Nothing Is Impossible

SSB

Well done, I am really pleased for you :T . All the best in the future, let us know how you get on now that there are no more debts to worry about.

*zippy*

Congratulations bigmac and Mrs bigmac :T £69k in under 5 years is a huge achievement.

Don't forget to post on the debt free roll of honour at the top of the page

Wannabesaver_4

Bigmac - Congratulations!!! :T

One question - did you make final settlements to your creditors? How were they about it and what percentage did they accept?

Welldone - cant wait to be in your shoes!;)

Bloody_Hell_2

it's great to hear of things like this, really does make the light at the end of the tunnel shine brighter for folks like me, about to pay my first installment of my DMP (just waiting for the pack!)

bigmac2020_2

errant wrote:

Great story. Tell us how you managed it!

Also, someone enlighten me. I think I know the answer to this but what exactly is the 'credit trap'?

Best wishes

Errant,

basically I have been lucky in that I have a reasonable job with an average income. I contacted CCCS who went through a DMP with me and found that I could spare!!! £868 per month, leaving enough to live on. We went without quite a few things like holidays, new car etc etc. However we claimed against the endowment people and got a nice little sum that enabled us to buy a used but serviceable car. We then decided to move house recently and by increasing the mortgage slightly and selling our endowment (switching to straight repayment) enabled us to pay off the remaining £26k that we owed. The majority of the creditors were paid in full but about 3 of them accepted 90% F&F settlement on larger amounts. Otherwise we would have been going for about another 2 1/2 years or so. The best of it all is that even with a larger (fixed rate for 2 years) mortgage I am still paying less than the CCCS and original mortgage combined, leaving me with about £300 per month free!!!!

BTW the credit trap in my mind is when you are in a cycle of credit, borrow from one to pay another and you never really settle the first one. Eventually you end up owing everyone. Consolidation loans, switching Credit cards etc. Sometimes they offer brief respite but eventually cannot replace cold hard cash. The only way to beat it is to stop and take stock, then using one of the many available charities or agencies take control of your spending and start paying back what you owe.

dawn2dusk

Congratulations and well done. It is heart warming hearing success stories. :T :T :T

bigmac2020_2

Wannabesaver wrote:

Bigmac - Congratulations!!! :T

One question - did you make final settlements to your creditors? How were they about it and what percentage did they accept?

Welldone - cant wait to be in your shoes!;)

Many thanks for that, much appreciated.

I did offer some final settlements depending on the balance. We owed about £26k and finally managed to settle everyone on about £23.7k. For the ones that settled I had offered between 87 and 90% of the full balance. The worst 2 were Citi and MBNA, however Barclays and the Co Op were absolutely fine (these were loans BTW).

good luck and keep focused, you will make it!!!!

bigmac2020_2

Glass_Half_Empty?? wrote:

Well done, it is really nice seeing more and more folk on here becoming debt free. Just think when we are all debt free we will have to litter all the other boards on here as we will have nothing else to do as there will be no one left on here
I hope you will have nice and prosperous life ahead of you now without having to pay anyone any money and when you see that car you always wanted at least now you can say you have earnt it :beer:

Glass - I trust that when you are settled you will become Glass Half Full? I hope so. Thanks for this, I wanted to post to let folks know that it can be done and to offer hope. You are absolutely right over the last 4 1/2 years it has been pretty grim earning money and seeing it go out to pay off the debts, so going forward it will be nice to have cash that we can call our own. Good luck to you and keep going.

southern_chick

well done bigmac you must feel brilliant, enjoy your debt-free status!!:beer: :j :beer: :j

bigmac2020_2

Bunnyinthelights wrote:

GOD! Amazing!!
Well done, would love to hear more how you did it...
Bunny

Bunny,

basically it is all down to focus and the support of my better half, and a bit of help from the CCCS.
You just have to pull the reigns in and decide do I need it or want it? Even now I struggle to buy something without going through an ordeal of do I need or Want it.
When we started in May 2002 it seemed very daunting but as the years have rolled by it has been very satisfying to see the amounts drop. It is imperative to keep on top of the amounts, I regularly went on to the CCCS website and updated balances when I got a statement from the CC companies, that way we were not disappointed to learn that we still owed more than we thought.

I also keep an Excel spreadsheet on a yearly basis, that way we could see if we were going to overspend and whether we could afford something. Set your budget and stick it, occassionaly if you can afford it, reward yourself, but never berate yourself if you do sway a little, just make a bigger effort next month. Always pay your important bills, G&E, Mortgage etc.

Don't ever let your creditors think you are beaten, if you have taken control then you remain in control. What's the worst they can do, you usually feel bad enough already. Don't think of it as a punishment, it is a road to levity and the more the debt reduces the better you feel and your lesson has already been learnt, otherwise you would not be trying to deal with it!!!!!