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

BlushingRose

Thanks everyoine again for your lovliness.

Mr BlushingRose and I have had a chat tonight (he's now read all the posts) and we're now planning to open a new account with the Co-op. (Is this a good idea? They don't seem to have any connection with any of the cards or anything).
Also, tomorrow, I'll be ringing the CCCS and asking for their help with a DMP.
We've both had a grump and a cry tonight, but I think we know it's for the best and yet it's all so scary. We still have loads of questions but I don;t want to sound stupid and make you all repeat yourselves over and over again.
When we move the account to a new one, we leave the old account open, if that right? We leave the loan and credit card DDs in the old account and only transfer the priority bills to the new account, is that right? Also, this will be Mr BlushingRose's account and not mine. We're leaving mine totally alone (as there's nothing in it to speak of and it's with Barclays and Mr BR has a Barclaycard).
Thanks so much for your continued help.

Ps: Mort, congrats on becoming debt free, how long did it take you?

Jenjen

BlushingRose wrote: »

Thanks everyoine again for your lovliness.

Mr BlushingRose and I have had a chat tonight (he's now read all the posts) and we're now planning to open a new account with the Co-op. (Is this a good idea? They don't seem to have any connection with any of the cards or anything).
Also, tomorrow, I'll be ringing the CCCS and asking for their help with a DMP.
We've both had a grump and a cry tonight, but I think we know it's for the best and yet it's all so scary. We still have loads of questions but I don;t want to sound stupid and make you all repeat yourselves over and over again.
When we move the account to a new one, we leave the old account open, if that right? We leave the loan and credit card DDs in the old account and only transfer the priority bills to the new account, is that right? Also, this will be Mr BlushingRose's account and not mine. We're leaving mine totally alone (as there's nothing in it to speak of and it's with Barclays and Mr BR has a Barclaycard).
Thanks so much for your continued help.

Ps: Mort, congrats on becoming debt free, how long did it take you?

Would it not be better to open a joint account? Although I admit I'm still a newcomer to these things so I might have missed a reason why not.

I don't know anything about the co op account. We went with Santander in the end who we also have our mortgage(fully up to date) with but no credit card etc. This was great for us as they were offering £200 cashback to their mortgage holders for opening a current account so in 3 months time we will have an extra £200 to play with. And they transfer all the direct debits for us. All we have to do is cancel the ones we don't want them to transfer i.e. the debt related ones.

I think you will need to cancel the direct debits to the loan and credit cards rather than just leaving them on the old account and CCCS will negotiate with them all what is a fair payment and hopefully they will all stop charging interest.

SOunds like you are only about a week behind us in dealing with a similar problem so please keep in touch. Its great to know I'm not alone!

Jenny

Jenny

BitterAndTwisted

Blushing Rose: once you've got a new bank account sorted and arranged for your husband's salary to be paid into it and you've got five minutes to think please have a look at the cheap-family-recipes.org website. They say you can feed a family of four on £100 a month, so for the two of you it could be a fair bit less than that if you put your mind to it. While you're not working you might have time to confirm what time your local supermarkets mark down their prices so you could batch-cook for the freezer when you spot some really serious bargains. You might even fancy joining the gang over on the Old-Style part of the forum for all sorts of interesting and cheap housekeeping ideas. It's chatty and the people are lovely and helpful, just like here.

I'm sure that once you've got a Debt Management Plan sorted with CCCS or whoever you decide to contact it'll be a huge relief to know what you've got to spend in your monthly budget. It could probably turn out to be just as comfortable as it's been for you in the past, just different, but with a massive amount of less stress and worry.

You are following in the footsteps of people on here who know how it's done and who will guide and encourage you from now on. Keep going: it can be done.

Good luck!

Mort

BlushingRose wrote: »

Ps: Mort, congrats on becoming debt free, how long did it take you?

Thanks Blushing, It took us 5 years 6 months to clear the overdraft, loans and credit cards we had.

Our old bank froze our account so no more would go on the overdraft, they did this without our asking.
When we opened our new account (with Co-op) we didn't use their transfer service we just set up new direct debits for the priority stuff, mortgage, council tax, fuel etc...

Memory_Girl

Good to see you posting again this morning hon - and I am glad you and you OH are now singing from the same hymn sheet.

Do not despair - you are already on your way out the debt situation because you have now taken steps to arrest the debt spiral. Rest assured it can be done, with grace and elegance. One month ago I became debt free - paid of 10k of debt in two years and one of those years was spent on benefits and the other as a single mum on minimum income, so take heart.

MG

happyhaddock_2

Hi Blushing, we're with the Co-op theyve been really good. I didn't use their transfer service either as I preferred to transfer the DD's myself. There were a few phone calls to make but on the whole it went quite smoothly, no missed payments. Your old account will then just become another debt to be repaid out of your DMP.

I can still remember the feeling of OMG and being so scared, and then in the month before the DMP started we could see our money starting to build up in the new account instead of being eaten up in interest payments. It was the first time in years that we were actually spending OUR earned cash instead of living on credit.

I'd say the hardest mindset change is living within your means, you can only spend what comes in, no more "oh I'll just put it on the card" it takes a while but you do get there. I think nothing of cooking a meal from scratch mid week now, whereas before the chippy would be calling lol. Good luck x

BlushingRose

Memory_Girl wrote: »

Good to see you posting again this morning hon - and I am glad you and you OH are now singing from the same hymn sheet.

Thanks hon, but we were always singing from the same hymn sheet, it's just that he's at work and I'm not so it means that he plays catch-up with the advice you all give.

Memory_Girl wrote: »

Do not despair - you are already on your way out the debt situation because you have now taken steps to arrest the debt spiral. Rest assured it can be done, with grace and elegance. One month ago I became debt free - paid of 10k of debt in two years and one of those years was spent on benefits and the other as a single mum on minimum income, so take heart.

MG

Thanks so much - it's so scary to think that, after trying so hard not to default on anything, that soon we will be defaulting *on purpose*.
Looking forward to having money in the account though, I must admit.

BlushingRose

Thanks for the advice re: the Co-op and not using their transfer service. Mr BlushingRose was thinking of opeing the new account online, instead of actually going in, would that be the thing to do please?
We also have the council tax to come out of the old account between now and the 20th, so we need to look at when that's going to happen and juggle what little cash we have in there so that still gets paid, then we can swipe the rest before anyone else gets it!

Tonight we're planning to take out normal shopping list to Aldi and Lidl to see how much of our usual stuff we could get from there and how much cheaper it might be.

Perhaps I'll post up a typical menu/shopping list for you all to advise me on.

We're trying very hard to keep stable, focused and to have a sense of humour about all this, but I've had a headache for the last two days, the nurse is worried about my blood pressure (off to the Dr this morning) and I know it's going to get worse before it gets better. *brain melts*

BlushingRose

Mort wrote: »

Thanks Blushing, It took us 5 years 6 months to clear the overdraft, loans and credit cards we had.

Our old bank froze our account so no more would go on the overdraft, they did this without our asking.
When we opened our new account (with Co-op) we didn't use their transfer service we just set up new direct debits for the priority stuff, mortgage, council tax, fuel etc...

From the initial online response from the CCCS, it could take us about 8 years to clear ours - seems like an enormous length of time to me...

BlushingRose

Jenjen wrote: »

Would it not be better to open a joint account? Although I admit I'm still a newcomer to these things so I might have missed a reason why not.

It came up in conversation but we thought it would be better to keep things separate until things are all sorted out. 'His' account is 'our' account anyway in all but name.

Jenjen wrote: »

I think you will need to cancel the direct debits to the loan and credit cards rather than just leaving them on the old account

Yes, that makes more sense, thinking about it, otherwise they'll try and pay them out of the bank account which will then charge us and/or push the overdraft over it's limit (with more charges)

Jenjen wrote: »

SOunds like you are only about a week behind us in dealing with a similar problem so please keep in touch. Its great to know I'm not alone!

Yes please - we can debt buddies!


One question, have you had any phone calls or letters yet from people you've not paid?