't think of DFW because the debts that he has I don't think we can reduce at all. Can't really reduce outgoings

Please don't underestimate the potential of the DFW board. They can look at things objectively and I'm sure they will find ways of helping you cut outgoings.

somethingcorporate

Have you considered leasing a car? Takes the pain out of the upfront purchase.

Ames

I don't think it's possible to lease a car for the £100 that the op has spare.

JournalGirl

Could his work give him a load deducted from his wages...some do.

redfox

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere (please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com"]forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

dancingfairy

Hi - have you got a local credit union? Have you tried there? Some do require you to save a nominal amount for a few months first but it's always worth a look.
Also what type of debts are they? If unsecured then he may have to reduce the payments to them in order to pay to get the car fixed in order to get to work. Same with uni fees - you may have to renogtiate payments based on your new situation.
Best of Luck
df