Young and Broke and Gutted

seanswimby

Im a newcomer to this site. This is my story.

I left home when i was 16 and moved into rented accomodation. I have had unstable few years of not caring about bills, rent, credit and upon turning 18 i went and grabbed at every bit of credit i could get. I am now 22 and having never paid a bill apart from occasional rent you can imagine that i'm in a massive pile of debt. I have decided today to ask for advise on how to clear my debt. I estimate i have around £26 - £30 thousand owing to 10 - 15 different creditors. I have kept no track record of who i owe money to and dont even know the names of some of them. Recently i had a partner who i was with for 12 months. She left me 6 weeks ago for various reasons - one big one being the debt i was in. Whilst we were together i had a bad affect on her spending regimes and when she left she owed around £5 - £6 thousand. I havent got a clue where to start and loads of different advise has been thrown at me. I feel confused and dont know what to do.

Any ideas - can anyone help me get started ?

lxpeanut

The first thing you need to do is work out what money you have coming in and essential outgoings food, bills, rent ect. This will help make the descision on what you can do. Then contact one of the free debt advisory services, ie payplan or cccs, they will look at your budget and what you have left then explain your options.

You've made the first step by facing the problem. Good luck.

postingalwaysposting

seanswimby wrote: »

I have kept no track record of who i owe money to and dont even know the names of some of them.

welcome, firstly you need to know who you owe money to... in order to do this you need your credit reports you can get them online or buy post experian do an online one free (30 days free trial but remember to cancel) and if you go through quidco you can get £5 cash back. The others you can get sample letters from here and get your report sent to your for only a £2 cheque...

here is the link with all the info you need (near the bottom) http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi...01485056,23650, but as i say do experian through quidco (search quidco for creditexpertuk) and you can get some cash back

once you have your credit report it will show all the debt you owe and to whom and the extent of debt you are looking at once you/we have that info you can then post up a soa and you can look at paying some of this off (if its an option)

Karmacat

Hello Seanswimby, and welcome to the site. This is all a lot to take on board, so congratulations for starting - bit by bit, and you can get it sorted.

The first thing to do is what people call a Statement of Affairs - an soa. There's a "sticky" at the top of this board, by southernscouser, on how to do it. You put down all your expenditure, as lxpeanut said, what debts you have, who you owe to, your rate of interest, how much the monthly payments are, all that jazz. It can take an hour or so, but the feeling of power once you know,even if its horrible news, is great. The main reason for doing it, tho, is so that people on this board can advise you properly - whether to go for a 0% credit card, or contact payplan or cccs, or switch fuel provider, as an urgent thing, whatever it is.

Get as much detail as you can down on a post -or several posts, we don't care - and someone will help.

Good luck - and anyquestions, post again and ask

Karmacat

Okay, cross post here - listen to postingalwaysposting rather than me, lol!

postingalwaysposting

Karmacat wrote: »

Okay, cross post here - listen to postingalwaysposting rather than me, lol!

no... what you have written is good advice but he needs to know who he owes... then he needs to contact the companys involved... but he does need to know his soa to see if he has money remainding to pay these companys... if not he will need to seek advice from ccs/cab/national debtline as to what his steps/avenues are in which to clear the debt... your advice was good

seanswimby

wow, quick replys - so what i need to do is order one of these credit files from experian ? ok no problem - thats what i will do, i'll be back with my details asap - thanks guys i've never had people cross posting to give me advise, i feel like part of the family.

postingalwaysposting

seanswimby wrote: »

wow, quick replys - so what i need to do is order one of these credit files from experian ? ok no problem - thats what i will do, i'll be back with my details asap - thanks guys i've never had people cross posting to give me advise, i feel like part of the family.

sean go through quidco http://www.quidco.com/ its a cash back site that will give you £5 back for doing so

joeblack066

Hi seanswimsby, and welcome!! Excellent advice so far, so I don't need to say anything, except Well Done for facing up to things, you have taken the first step towards debt freedom. We're all in the same boat here, and all Debt Free Wannabe's, so the advice is always excellent, and the supprt out of this world!

seanswimby

" here is the link with all the info you need (near the bottom) http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi...01485056,23650, but as i say do experian through quidco (search quidco for creditexpertuk) and you can get some cash back " just tryed this link but could get it to work can you repost the link plz

postingalwaysposting

seanswimby wrote: »

" here is the link with all the info you need (near the bottom) http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi...01485056,23650, but as i say do experian through quidco (search quidco for creditexpertuk) and you can get some cash back " just tryed this link but could get it to work can you repost the link plz

here you go http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1101485056,23650, how to get paper reports is half way down and below that is the online options, the paper reports take about 1/2 weeks depending on the ammount asked for from other members of the public... hth