Help 25 with £30,000 of debt

bazzer86

Hello

when i was 18 everybody body offered me credit and now i am paying for it. I first realised i was in trouble at 20 when i started to sort out this debt , the total was at around £15,000.

I then started up a company landscaping which i ran for 3 years , first year busy but trying to set up so not much wages about, this was a partnership also. Over the course of the time the most wages i took a week was aprox £200 not enough to live on. Then the resestion hit hard, just as things was looking up.

Next thing i know a customer didnt pay because they could afford it which then put my materials account over the limit, I waited for the payments for around 3 weeks , whilst still using the account over the agreed limit of £5,000, i continued to work on my next job to try to pay off the account when the phone call came , they couldnt pay anything. With that my account with the materials company got blocked and charges started to occur.

Over a year this company was chasing for this money through my bussiness partner , he gave up as they was asking for £500 per week. He was sent Bankrupt. Then they came for me for the full amount £9,800. This was a huge blow for me because as they came the bank came for me also with an overdraft and loan which the bussiness had for £3,500 .

now am 25 married with a child og 2 years and 6 months and my new born due in 3 weeks , i work full time and do all the overtime possable , i worked 36 hours straight the other week as i feel i cant turn down work at all. I am currently of for 4 days which is the first time off i have had in 6 weeks .

I have had enuf , this is all too much for me now and need some help quickly before i make myself ill , i was advised by my doctor last year to slow down as my blood presure was throught the roof but i cant i need to get out of this mess that I created but realy dont know how to now.

I have looked into bankruptcy but really dont want to go down that route at all .

Please somebody help me before my health starts to be affected.

HappyMJ

bazzer86 wrote: »

Hello

when i was 18 everybody body offered me credit and now i am paying for it. I first realised i was in trouble at 20 when i started to sort out this debt , the total was at around £15,000.

I then started up a company landscaping which i ran for 3 years , first year busy but trying to set up so not much wages about, this was a partnership also. Over the course of the time the most wages i took a week was aprox £200 not enough to live on. Then the resestion hit hard, just as things was looking up.

Next thing i know a customer didnt pay because they could afford it which then put my materials account over the limit, I waited for the payments for around 3 weeks , whilst still using the account over the agreed limit of £5,000, i continued to work on my next job to try to pay off the account when the phone call came , they couldnt pay anything. With that my account with the materials company got blocked and charges started to occur.

Over a year this company was chasing for this money through my bussiness partner , he gave up as they was asking for £500 per week. He was sent Bankrupt. Then they came for me for the full amount £9,800. This was a huge blow for me because as they came the bank came for me also with an overdraft and loan which the bussiness had for £3,500 .

now am 25 married with a child og 2 years and 6 months and my new born due in 3 weeks , i work full time and do all the overtime possable , i worked 36 hours straight the other week as i feel i cant turn down work at all. I am currently of for 4 days which is the first time off i have had in 6 weeks .

I have had enuf , this is all too much for me now and need some help quickly before i make myself ill , i was advised by my doctor last year to slow down as my blood presure was throught the roof but i cant i need to get out of this mess that I created but realy dont know how to now.

I have looked into bankruptcy but really dont want to go down that route at all .

Please somebody help me before my health starts to be affected.

£30,000 is a lot of debt to be managed on a DMP so bankruptcy is an option to wipe the slate clean and start again. Is there a reason you do not want to consider bankruptcy? It sounds scary but once done all the stress of having to make repayments on debts is gone. You will be suprised at the load it takes off you. Do you own a house?

You could try posting an SOA (statement of affairs) here to see if you have room to reduce expenses but with a family to support it seems unlikely. What is your take home pay and what expenses do you have? This will leave you with an amount that you can spend on making payments towards the debts. If the amount of debt divided by your monthly payment equals a reasonable number of years then it might be worth considering. If it's any more than 6 years you may as well go bankrupt and start saving as when the 6 years is up your credit report will be clean again and you can then consider buying a house if you wish.

bazzer86

HappyMJ wrote: »

£30,000 is a lot of debt to be managed on a DMP so bankruptcy is an option to wipe the slate clean and start again. Is there a reason you do not want to consider bankruptcy? It sounds scary but once done all the stress of having to make repayments on debts is gone. You will be suprised at the load it takes off you. Do you own a house?

You could try posting an SOA (statement of affairs) here to see if you have room to reduce expenses but with a family to support it seems unlikely. What is your take home pay and what expenses do you have? This will leave you with an amount that you can spend on making payments towards the debts. If the amount of debt divided by your monthly payment equals a reasonable number of years then it might be worth considering. If it's any more than 6 years you may as well go bankrupt and start saving as when the 6 years is up your credit report will be clean again and you can then consider buying a house if you wish.

I take home £1300 but can be upto £2,000 with the overtime i do. I dont wanna go bankrupt i dont own a house or a car over £1,000 i know that but i will never go bankrupt i promised myself that anything else . I currently live with my parents with my wife and son because of the situation i am in , i do pay rent of £300 and my mum has already tried to help by paing a £14,000 debt and reducing it to £8,000 with an early settlement and i pay £100 to that also but that s all i pay , the rest is distributed to insurance and fuel for my car and my son and wifes needs . I aprox pay out £1250 on bills everymonth with is why i need to do the overtime at work

HappyMJ

bazzer86 wrote: »

I take home £1300 but can be upto £2,000 with the overtime i do. I dont wanna go bankrupt i dont own a house or a car over £1,000 i know that but i will never go bankrupt i promised myself that anything else . I currently live with my parents with my wife and son because of the situation i am in , i do pay rent of £300 and my mum has already tried to help by paing a £14,000 debt and reducing it to £8,000 with an early settlement and i pay £100 to that also but that s all i pay , the rest is distributed to insurance and fuel for my car and my son and wifes needs . I aprox pay out £1250 on bills everymonth with is why i need to do the overtime at work

So you only have £50 a month spare each month. It will take you 50 years to clear the debt at that rate.

Do yourself a favour and go BR (my opinion). It isn't worth struggling on such a low income for a debt which wasn't your fault and for so many years.

If you wish to go on a DMP then you should pay £50 a month towards your debts (save any extra you earn from overtime) and hope they don't send you bankrupt or take out CCJ's against you. As you have no assets that is highly unlikely to happen. Your credit will be affected in exactly the same way as a BR. You will have defaults on your credit report which are seen by creditors and you will not be able to get credit in any case. Then in 6 years you can use the savings you have put aside from the overtime that you have done and then make a full and final settlement offer on all the debts. Hopefully your offer will be accepted and the defaults will also drop off your credit report at the same time.

bazzer86

HappyMJ wrote: »

So you only have £50 a month spare each month. It will take you 50 years to clear the debt at that rate.

Do yourself a favour and go BR (my opinion). It isn't worth struggling on such a low income for a debt which wasn't your fault and for so many years.

If you wish to go on a DMP then you should pay £50 a month towards your debts (save any extra you earn from overtime) and hope they don't send you bankrupt or take out CCJ's against you. As you have no assets that is highly unlikely to happen. Your credit will be affected in exactly the same way as a BR. You will have defaults on your credit report which are seen by creditors and you will not be able to get credit in any case. Then in 6 years you can use the savings you have put aside from the overtime that you have done and then make a full and final settlement offer on all the debts. Hopefully your offer will be accepted and the defaults will also drop off your credit report at the same time.

I pay out £500 aprox towards my debt with the arrangements that are in place but it will take 11 years to complete and i cant continue for that long

HappyMJ

bazzer86 wrote: »

I pay out £500 aprox towards my debt with the arrangements that are in place but it will take 11 years to complete and i cant continue for that long

How do you pay £500 when you earn £1,300 and spend £1,250 on essential expenses for yourself, your wife and your child. You are struggling so reduce your repayments to £50 and save the difference if you wish to clear the debt without going BR.

bazzer86

I spend £500 on debts £300 on rent£100 to parent who helped me on a debt. £100 car insurance , £50 on fuel and aprox £200 on nappies , travel for wife as she doesnt drive , meals for work etc .

HappyMJ

bazzer86 wrote: »

I spend £500 on debts £300 on rent£100 to parent who helped me on a debt. £100 car insurance , £50 on fuel and aprox £200 on nappies , travel for wife as she doesnt drive , meals for work etc .

You are living a poverty lifestyle for no real reason other than your desire to repay a debt. Reduce your repayments and live properly. Go and rent a flat for your family for your child to grow up in and then consider negotiating small repayments on the debt. You said you were getting ill. I'm not suprised if that is your budget.

bazzer86

I have tried to reduce payments £300 of that is one company which was from the company i had , they are still not happy with that payment and want more but i just cant afford to , they have people at my door threatening me that they are going to send me bankrupt if i dont up the payments , and i dont want to rent i would be throwing money away that could help me to get debt free quicker and get my life back on track

HappyMJ

bazzer86 wrote: »

I have tried to reduce payments £300 of that is one company which was from the company i had , they are still not happy with that payment and want more but i just cant afford to , they have people at my door threatening me that they are going to send me bankrupt if i dont up the payments , and i dont want to rent i would be throwing money away that could help me to get debt free quicker and get my life back on track

You would get housing benefit to help pay the rent. At the moment you cannot claim that as you are living with family so your rent would reduce to an affordable level so instead of paying £300 a month you might pay £400 a month but might get £200 a month in housing benefit reducing that part of your expenses and having more available income.

Tell the company in writing they will accept what you are offering and if they do not wish to accept that they get nothing. You have nothing to be scared of. You own nothing and have no spare income. They will not waste their time and money sending you bankrupt.

bazzer86

ill phone them now and have a word with them to reduce this amount ill post the out come thanks