Pinot's Potty debt free journey!!!

PinotGrigio41

This is an extra special quick post for HH !!

In fear of being told off today, I have called Marks and Sparks as requested !! After going through security etc, the first thing they said was that they could see I was on an arrangment and was I going to pay ?! As I reminded them, they havent officially told me I am on an arrangement, but while I was waiting for them to get back to me I had paid them anyway. So that over and done with ,she told me they knew nothing about my difficulties until yesterday ( strange when they spoke to Mr Pinot 2 days ago about it, and I originally told them in November ). She then said her next question was that although they have my I&E, could I please explain exactly why I couldnt make the usual monthly payment of £300.00 Personally I would have thought that the I&E would have told her that, but hey ho. Maybe I am being a little picky here, but these people never cease to amaze me. Anyway all in it was a positive call and they are reviewing in 3 months.

Two more creditors left to hear from now.

Oh and just quickly, postie today bought me another letter from MBNA, telling me that although they were aware we were making reduced payments, frozen interest etc, if I was in a position to pay anymore money yet and if my circumstances had changed ?! This letter came a week after acknowledging our situation. Wow if only things really did improve that quickly ! Not quite sure yet whether to file that one or respond !

Hope everyones day is going well. The sun is shining here and my painting is coming along nicely x

debtfreewannabe321

Hi pinot

I hope you got your kitchen finished and had less busy day than yesterday lol!

kerri_dfw

You inspired me so I called lloyds and they froze my interest for 6 months

Then called Wescott for settlement fee and they agreed to reduce my amount by £360 if I pay over 3 months (which I can afford to do) RESULT

PinotGrigio41

Great well done !! Thats brilliant news !

PinotGrigio41

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

Hi pinot

I hope you got your kitchen finished and had less busy day than yesterday lol!

Work in progress I'm afraid and total carnage !! Whatever possesed me god only knows.:eek:


I am off now to assess the mess and curse myself for even thinking this was a good idea and I will catchup on everyones news on their diaries tomorrow as I have been neglecting them !:o

brizzledfw

It'll be worth it..do you know when you'll be finished? This weekend?

And you can then relax in your brand newly decorated room with a bottle of PG congratulating yourself on a job well done:T

Hopelessly_Hopeful

PinotGrigio41 wrote: »

This is an extra special quick post for HH !!

In fear of being told off today, I have called Marks and Sparks as requested !! After going through security etc, the first thing they said was that they could see I was on an arrangment and was I going to pay ?! As I reminded them, they havent officially told me I am on an arrangement, but while I was waiting for them to get back to me I had paid them anyway. So that over and done with ,she told me they knew nothing about my difficulties until yesterday ( strange when they spoke to Mr Pinot 2 days ago about it, and I originally told them in November ). She then said her next question was that although they have my I&E, could I please explain exactly why I couldnt make the usual monthly payment of £300.00 Personally I would have thought that the I&E would have told her that, but hey ho. Maybe I am being a little picky here, but these people never cease to amaze me. Anyway all in it was a positive call and they are reviewing in 3 months.

Two more creditors left to hear from now.

Oh and just quickly, postie today bought me another letter from MBNA, telling me that although they were aware we were making reduced payments, frozen interest etc, if I was in a position to pay anymore money yet and if my circumstances had changed ?! This letter came a week after acknowledging our situation. Wow if only things really did improve that quickly ! Not quite sure yet whether to file that one or respond !

Hope everyones day is going well. The sun is shining here and my painting is coming along nicely x

Thanks for the update. Another job ticked off the list! Well done, as you say, positive news on the whole. Fight for every penny!

Have a great day, almost the weekend

HHX

PinotGrigio41

Having a bit of a weird old day today, with good news and bad news.:(

Barely had any sleep , as crazy at it sounds I had a really vivid dream (2nd night ont he trot)that I owed Monsoon / Accessorize loads of money which we couldnt pay. In the dream they decided they would send the heavies round to collect the money and or empty the house. Mr Pinot decided he would go out with a friend to watch a footie match and leave me to deal with it. In the dream neither the back door or the front door would lock therefore the debt collectors were able to just walk into the house. Mr Pinot offered them a seat and a cup of tea in the lounge before leaving the girls and I to deal with them. More and more of them started to arrive all getting bigger and scarier and then as I was in the kitchen trying to pluckup courage to go and speak to them a big cream double decker bus pulled up outside the kitchen window with cameras pointing out of the windows and into every room in the house. It was a surveillance team sent by somebody to keep track of our movements.It was the weirdest, oddest, but for some reason a really scary dream..:(

Firstly we dont owe money to Monsoon and I dont even shop in there. The only reason I can think for that is that my sister needed to give me a gift voucher to change a dress that she had bought for DD2 from Monsoon. Mr Pinot, never goes to the Footie, the front door lock is playing up a bit, but where on earth the surveillance cameras watching us from a double decker bus came from I really dont know !! My mind really is playing tricks on me ! As funny as the dream now sounds it really shook me up.

Anyway to continue my ramblings -

DD1 is off sick from school and I have currently spent the day panicking that although work is filtering through slowly, we would have to survive in February on half our usual earnings.:eek: Anyway the good news is that whilst I was having a panic Mr Pinot rang to say we have been awarded the Contract we have been waiting on and it starts on the 23rd Jan for at least 3 months. !! Whoope de doo !! :jWe are still gong to have to reign everything in even more as we have no idea when they will begin to pay us,or how many days a month they will want us but we are waiting on the finer details so hopefully that will make it clearer. So thats the good news. I was celebrating that by leaping around the room while DD1 tried to pluck up some energy to join me, when the postie arrived -

His offerings for the day were as follows -

Remittance advises to say we had finally been paid a couple of very overdue invoices, so we can now pay ourselves for January

Letter from M&S confirming yesterdays conversation and that they will be sending a Default Notice and Final Demand, this wasnt discussed yesterday, but thats fine. I am a bit concerned about them only accepting the arrangment for 3 months, but I wont worry about that now.

Letter from MBNA re another card we are trying to reclaim charges on. Offering a goodwill gesture of £113.98, I think I requested £992.00. Really pleased they havent dismissed it completely, but I will go back to them now with a LBA and see whether they will up their offer.

LEtter from Wescot. It appears MBNA assisgned the account mentioned above over to them on the 19th Dec, I was expecting this but MBNA have not confirmed to me that this has been done, hence I have written twice to them re my repayment offer and had no response. The letter is a bit odd as it mentions that I have appointed a third party to represent me in relation to the debt, and to tell them to continue to pay as normal. ( I havent appointed a third party) , but then states that if I am not in a repyament plan call them ( no thanks) I dont find the letter very clear as they either are aware of my Repayment plan or their not. In the meantime I had made a payment to MBNA this month but I am assuming that will be passed onto Wescott. The balance showing is £10,158.73 which looks about right, but if they have stopped interest and if my recent payment has been taken into account it will be a little less. So looks like another letter to write to clarify exactly whats going on here.

Last but not least a demand from the Inland Revenue stating we still owe them £5700 odd, we dont we owe them £4900 odd. They say we havent paid and havent made any attempt to contact them. We did at the end of October when the Tax was due and they agreed to a repayment of at least £500 per month . We have infact paid them £1000 per month, so have reduced the initial balance by £3000 in 3 months . The letter states an imminent visit to seize our assets. I know this will only take one call and I'm sure will be sorted. I am afraid I have called Mr Pinot whos working today (:T) to pass that job over to him, as with DD1 at home I dont want her hearing the call.

Soooooooo massive apologies for this really really long post ( see Kerri , told you I could talk too!!!) , but my head hurts and feel a bit fed up today, which is so unlike me and I needed to write this down. If you have managed to make it to the end thanks for reading. If you havent and have fallen asleep in your tea halfway through it, I dont blame you !:)

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Hi Pinot

What a dream. Got me thinking again, cravings, dreams, are you sure you don't need to be taking any tests?

Great news on the contracts and invoices coming through. I admire anyones tenacity to be self employed, well done you.

Sorry to hear DD sick, hope she feels better soon.

I appreciate it feels dark but I think thats the good outcome from MBNA and M&S. Sooner defaults are registered the six year clock starts ticking. You need to worry about the ones that are just AP arrangements to pay as the six years doesn't start until that has finished, so if your arrangement was 5 years that 5 + 6 = 11 years on your record! MBNA passing it on means more chance of reduction if you get a position to to FF. So..... scary stuff, but a general upward trend for positivity

Tax is a devil but as you know inevitable. Have you got any of your communications in writting with them? Of all the people they are often the most reasonable I find (could just have been lucky!) hope you get it sorted and feel better about it soon.

You are allowed the odd dark day, do something nice for yourself. It will get better, we're going forward not back. Think of the poor souls who have yet to have their LBM. Mine flickered away for so long even after starting my DMP. I have the odd dip now and then but it gets brighter and brighter on the whole. Excuse the pun but very enlightening! What are you going to do for yourself then..... ?


Right, I'm off to waste £2 on the euromillions, it will be worth it for the dream. I may not look at the ticket until next week, that way I will really get the benefit!

HHx

PinotGrigio41

Oh HH thankyou so much, you made me cry, how stupid is that ?!

I'm so angry with myself as I know that the defaults are good as I have been telling others that same, but obviously not very good at following my own advice, the same with the Tax. I think they always freak me out as many years ago they refused to play ball or help out. Mr Pinot was away, DD2 was newborn and I asked them for two more weeks to pay our remaining tax, we were only 3 weeks late and they refused and got quite nasty. It really was a one off, I have never spoken to anyone since there like that and dout I will but think it still haunts me ! I need to get a grip.

I have curled myself up on the sofa since I posted last with DD1 and we are watching Legally Blonde ! I shouldnt as I have so much to do and am feeling very guilty .

Good luck in the Euromillions tonight x