Help help help - we don;t know where to turn!

merlot123

Is your home really worth £120,000? would you consider selling the home and you could repay most of the debt and go into rented, you say your credit rating is ok at this moment, so you should pass the credit check for a rental property through a management agency.

I realise this is a huge undertaking, but you can start again when you have repaid your debt.

merlot123

What is your current overdraft?

Do NOT write to the bank, they could recall your overdraft and they can take your salary from your account without your permission if they suspect you are having problems, its called offset (I think, I will get the link from martin lewis).

Open a new bank account, transfer your salaries over and your essential direct debits, mortgage, water, council tax etc.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/setting-off?utm_source=forum&utm_medium=clicks&utm_campaign=resourcebar

BlushingRose

The house next door but one has been up for sale now for about 3 month and it's not moving. We have discussed selling up but we fear we're in negative equity atm and it wouldn't be worth it. We're taking the value of the house from the last re-mortgage evaluation last year.
My OH has already written to the bank, the letter has been posted. He's essentially asked them not to charge us daily fees, if they can. This is mainly a follow up to a conversation he had with the bank on Wednesday, so I don't think the bank will react badly, I think they'll just ring/write and say they can't help.

grey_lady

Why will changing bank accounts mean you instantly default on your mortgage?

The idea behind changing accounts when your in debt that has got charges etc swallowing up your income is that you have a fresh start with an account which doesn't allow an overdraft, this means that you can treat the overdraft as a debt to be paid down. But if you aren't incurring charges then it may not be an issue for you.

Anyway - you need to learn how to budget, that SOA that you posted is totally unrealistic, the fact is you will have emergencies/birthdays/haircuts and you will also need a bit of pin or pocket money as well. So putting your income aside, work out using that SOA what you actually spend on those things right now and not what you think you can afford.

Once you know your 'actual' outgoings, take that off your income and whatevers left split between your debts until they are paid off (pay off the one with the highest interest first). And stop using credit cards.

If you don't have anything leftover then look at ways to increase your income, could you get a part-time job if not a full-time one for instance etc etc

merlot123

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/ppi-loan-insurance

Blushing, I've just read your other thread, I think you may have a case for a missold PPI, as you were under the impression you could make a claim if you were struggling with payment, and not just redundancy, illness etc.

BlushingRose

We're not incurring charges unless we go over the overdraft (which has happened a couple of times recently)

Re: The SOA - I haven't had a haircut in years ;-) However, yes we do have birthdays/Christmas/emergencies but we have no idea what we spend on them. We just spend on them, if you see what I mean so we decided it would be easier to leave it blank than to make up numbers.

We'd love to stop using credit cards, but that is the only way we can afford to buy food and petrol because there is nothing left from our income.
As I've mentioned earlier in the thread, I have been looking for work, so far with no luck.

merlot123

You need to add your overdraft into the SOA, have you seen my message above your latest post.

BlushingRose

merlot123 wrote: »

You need to add your overdraft into the SOA, have you seen my message above your latest post.

Yes thanks, I have. We'll have a look into that.

Didn't see where to add the overdraft when we were doing it.

merlot123

pop the overdraft into same place as your credit cards etc, its an unsecured borrowing.

BlushingRose

I think I'll have to redo the SOA (again) at some point tomorrow as I've not saved it in the form thingy.

Not really sure what the first thing to do is now. The OH is at work during the week and so we cannot change the bank account yet. I will investigate the DMPs via CCCS though tomorrow.