Hiding your debts? Think you can cope on your own?

Rochdale_Guy

Superbiatch wrote: »

OK, its a starting point and there are definitely areas to make savings. Are you getting 25% single persons discount on your council tax for starters?

Yes.

Grocery bill can be reduced a bit too.

That was an educated guess, but didn't want it to look to low.

You only put £50 a month fuel in your car - why not get rid? Its hardly getting used yet its costing you over £200 a month to maintain, park and insure.

The car is the big issue, people scream at me to cut my losses and sell it, but its my freedom and my escape. I'm late at doing everything in life including learning to drive, but its my first car and *I WANT IT*, but I know it costs a fortune. The costs are so much as explained before due to a prang in 2009, been claim free since. But they still quote me £1,000 for fully comp for 5-7,000 miles a year (non work). I go out a lot at weekends to the coast for walks, fresh air and sanity. I pay £8.50 a week for a secure pad locked council garage as its just not safe to park on this estate, but that's £34 to the Council... and the other £6 is for an occasion when I'm forced to pay for parking. I'd rather park for free and have a 2 mile walk then pay for parking.

How about increasing your income/increasing your social life and getting a bar job? Might not be much but it will get you out of the house and might give you a little spare cash.

That is another option to seriously consider. I can't go on a DMP for what, 20 years now & just pay £57 a month without some increase in my income

Are all the debts in your name only?

Yes, just idiot old me

Rochdale_Guy

FREEZ wrote: »

Hi
Looking at your soa i would say you definitely need to go down the cccs route. I have no experience of them myself, but really don't think you have many other options.

P.s Good on you for facing up to things and wanting to pay back what you've borrowed

Thanks, but would CCCS and my creditors accept a paltry £57 between the five of them, I doubt it

rdchick

Hi RG,

Just read through your whole thread, you've come a long way since yesterday evening

You sound very similar to my ex, he was in a bit of a spin with his debt, I knew about it but didn't know how much, what he was left with etc. I eventually found out after he struggled scraping together the 32p he needed to get the evening paper (it was important he got it each day )

I remember him calling in sick and I had to do the same so we could go to Barclays and see what they could do as he was so far gone they started kicking up a stink. They were going to take his account away from him and his wage was due in a few weeks... It was that day I got him to call CCCS. He balled his eyes out on the phone to them in relief. They really helped him and he's now on his way in a DMP.

It's not too late and it will be ok, things will be tight but you'll get through them. If you stick around on the boards they can help you with stuff like cutting down your food bill and stuff

As for your SOA, your food bill seems rather high, are you sure this is right? As for your insurance, I'm 23 drive a 2004 Clio and passed 3 years ago and pay £36 a month fully comp, have you shopped around? Also, where do you park?! That's rather high, have you searched around for a place nearby you can park for free even if it is a bit of a walk? To pay almost the same for parking as you do for fuel is crazy!

Anyways, I hope you feel better and things seem a bit brighter, 20 years may seem a long time to be in debt but on Friday when your head was still in the sand it would have been a lot longer

Love and hugs xxx

Superbiatch

What line of work are you in? I'm sure you could look for better pay in time (obviously when the recession picks up) so don't think you're stuck in this position forever.

In the meantime get yourself a part time job - i've done all kinds, care work, pubs, off licences and now ann summers (although thats not appropriate for you ) but its certainly helped me out of a hole and gives me a little extra to put away towards full and finals in a few years time. It also served a dual purpose of keeping me sane after a divorce

MFWannabe

Rochdale_Guy wrote: »

Thanks, but would CCCS and my creditors accept a paltry £57 between the five of them, I doubt it

Please contact them tomorrow. They hear problems like yours every single day and are very experienced at sorting out debts. I'm sure speaking to them will make you feel much better. The alternative is not to contact anyway and you'll start defaulting on your debts, then the calls and letters will start. Best to start sorting it now before that happens

Excellent post above from rdchick.

rdchick

It's very true about upping your income, the guys on here told me I wouldn't need a DMP if I managed to get my income up a bit. I am on £1046 a month at my main job but make an extra £200+ a month cleaning for a few hours a week... Definitely something to consider and also very common these days so don't feel embarrassed... Gotta do what you've gotta do! Xxx

MFWannabe

Rochdale_Guy wrote: »

This gets worse, creditor offer taken from the SOA calculator page

Debt Details & Offer to Creditors

Secured & HP Debt Description Debt(£) Monthly(£)
Mortgage 0 (0)
Secured & HP Debt totals 0 -
Unsecured Debt Description Debt(£) Offer(£)
MBNA Visa 9088 19.92
MINT Visa 5940 13.02
RBS M'Card 3526 7.73
Bank overdraft 200 0.44
Citibank Visa 1675 3.67
N/Rock car loan 2747 6.02
Barclaycard 3284 7.2
Unsecured Debt totals 26460 58
Created using the SOA Calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.

Please don't worry about how little you can offer your creditors, CCCS would take care of all that for you. As another poster said 12 years may seem a long time and you wouldn't at first be able to offer to pay much; but at least you are doing something about it. Once you've contacted them and had your DMP set up you can then look at getting a 2nd job / better paid full time job to up your income so that you can then offer more to your creditors.

Rochdale_Guy

rdchick wrote: »

As for your insurance, I'm 23 drive a 2004 Clio and passed 3 years ago and pay £36 a month fully comp, have you shopped around? Also, where do you park?! That's rather high, have you searched around for a place nearby you can park for free even if it is a bit of a walk? To pay almost the same for parking as you do for fuel is crazy!

Love and hugs xxx

I park in a block of garages on this estate 500 metres away from the block of flats I live in. The cars that park on the free concrete spaces usually get windows smashed or tyres slashed...

I don't get why I have such high insurance

I used all the price comparison websites and individual insurance sites and the cheapest for April 11/12 was Admiral at £968 (excl. government tax), then Elephant not far behind that.

I'm dreading this years quote. If I could half the car insurance that's £500 I could start to save up.

Got my car breakdown through Quidco with Green Flag and got £23 cashback. The breakdown cover was still £77 quid though for the full package including home breakdown. I know nothing about cars and feel safe going for a full UK package, don't need European cover.

Going for another lie down now, wide awake but need to go to bed soon. Another exciting week at work flat broke with no money to even buy a fricking chocolate bar as a pick me up
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Rochdale_Guy

SteffieLou wrote: »

Have added a couple of suggestions but other than those I don't think I can be of any help apart from offering my support. I hope you get yourself straight soon. We're all here to help

Telephone (land line)................... £24 Do you need a landline? Do you get enough free minutes with your mobile to use that instead?

I am with BT & need a landline to get my broadband from the excellent BE Broadband. It's scandalous you have to pay - what is it now? £16 a month - just for line rental even if you don't use your phone at all in that month. It's upto £24 with calls made. My mobile is a pay as you go one with no free minutes or texts, although when you top up £10 a month, you get get 250 free texts for the next month. I hardly call anyone and use more texts than voice calls.

Car Insurance........................... £92 Have you tried comparison sites to get this cheaper? I drive a 1.4 Fiesta, passed my test in 2008 & pay £300 fully comp

As explained earlier, yes with no luck :mad:

Rochdale_Guy

rdchick wrote: »

Hi RG,

Just read through your whole thread, you've come a long way since yesterday evening

Have I? I still haven't opened a basic bank account as I don't know whether I can have one with a cheque book?

I actually have less money available each month to offer CCCS > to my creditors.

My ex has said she's had enough and defintely wants to finish with me.

I have about £3 cash all week and need to pay next week and the week afters rent on a credit card as I have no cash left

Sorry for being sarcastic, I'm in a worse place than last night