My SoA. Any and all advice is appreciated

jellyjenny

Thank you for the advice so far.
I am a bit more worried now speaking to debt charities have been mentioned
Would people recomment a DMP then? I thought this was only an option is there had been defaults on payments, which we haven't.
I have been thinking about a plan for a while now, but I keep thinking that most of the loans will be paid off in a couple of years, whereas a dmp would mean us making payments over a longer time.
Also, yes the credit cards on the soa are correctly APR'd. It is a concern as these deals are up soon.

fatbelly

We can only go on your own figures, jellyjenny.

You are only meeting the contractual payments on the loans by increasing the debts on your credit cards. And if you cannot move these debts to 0% deals there is going to be a lot of interest pretty soon and even throwing all available income at the debts is not going to make much impact on the total owed.

You are showing 24k owing across 3 loans and 750ish a month going out to them. That alone is more money than you have available, before we get on to the other debts. If those figures are wrong, you can go back to your original post and edit it.

I once went to a presentation by CCCS and a proportion of their dmps are actually for the contractual amounts. So you're not particularly out of the ordinary for them.

An IVA did cross my mind but you have a lot of equity in the property so I wouldn't go for that.

shop-to-drop

What's the £3000 assets? Is there any way this can be used towards debt repayments? Can OH advertise as Man and Van for extra income? Are benefits accurate given OH's second job income, you aren't going to have to repay an overpayment are you?

jellyjenny

On the soa form it listed jewellery as an asset. I wasn't sure to list it as I wouldn't really be willing to use it toward debt payment unless, it was a matter of losing the house. It has been handed down to me from my mom and nan.
Husband recently started job, so I'm not sure about the benefits. What are the proposed change in benefits? I heard that they are stopping them for those that work less than 24 hours.
I work three days 9-5 which is 24 hours, but only get paid for 21 hours because of the lunch hours. Will this affect me?
I can't increase my hours at the moment because of childcare, but both kids will be in full time school from September, so i'll have more flexibility.
Our mortgage is repayment, would it be worth switching to interest only? It would give us an extra £300 per month, but that would mean we would be just making the minimum payments on our debts the same as we are now since we are approx £200 short each month.

shop-to-drop

You are OK with hours worked as it is only 24 hours between you and your husband, I would have thought you would be as well to go to interest only mortgage if they will allow you to.

jellyjenny

It's taken a couple of days t-o take in everything I had written and the responses I received. I thought we were muddling through and everything would be ok. But, seeing it all written in black and white really gave me a wake up call.
In fact it's stressed me out more than I have been in many years. I felt better when I was burying my head in the sand to be honest.
One thing that is painfully obvious is that we literally can't continue as we are. What isn't as obvious is what to do next.
Part of me thinks a DMP is the answer. However this, I think, will have severe implications for me. I own my house, the fixed rate mortgage is due for renewal in December, will a DMP affect the rate I could get?
The biggest issue is that I work for a bank. My contract states that I have to alert my line manager to any financial difficulties, which I think is unfair, but what can I do? But what constitutes financial difficulties? Is it CCJ's? Bankcruptcy? Or will a DMP fall in this category? I do not trust my manager to deal with what I tell him in a confidential and professional manner, so what do I do?
I really, really don't want to have to sell my house, or my jewellery, but other than that I am willing to try anything. I'm thinking of selling our car, which is worth less than the loan we have on it, and buy a cheaper run around. I can overpay on one of our loans, so the extra money we get for our car, we could pay off on our loan. The thing is, it is the monthly repayments we have a problem with and paying a chunk off the loan will reduce the term but will have no affect on the monthly costs.
I'm at a loss as to where to go right now. But we are both willing to try anything to get on the straight and narrow again, so I would really appreciate any suggestions you friendly,helpful lot can offer.
Thank you

camuk81

Jenny, From past experience some of the banks can be quite helpful with their staff. If you explain you have done a breakdown already they may recommend some advice.

Who is your mortgage with, can you take a payment holiday.

I understand it is hard with both on low incomes but is there a chance of overtime?

Have a look at Martins boost you income advice

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/make-money

and have a look on the old style boards for tips on shaving money off groceries.

Look be proud of yourself you know whats going on and there is no more head in the sand time now. New start new life. Its going to be tough but work as a team and get that debt down

laidbackgjr

If your bank contract stipulates you must tell them, then I would suggest the moment you start missing payments / go on a DMP / get defaults then you must tell them. If they found out by doing a credit check on you, you could find your self out of work and then things would be even worse.

But before you get to this stage, I think you need to work on your SOA more to get a better picture of what's really happening.

There are a few bits on your SOA that don't look right, you have 4 cars, pay a fortune in car insurance, yet only spend £80 a month on petrol.

I don't think selling your house is going to be neccessary, but the jewellery may make sense to sell and pay off some of the debt, and certainly if you can sell a car or two that would make a difference. Along with other suggested cutbacks like swapping to SIM only mobile deals and freeview, you might well be able to juggle your current position around and avoid a dmp.

RAS

Do you have a union at work?

You need to contact your HR anonumously through your union rep about your finances.

If they do not learn from you, they will learn from any defaults.

In the past bank employers have been OK when people told them and have asked that they use their in-house debt advisors but you need to find out what the situation is now.

jellyjenny

I'll get on to the union on Monday. They're usually helpful.
The insurance is high, but we have tried to no avail to reduce it. My husbands van costs £65 a month, he just had a quote from auto net and they wanted another £300 a year! The other car is a classic with no real value. It is tax exempt and costs £70 per year to insure.