Debt Free by 2020.....

debtboredom

If that's what they've come up with then it should be right. It might be worth giving PayPlan a call too to see if they can help. They both make money because they are paid by banks etc.

Self managed is an option but you do have a lot of creditors and it would probably be very time consuming to keep on top of when they could take that hassle out of your hands.

honeybean

after reading the comments i get the feeling you really dont want to do anything, i was in the same boat made a lot of decisions to cut back and it was a struggle i have 3 kids and they understood when i said i could not afford a comic or treats out every week and we did without a holiday for 3 years , if you want hols why not go on the sun holidays they are cheap and cheerful i go on them even tho i can afford expensive hols now?, i am now debt free and guess what my kids still are not bothered about treats and comics. But they appreciate everything they get . If you really are serious about dealing with your debts then deal with them instead of firing down all the suggestions people give dont forget you asked , i also work 48hr week but sky is a treat and life does go on without it!!!

triple_choc_chip

Forgiven :cool:
Pride makes everything a bit fuzzy! I can't advise on dmp's but others will post some links up for you I expect, there are templates for all kinds of letters on this site.

Once you've done the firefighting bit to get all the creditors in order, get your other half on here looking at the shopping challenges and batch cooking / freezing stuff. If you're both on board and working towards the goal it will be much easier to manage.

Johnhowell

danross83 wrote: »

The only downside with the CCCS is that they aren't totally free. They let your money sit in a bank account earning them interest for a period of time.

May be so - but they earn a couple of quid TOPS (probably only pence), and all the money you paid in is used to reduce your debt to your creditors. Whereas the DMP you pay £30 a month for, reduces the payback buy £30.

Seems to me that CCCS is the most effective route in this regard.

Good luck.

Barbeduk

I'd just be concerned about going it alone cus I know that if it was me, I'd be really good for the first 6 months then i'd get fed up with it and splurge again.

The interest rates on your SOA are all zero, which I think is prob because you didn't have the chance to update them all. With the CCCS route you'd also have someone to negotiate these for you.

You seem very determined so I'm sure you'll sort something but I just know that with that amount of debt, personally self managed wouldn't be for me.

I do apologise if I added to your stress last night. Good luck.

Edit, sorry, just thought, have you had a look through the dmp support threads etc? I know a lot of people overpay to bring their debt free date forward and if CCCS are suggesting under £300 a month for you, I'm sure this is something you could do.

asparagus1968

you work hard,have 5 kids and a partner to provide for and a load of debt-you are bound to feel angry and stressed.
but now seems the time to face up to choices you have made,if only to teach the the children about consequences,if nothing else! it sounds like you are trying to give them a good life and be a good role model.
could you look at this as a positive change in your lifestyle and not a sort of prison sentance?
you will have to make sacrifices-because when you borrow money you know it needs to be paid back somehow.
sky tv
£50 per month for "drinks for the home"
£60 mobile phone bill-when you also have a landline and only one of you is workng.
holidays

these are things you can have when you can afford luxuries,not when you owe shedloads of money.

child support money-this is to support living costs of the child-roof over its head/food/heating/clothing/school trips/toys/ etc etc-this should be included in your house hold income.don't feel guilty using it!

you have so much on your plate,but it can and will get better

god,i'm rambling on!

good luck,get onto debt charity,let them do the work,you haven't the time or energy.

tony_ack

I've just embarked on CCCS and you are right - they're not 100% free in the truest sense as they do hold your money for 25 days. However this is really the only associated cost.

When you think about it, how much money would that £300 earn you in a savings account over 25 days? Offset that in the potential money that CCCS could save you by freezing your interest on all your debts. CCCS probably earn about a quid, tops, from your money each month, and could save you hundreds in interest.

Self-managed is possible, but that leaves you to do all the negotiations yourself - with CCCS you basically sign the forms, enclose your latest statements for each debt and proof of income, send them back and they do everything else for you. They recommend that you contact your creditors to let them know what's happening, but they give you the template to do this - all you need to do is fill in the reference numbers and send them off (I was cheeky here and printed off the letters at work, and got the envelopes from the stationery cupboard, and my gf supplied some stamps from her work stash, so cost me nothing!)

Then let CCCS do their work. Contact with your creditors is optional after this point.

I was very similar to you when I started out on here (minus 4 kids!) - I didn't want to accept that I had to cut back on my lifestyle, and I wanted a magic bullet to fix it all. I kept trying to justify Sky, hobbies, etc. I had my lightbulb moment and to me, the lightbulb moment was:
-The moment I realised that I couldn't carry on this way
-The moment I saw how much of my income being sucked away into a black hole just to keep up minimum payments on my debts
-The moment I realised that if it wasn't for my debts I'd have a decent lifestyle
-The moment I realised that paying my mortgage was more important than having Sky
-The moment I realised that food in our bellies was more important than a holiday
-The moment I realised that the debt was never going to go away unless I did SOMETHING

You have got some really hard decisions ahead, I know, I've been there and so have most people on this board. It's really hard to accept that you need to really change the way you live, but that change doesn't have to be a bad thing.

Really good luck to you on this.

Time_to_face_the_music

tony_ack wrote: »

I had my lightbulb moment and to me, the lightbulb moment was:
-The moment I realised that I couldn't carry on this way
-The moment I saw how much of my income being sucked away into a black hole just to keep up minimum payments on my debts
-The moment I realised that if it wasn't for my debts I'd have a decent lifestyle
-The moment I realised that paying my mortgage was more important than having Sky
-The moment I realised that food in our bellies was more important than a holiday
-The moment I realised that the debt was never going to go away unless I did SOMETHING.

Inspiring post Tony and really does show what LBMs are all about :T

You have either had one or you haven't, the minute it happens you know you have to do something about it or you will drown. Am not convinced danross has had his yet, I had a few should I/shouldn't I moments first and teetered on the edge of the diving board for a month before I took the plunge. Once I was in the water, I realised it wasn't as cold or as deep as I thought.

Life is different but it's certainly not bad and watching our debt take a hit every month is worth every little sacrifice

cripes_2

"Possibly with 5 kids may want to own my own home someday?"

Good luck with that, you only need to pay off £25 grand, save up £15,000 and then pay the mortgage without all the lovely housing benefit...

sounds like a plan to me

eyeopener2

danross83 wrote: »

My point though is that the CCCS calculator got my money for DMP to less than £300, probably cos they are more generous in some areas, plus because they allow kids to have school meals, and pocket money etc. The only downside with the CCCS is that they aren't totally free. They let your money sit in a bank account earning them interest for a period of time. This would be less galling if not for the fact that you have to do all the work, eg writing to the creditors etc, at your own expense. Might as well go self managed, using the CCCS budget planner as a SOA - get best of both worlds? Still not using the kids money to repay mine and her debts, but equally getting it in in under 8 years.

Use CCCS or Payplan, don't start penny pinching over some strange idea that CCCS are not 'totally' free. It's a ridiculous notion really. You are quite happily paying the scum bag banks and credit companies tonnes of interest but CCCS keeping £300 for 25 days is wrong? But you will use the CCCS budget planner.........

Anyway, use the services charitys that are available. You can go it alone, and many do, but you may find yourself being told to use CCCS or PAyplan by your creditors before they take you seriously. Once your DMP is up and running and you have fended off the letters and phonecalls (which will drive you mad) then you could look into going it alone.

A £25k debt paying £300 a month (minimum 7 years) will take some organising, especially if the creditors refuse to play ball with interest, so I urge you to seek some help with the Charitys. They are really, really helpful initially and, although I have my criticisms of them, they are tiny moans compared to the help I received from Day 1.

Try it and don't fall into the trap that CCCS are trying to screw you for about 25p a month. That is just daft.

E2