My SOA

Jenjen

Hi. A couple of you have asked me to post this following my post on the DMP support thread.

I've done it based on the figues we have already put in on the CCCS budget calculator and I have made a few comments next to things that I think need further explanation.

I think we will be going ahead with the DMP in the next few days as as you can see we cannot afford to pay the debts and live at the same time. What happens at the moment is we pay the cc minimums but then we use the card again to live on and take it back up to its limit. All the cards are either more or less at their limit or they have been closed by us to avoid an interest rate rise.

Please be nice I know its a mess and it is getting me down but I'm trying to do something about it.

Jenny


Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 2 I know this is a luxury but every way we look at it we will struggle with only 1 car due to DH sometimes needing his for work (client visits etc) and me needing mine for my business.

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 0 I'm self employed and my monthly income can actually be anything from -£100 to +£400 but it is growing all the time so not as bleak as it might appear, just unpredicatable.
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1922
Benefits................................ 190 Child benefit and a small amount of Child Tax Credit
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2112

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 615
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 101
Electricity............................. 75
Gas..................................... 50
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 33
Telephone (land line)................... 35
Mobile phone............................ 65 This is for both of us, Could possibly be cut down a bit in the next few months once we have had our phones 12 months
TV Licence.............................. 12.43
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0 Included in telephone line rental
Groceries etc. ......................... 293Not sure if I can live on this or not but this is the figue we have agreed on CCCS
Clothing................................ 40
Petrol/diesel........................... 140
Road tax................................ 28
Car Insurance........................... 129
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 74 DH gets the bus to work whenever he can i.e. if he is just in the office not visiting clients
Childcare/nursery....................... 52
Other child related expenses............ 75 School dinners mainly and a small allowance for after school activities
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 24
Contents insurance...................... 0 Included with contents insurance
Life assurance ......................... 9
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10 No idea if this will cover it, this is what we have agreed on CCCS budget
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 10
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1900.43


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 120000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 5000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 125000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 108000...(615)......5.4
Total secured & HP debts...... 108000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Barclaycard....................488.26....10.58.....21.9
Barclaycard....................2712.92...61.83.....16.9
HSBC Credit card...............5792.72...142.7.....21.9
Loan from family...............5000......74........0 This is actually on a 0% credit card in my mums name at moment and hoping she will be able to transfer it to another one when the 0% expires in June
HSBC Overdraft.................500.......0.........18.9
HSBC Overdraft.................500.......0.........18.9
Creation Finance Loan..........389.......12.43.....0
Virgin Credit Card.............1960......45........18.9
Barclaycard Platinum...........4495.33...101.1.....15.9
Barclaycard....................478.59....11.89.....19.9
Tesco Credit Card..............5189.99...103.......18.9
HSBC Credit Card...............5240.12...131.......20.9
Tesco Credit Card..............999.43....22........18.9
Total unsecured debts..........33746.36..715.53....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,112
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,900.43
Available for debt repayments........... 211.57
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 715.53
Amount short for making debt repayments. -503.96

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 125,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -108,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -33,746.36
Net Assets.............................. -16,746.36

Created using the SOA calculator at
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.

HappyMJ

Jenjen wrote: »

Hi. A couple of you have asked me to post this following my post on the DMP support thread.

I've done it based on the figues we have already put in on the CCCS budget calculator and I have made a few comments next to things that I think need further explanation.

I think we will be going ahead with the DMP in the next few days as as you can see we cannot afford to pay the debts and live at the same time. What happens at the moment is we pay the cc minimums but then we use the card again to live on and take it back up to its limit. All the cards are either more or less at their limit or they have been closed by us to avoid an interest rate rise.

Please be nice I know its a mess and it is getting me down but I'm trying to do something about it.

Jenny


Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 2 I know this is a luxury but every way we look at it we will struggle with only 1 car due to DH sometimes needing his for work (client visits etc) and me needing mine for my business.

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 0 I'm self employed and my monthly income can actually be anything from -£100 to +£400 but it is growing all the time so not as bleak as it might appear, just unpredicatable.
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1922
Benefits................................ 190 Child benefit and a small amount of Child Tax Credit
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2112

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 615
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 101
Electricity............................. 75
Gas..................................... 50
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 33
Telephone (land line)................... 35
Mobile phone............................ 65 This is for both of us, Could possibly be cut down a bit in the next few months once we have had our phones 12 months
TV Licence.............................. 12.43
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0 Included in telephone line rental
Groceries etc. ......................... 293Not sure if I can live on this or not but this is the figue we have agreed on CCCS
Clothing................................ 40
Petrol/diesel........................... 140
Road tax................................ 28
Car Insurance........................... 129
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 74 DH gets the bus to work whenever he can i.e. if he is just in the office not visiting clients
Childcare/nursery....................... 52
Other child related expenses............ 75 School dinners mainly and a small allowance for after school activities
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 24
Contents insurance...................... 0 Included with contents insurance
Life assurance ......................... 9
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10 No idea if this will cover it, this is what we have agreed on CCCS budget
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 10
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1900.43


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 120000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 5000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 125000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 108000...(615)......5.4
Total secured & HP debts...... 108000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Barclaycard....................488.26....10.58.....21.9
Barclaycard....................2712.92...61.83.....16.9
HSBC Credit card...............5792.72...142.7.....21.9
Loan from family...............5000......74........0 This is actually on a 0% credit card in my mums name at moment and hoping she will be able to transfer it to another one when the 0% expires in June
HSBC Overdraft.................500.......0.........18.9
HSBC Overdraft.................500.......0.........18.9
Creation Finance Loan..........389.......12.43.....0
Virgin Credit Card.............1960......45........18.9
Barclaycard Platinum...........4495.33...101.1.....15.9
Barclaycard....................478.59....11.89.....19.9
Tesco Credit Card..............5189.99...103.......18.9
HSBC Credit Card...............5240.12...131.......20.9
Tesco Credit Card..............999.43....22........18.9
Total unsecured debts..........33746.36..715.53....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,112
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,900.43
Available for debt repayments........... 211.57
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 715.53
Amount short for making debt repayments. -503.96

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 125,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -108,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -33,746.36
Net Assets.............................. -16,746.36

Created using the SOA calculator at
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.

Well something is wrong. You are losing £500 per month. Where is that coming from? You said you have agreed some figures with CCCS does that mean you are on a DMP. You need to put what you are proposing to pay on the credit cards and loans. i.e £10 a month instead of the actual minimum repayments. Unfortunately family loan must be ignored for the time being.

As I think you will be going onto a DMP you can cancel contracts without too much affecting your credit as it's already been affected as much as possible. So cancel the £65 of phones and switch to a SIM only reduced price contract.

Your gas and electric is quite high. Any reason for that?

Landline and internet can be cheaper. Any reason why it's £35 a month with £65 on mobile phones as well.

I find the £293 of groceries figure quite low for 4 people normally CCCS are quite generous with this figure. It's possible it's just going to be tight.

Jenjen

Thanks for your thoughts. I will look into the mobile phones but we do use a lot of what is allowed for in the contracts so I'm not sure switching to pay as you go would be worthwhile. I would be more inclined to get rid of the landline but it is useful for incoming calls, especially as I run a business.

The £500 is going straight back on the credit cards every month basically only we are getting more and more squeezed and as it stands this month we have still got to pay our council tax but have not got the moeny left to do it. We have not started the DMP yet as we are still playing with the figures. It will be set up in the next few days when we get chance to sit down together when one or other of us is not at work. With the figures as they stand at the moment we will continue to pay the £74 a month to my mum and the rest will go on the dmp with a payment of £148 a month over about 16 years.

The reason our internet price is high is that we have 50mb broadband. There are 2 reasons why we really need this. One is that DH uses it a lot for work purposes, he works in IT and has to be able to conect to clients systems regularly. If he couldn't do this his travel costs would be higher as he would have to go in to work when they had a problem. The other is that my uncle who lives in America has a virgin+ box and sling box in our house so he can watch British sport over there so we need the higher internet speed to allow for that. Our overall bill is actually £95 including the TV but he pays £60 of it. When we started this it was a very generous deal but I think our bill then was more like £85. I need to ask him to pay more really but I'm scared to ask.

The family loan cannot be forgotten because it is on a credit card in my mum's name so if we don't pay the minimumpayment it will ruin her credit rating too and I'm not prepared to do that.

I'm not sure why the gas and electric is so high. We switched not long ago which brought it down a bit but British Gas have just put it back up to pretty much what it was before we switched. I can only imagine it is again related to my husband as he has several computers running at all times either testing them for clients or practicing/researching new things himself as he is trying to get a higher paid job.

HappyMJ

Jenjen wrote: »

Thanks for your thoughts. I will look into the mobile phones but we do use a lot of what is allowed for in the contracts so I'm not sure switching to pay as you go would be worthwhile. I would be more inclined to get rid of the landline but it is useful for incoming calls, especially as I run a business.

The £500 is going straight back on the credit cards every month basically only we are getting more and more squeezed and as it stands this month we have still got to pay our council tax but have not got the moeny left to do it. We have not started the DMP yet as we are still playing with the figures. It will be set up in the next few days when we get chance to sit down together when one or other of us is not at work. With the figures as they stand at the moment we will continue to pay the £74 a month to my mum and the rest will go on the dmp with a payment of £148 a month over about 16 years.

The reason our internet price is high is that we have 50mb broadband. There are 2 reasons why we really need this. One is that DH uses it a lot for work purposes, he works in IT and has to be able to conect to clients systems regularly. If he couldn't do this his travel costs would be higher as he would have to go in to work when they had a problem. The other is that my uncle who lives in America has a virgin+ box and sling box in our house so he can watch British sport over there so we need the higher internet speed to allow for that. Our overall bill is actually £95 including the TV but he pays £60 of it. When we started this it was a very generous deal but I think our bill then was more like £85. I need to ask him to pay more really but I'm scared to ask.

The family loan cannot be forgotten because it is on a credit card in my mum's name so if we don't pay the minimumpayment it will ruin her credit rating too and I'm not prepared to do that.

I'm not sure why the gas and electric is so high. We switched not long ago which brought it down a bit but British Gas have just put it back up to pretty much what it was before we switched. I can only imagine it is again related to my husband as he has several computers running at all times either testing them for clients or practicing/researching new things himself as he is trying to get a higher paid job.

You can't keep going along like this. You might not be prepared to ignore family debt but no creditor will allow it. You cannot treat one creditor more favourably than another.

You could increase the groceries amount and use the change to give to your mother. 16 years is far too long for a DMP. BR would be a better option. Clear of debt in 1 year and clean credit record in 6 years and you can keep the house and the cars if the book value of each is low enough.

Internet is fine you can keep that for the kids. It's about the right price for fibre.

Jenjen

Thanks

Do the creditors get to see where our money is going then? I didn't realise that. I will try and build it into the other expenses instead then. I'm regretting letting my mum take on that credit card for us. It seemed like a good option at the time as she could get 0% and we couldn't but now I think we should have just done the DMP then.

I don't really think it will take 16 years to pay to be honest because Once both kids are at school full time I will look at getting a job in addition to my self employment. Also hopefully I will be earning more from my business which can all go on debt repayment. And Dh is currently looking for a better paid job which will also help. Also once my youngest goes to full time school in September the £52/month childcare will dissappear.

Thanks for your help and I will look into all your other suggestions

Jenny

HappyMJ

How long do you think it will take? Anything over 6 years just isn't worth it unless you have a lot of equity in your property and you don't. You should be looking to make repayments of around £470 per month on that level of debt and I think that's going to be near impossible to find those savings.

Jenjen

I can't really answer that but it would be nice to clear it in 5-6 years really. But it all depends on what happens with jobs etc and I don't think its an entirely unrealistic hope. Some of the jobs Dh is looking at are significantly better paid than what he earns now and I'm sure he is capable of doing them. I know its not guaranteed but its got to be worth a try.

I'm really not keen on the idea of bankruptcy although I don't know a lot about it. But I'm not convinced it would do my business reputation any favours and I don't see how it could be done without losing our house and cars.

I'll give it some more thought and am going to actually speak to the CCCS this week rather than just looking online which is what I've done up to now.

Thanks

Jenny

HappyMJ

Jenjen wrote: »

I can't really answer that but it would be nice to clear it in 5-6 years really. But it all depends on what happens with jobs etc and I don't think its an entirely unrealistic hope. Some of the jobs Dh is looking at are significantly better paid than what he earns now and I'm sure he is capable of doing them. I know its not guaranteed but its got to be worth a try.

I'm really not keen on the idea of bankruptcy although I don't know a lot about it. But I'm not convinced it would do my business reputation any favours and I don't see how it could be done without losing our house and cars.

I'll give it some more thought and am going to actually speak to the CCCS this week rather than just looking online which is what I've done up to now.

Thanks

Jenny

You say your house is worth £120,000 they deduct 10% for costs so your house would achieve £108,000 after sale costs that's the same as your mortgage so you can keep it.

The cars if essential for work can be kept if their book value is less than £2,000. That's the value you would get if sold at auction and not what you think you would get in a private sale.

If you can get a job paying £500 a month then you can avoid it but at the moment you are falling £500 a month further into debt each month as very little can be cut from your SOA.

Jenjen

Thanks for the info. I didn't know all that. The house and car value is just a very rough estimate at the moment because I haven't looked into it.

I know we are falling further behind at the moment. Although we haven't actually missed a payment at all yet somehow. Mainly thanks to a couple of good months with my business. But once on the DMP we wont be falling behind because the debt payments will go down.

If we could find a way to eventually pay £500 a month on the DMP instead of the current plan of £148 we could pay it off within 6 years I reckon (remember only £28k of the debt is going on the DMP, the other 5k is from my mum). So we only need to find an extra £350 through me getting a job and dh earning more plus the £52 childcare saving). There is also a little breathing space in our SOA in that a few things i.e. childcare and school lunches are term time only but I have allowed for them every week.

The other thing I have just thought of is that our mortgage is on quite a high rate at the moment due to being in a 5 yr fixed rate. This finishes in 12 months so we may be able to make savings there.

I know we are currently relying on a lot of maybes and hopefuls and the starting picture looks bleak. But I'm confident now we have realised we have mnajor problems there are a lot of things we can do to turn things around and I'm not prepared to go down the bankruptcy route without a fight and trying to sort things out ourselves. If we find a DMP doesn't work we will consider it but I feel we have to at least try and pay back what we borrowed.

HappyMJ

You won't be able to remortgage with so much debt so you will just be going onto your lenders SVR. By repaying £615 a month it will still take 30 years to clear your £108,000 mortgage at 5.4%. If you are 5 years in you should really have 20 years remaining and your mortgage payment should really be £750 a month. If you go onto a variable rate mortgage at 4% over 20 years your payment will be £660 a month. You could reset the time remaining to 25 years which will cost you £575 per month. It won't really save you anything.

Jenjen

We wont need to re mortgage, it was a 35 year mortgage in the first place so it will just switch to SVR with 30 yrs remaining. The plan had originally been to reduce the term at a later date but I know that wont happen for now. Thats the least of my worries right now though. We are both only 30 so the mortgage will be clear by the time we are 60 even at that. I can live with that!