SOA - Please be Kind!

flis21

Hi All,

Ok, well I am taking the plunge. Here is my SOA. What can I do?

My Debts

Ace £132.00
Argos £170.57
Amex £3,616.00
Cap One £1,861.50
Egg £3,178.00
Egg £8,081.76
Hsbc £1,810.11
HSBC £1,589.50
IF £1,813.58
Morgan Stanley £2,558.00
Next £151.00
Student Loan £10,468.19
Next £209.89
Nationwide £2,032.43

Total: £37,672.53


OH's Debts:

Barclaycard £108.00
Capital One £5,043.39
Egg £3,697.00
HSBC £679.72
HSBC £7,149.52
Halifax £3,838.10
IF £1,396.55
Natwest £1,082.00

Total: £22,994.28

So between us total debt is: £60,666.81

Current Incomings:

My Income: £850 per month
OH Income: £1,300 per month

Current Outgoings

Rent £650.00
Elec & Gas £75.00
Southern Water £6.50
Contents Ins £14.42
TV Licence £11.38
South East Water £16.64
BT £60.00
Contact Lenses £15.50
Council Tax £113.00
Gym Membership £28.00
Mobile Phones £20.00
Food / Toiletries £250.00
Clothing / Footwear£50.00
Train Travel £50.00
Bus Travel £20.00
Hairdressing £25.00
Pet £15.00
Prescriptions £13.30
Tobacco £50.00
Christmas/Birthdays £60.00

This doesn't include any money for going out / holidays etc. (Which, ok, we probably spend too much money on:o )

Total Outgoings: £1,543.74


Currently have not been making any payments to creditors since our IVA failed last year. Some creditors are now starting to chase.

Skint_Catt

:hello:

Why are you paying two water companies?
What does the £60 to BT include - broadband? It's very high!
Is 'Pet' food or insurance?
Hair care can come down from £25 a month!!!!
Contact lenses can be found for £11 IIRC if you shop around!
Tobacco needs to come down
Can you get a pre-paid prescription certificate - this is usually cheaper?
Could you cancel Gym and go walking or get some bikes from freecycle (could also cut down bus fares)

What are the APR's on all your debts? Could you move somewhere cheaper? Could you or your partner do more hours or get a second job (even leaflet delivering??)

Catt xx

f85

Hi and congrats! I'm sure there will be more experienced MSE'rs along to give you their thoughts, here's some general observations with regards to your outgoings:

flis21 wrote: »

Hi All,

Ok, well I am taking the plunge. Here is my SOA. What can I do?

My Debts

Ace £132.00
Argos £170.57
Amex £3,616.00
Cap One £1,861.50
Egg £3,178.00
Egg £8,081.76
Hsbc £1,810.11
HSBC £1,589.50
IF £1,813.58
Morgan Stanley £2,558.00
Next £151.00
Student Loan £10,468.19
Next £209.89
Nationwide £2,032.43

Total: £37,672.53


OH's Debts:

Barclaycard £108.00
Capital One £5,043.39
Egg £3,697.00
HSBC £679.72
HSBC £7,149.52
Halifax £3,838.10
IF £1,396.55
Natwest £1,082.00

Total: £22,994.28

So between us total debt is: £60,666.81

Current Incomings:

My Income: £850 per month
OH Income: £1,300 per month

Current Outgoings

Rent £650.00
Elec & Gas £75.00 seems quite high, worthwhile considering if a cheaper provider is available
Southern Water £6.50
Contents Ins £14.42
TV Licence £11.38
South East Water £16.64
BT £60.00 this also seems quite high, what tariff are you currently on?
Contact Lenses £15.50
Council Tax £113.00
Gym Membership £28.00
Mobile Phones £20.00
Food / Toiletries £250.00 again, quite high for two people: check out the old-style money saving board for ideas to reduce this
Clothing / Footwear£50.00
Train Travel £50.00
Bus Travel £20.00
Hairdressing £25.00
Pet £15.00
Prescriptions £13.30
Tobacco £50.00
Christmas/Birthdays £60.00

This doesn't include any money for going out / holidays etc. (Which, ok, we probably spend too much money on:o )

Total Outgoings: £1,543.74


Currently have not been making any payments to creditors since our IVA failed last year. Some creditors are now starting to chase.

As for your debts, it may be helpful if you had a list of the current APR you are paying to each debtor.

Well done on making the first step!

F

Sausage_Roll

flis21 wrote: »

Hi All,

Ok, well I am taking the plunge. Here is my SOA. What can I do?

My Debts

Ace £132.00
Argos £170.57
Amex £3,616.00
Cap One £1,861.50
Egg £3,178.00
Egg £8,081.76
Hsbc £1,810.11
HSBC £1,589.50
IF £1,813.58
Morgan Stanley £2,558.00
Next £151.00
Student Loan £10,468.19
Next £209.89
Nationwide £2,032.43

Total: £37,672.53


OH's Debts:

Barclaycard £108.00
Capital One £5,043.39
Egg £3,697.00
HSBC £679.72
HSBC £7,149.52
Halifax £3,838.10
IF £1,396.55
Natwest £1,082.00

Total: £22,994.28

So between us total debt is: £60,666.81

Current Incomings:

My Income: £850 per month
OH Income: £1,300 per month

Current Outgoings

Rent £650.00
Elec & Gas £75.00
Southern Water £6.50 south east water as well? Why?
Contents Ins £14.42
TV Licence £11.38
South East Water £16.64 See above.
BT £60.00 A bit expensive, does that include internet? Use a comparison site to find out how much you should be saving.
Contact Lenses £15.50 You might be able to get the same lenses for cheaper online.
Council Tax £113.00
Gym Membership £28.00 Do you go regularly enough to save money as compared to individual visit payments?
Mobile Phones £20.00
Food / Toiletries £250.00 If its just the two of you, you should be able to cut this down quite a bit.
Clothing / Footwear£50.00
Train Travel £50.00 Is this leisure travel? If your under 25 have you got a young persons railcard? If it's just the same journey you make all the time, check if you can save anything getting an annual card.
Bus Travel £20.00 again, check if you can save by getting an annual bus travel card.
Hairdressing £25.00 Girls :rolleyes:
Pet £15.00 Is that food and insurance?
Prescriptions £13.30
Tobacco £50.00 Try to give it up, there is lots of free advice available.
Christmas/Birthdays £60.00

This doesn't include any money for going out / holidays etc. (Which, ok, we probably spend too much money on:o )

Total Outgoings: £1,543.74


Currently have not been making any payments to creditors since our IVA failed last year. Some creditors are now starting to chase.

(I've never done this before, so am assuming your income is after tax?)
£606.26 disposable income just per month. After getting your outgoings down, you should be looking at around about £800-£900 a month.

flis21

I don't know the APR's. All the debts had the interest frozen on them when we went into the IVA. Not sure what is happening now IVA has failed.

Can't move them, as no one will give us any more credit (strangely enough!)

BT - that is for home phone (on BT together option 1 I think) and Broadband. Am getting free evening and weekend calls through our broadband now, so am hoping that will come down a bit.

Elec / Gas - Changed over last summer, powergen were the cheapest provider then when I checked. Have got a bit of a deficit with them after the winter, so can't change at the minute until that has cleared.

Pet is for food / bedding / hay and injections / vet check ups. Don't have insurance.

I would love to get the tobacco down, but OH won't quit smoking. (I quit 5 years ago!). Also the food / toiletries also includes OH's beer, which he does consume quite a bit of.

Although the food / toiletries is a bit of a guess. I am keeping all receipts this month for the first time and will see at the end exactly how much I have spent on these things.

Contact lenses - I use the all day all night ones (I sleep in them) and last time I looked, with the after care i get from specsavers as well, I couldn't get them any cheaper. Will have another look tho.

I would cancel the gym, but took it up on referral from my doctor. Also know that come the winter I wouldn't go walking / riding outside.

Hair care - ok, that is my fault. £29 every 6 weeks and OH's is £6 every 6 weeks. Will try and look around for a cheaper hairdresser.

I am making alot of excuses aren't i!!! Feel like I am defending my lifestyle. Will try and be more positive to suggestions.

Mainly wanted suggestions about what to do. Whether to try repaying debts straight, try doing another IVA or going bankrupt?

briona

Hi Flis

Firstly, well done on posting your SOA. You mention that you are no longer making payments to creditors but, assuming your figures are correct and nothing's left out, then it would appear, that after your outgoings have gone, you should have around £600pm left over...

I'd imagine there will be more people along soon who can be of more help but at first glance, here's my offerings:

WATER:
Southern Water £6.50
South East Water £16.64
Why are you paying two water companies each month?

PHONE:
BT £60
This is pretty steep for one month. Have you looked into call discounters such as 18185? I managed to massively reduce my call costs with one of them.

FOOD/TOILETRIES:
Food/Toiletries £250.00
Is this for just two people? If so, it can be massively reduced – see the old style board for tips, e.g., many supermarket own-brands (and I'm not referring to the bottom of the range Tesco value stuff!) tastes exactly the same as the premium brands but for a much lower price.

HAIRDRESSING/CLOTHING/FOOTWEAR:
Hairdressing £25.00
Clothing/Footwear £50.00
Are these absolutely necessary EVERY month, e.g., £50pm on clothes is £600 per year, which could probably be better spent on servicing the debts.

CHRISTMAS/BIRTHDAYS:
Christmas/Birthdays £60
Again, if money is tight, this is a HUGE amount of money to be spending on what are basically non-essentials. This could definitely be reduced or at least given a more realistic figure, after all £60pm is £720 per year...

Not being a smoker, it is probably not prudent of me to mention cutting down/giving up hence I will just point out that £50pm is £600 per year...

I would look at where the 'extra' £600 each month is going to see if it can be redirected towards making at least token payments to some of the creditors. Then perhaps, by making some adjustments to the essential outgoings, you may be able to free up a little more money each month to put towards servicing debts.

As a little motivation, I notice that at least four of your debts (and one of your partner's) are relatively small (Ace, Argos, and two to Next, and partner's Barclaycard) although all are likely to have very high APRs – if you made some adjustments to your outgoings, you could clear these five debts in a month or two.

Best of luck

Briona

For advice on dealing with creditors visit National Debtline – http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/debt_advice.php#6 (see the sample letters section – there's a template there for asking creditors to accept token payments. Make sure you don't have pop ups blocked on your browser or the letters won't open).

Sausage_Roll

Once again, I've never given advice about this before, so don't look at my advice as anything more than words on a forum until someone else who's done this before comes along!

It looks like you've got a few debts to stores - next, ace(?), argos. they could all be paid off in one month, and I've always found it easier to work with fewer things rather than a lot spread out over many. (if you know what I mean!) Their APR is probably higher than most of the other debts.

If your not paying back anything at the moment to any of the creditors, I assume it would be better to start paying back the ones with the higher APR to try and control the possible snowballing.

Personally, I wouldn't look at bankruptcy at the moment, and i'm from Scotland so don't really know much about IVAs.

Your student loan - as your income is below £15k, do you have to pay this back at the moment or do they count your OH's income as well?

flis21

In our area we have 2 water companies, one for bringing the water to you and another one for sewage/ waste water.

To be honest some of the figures, like clothing and food were just guesses. Am going to keep receipts this month and see how much we actually spend on them.

No am not having to pay my student loan at the moment, as I am earning less than £15,000. Luckily they don't seem to take oh's income into account on that.

Welshlassie

You have a bout £600 per month over, where does this go. Try keeping a spending diary, every time you spend something on a paper, or coffee write it down. You'll be surprised how much it will mount up to over the month.

Find out what the APRs are and what your minimum payments should be and the work out how much you have left after these have been paid, then look at paying off the debts with the highest APR's with what is left over, once they are paid off use the money for the min payments on them to pay off the next highest APR and keep going that way.

Have a look at this site to show you the order to pay them off and when you can be debt free if you follow its advice.

Most of all, good luck, you'll get there.

flis21

Ok,

So from what you are all saying there is a chance we can pay this off and not have to go bankrupt.

Have been trying to work with the figures. If we can get £600 a month spare, we can put £300 each into our debts. If we pay off the little ones first, this means:
(OH's Debts:)
Percentages £300.00
Per Month
Capital One£5,043.39 22.04 £66.11
Egg £3,697.00 16.15 £48.46
HSBC £679.72 2.97 £8.91
HSBC £7,149.52 31.24 £93.72
Halifax £3,838.10 16.77 £50.31
IF £1,396.55 6.10 £18.31
Natwest £1,082.00 4.73 £14.18

£22,886.28 6.36 years till paid off

My Debts:

Amex £3,616.00 13.62426566 £40.87
Cap One £1,861.50 7.013708664 £21.04
Egg £3,178.00 11.97398127 £35.92
Egg £8,081.76 30.45023375 £91.35
Hsbc £1,810.11 6.820082831 £20.46
HSBC £1,589.50 5.988874521 £17.97
IF £1,813.58 6.833157002 £20.50
Morgan S£2,558.00 9.637962268 £28.91
Nationwide £2,032.43 7.657734031 £22.97

£26,540.88

7.372466667 years till paid off.


Do those figures look right? Am trying to do it in Excel.

flis21

Sorry, don't worry about replying to last message, table didn't copy, so it looks a mess!!