I wanna be free...

gemmacantan1

Good Afternoon,

I thought it was about time I wrote my stupidity for the forum to see. I will start from the beginning and I mean the beginning.

Well, currently I am a hard working mum of two with two jobs. We live in a cheap built starter home that we bought 8 years ago for £130k through a shared equity scheme. We own 75%.

Everything was great until we had an £8k wedding to pay for. My parents contributed but I made the mistake of putting our honeymoon on a credit card! Error no 1!

I then took out another credit card with a 0% balance transfer for 6 months and not forgetting the store cards, catalogue and loan I had. I was paying £300 a month in total but this was more than the minimum payment so was happy. I was in a average paid job and did a little extra work for a hotel on the side which helped alot.

Mortgage of £700 a month started to be a huge asset that I had to keep track of, dh was unfortunately having issues with his employer paying him with a weekly cheque. Caused a lot of problems in the early days but we spoke to our bank manager who increased our overdraft to £200 a month and gave us so ideas to save money.

Everything was great for a year until as we entered 2006 my husbands two pay cheques bounced! Our mortgage bounced and within few weeks we were financially struggling. The cheques were eventually covered but the damage was done. We couldn't catch up because credit card companies wanted two months + interest and my father in law gave us some money to get us back in the black.

The cheque situation bouncing became a frequent occurance and although I earned the most money it wasn't enough to cover all the bills so I paid what I could and everyone but the mortgage company were happy. Between 2006 - 2007 we missed 5 mortgage payments and I made a deal to pay an extra £100 a month direct at a branch, I had to go out of my way believe me!

They wanted more as we owed £2500 and although we were making payments they were unhappy with our offer of £100. They took us to court and I won, the felt that the bank were unfair in not accepting our offer and as being first time buyers they should have been more understanding.

We remortgaged in November 2007 but our credit rating had been badly damaged by the missed mortgage payments and the other missed payments so we went bad credit route through a broker but we had a baby on the way and couldn't keep paying out £800 a month. We managed to drop it to £500.

Anyway my dh was still having problems with his pay, either it would bounce or they'd forget to sign it (on purpose). Various things led to us struggling financially.

To be honest when the letters started arriving I buried my head in the sand, I was paying my essential bills the rest would get what I could afford. In June 2006 I learnt the reality of my mistake, 2 of my creditors had defaulted me for not paying my minimums. I spoke to various people and no one could offer any advice until a lady suggested a debt management plan. I was reluctant but agreed it was the best way forward. 3 more creditors defaulted me and I was sent to three debt collectors. My dh's finances were also hit when taking on the plan but a default was never raised on his credit profile, it was just passed to an agency.

Anyway after the debt management plan was put into place we were paying £220 a month rather than £500 and it felt great until a YEAR! One whole year later one of my credit cards decided to default me! I tried arguing with them but they were within their rights to do it.

We did the debt plan for 2 years before my father in law paid it off. My dh who liked me believed he had been defaulted avoided credit, no over drafts, credit cards nothing but a routine check of his credit file showed us that his score was perfect, we needed some home improvements done so he got a loan of £4000 and a credit card. I made the mistake of getting a credit card to help repair bad credit and everything was fine. We both worked full time, had good paid jobs. We had another baby and when I wanted to return to work I couldn't afford to work full time and pay full time child care as the first time my mum had looked after my dd. I managed to get a part time job and it paid well but after a year I knew it wasn't working and took on a part time job for the extra income, loved it and was working 70 hours a week sometimes. The money was good by my poor ds who has learning difficulties needed my support. I made the decision to give up the day job and just work the more flexible evening/weekend one freeing me up for home visits and appointments. It was okay for six months and then October 2012 everything went crazy and the reality was we needed two full time incomes coming in which wasn't possible. I took on another part time job to help and not 6/7 years later. We're back where we started.

To be continued...:T

gemmacantan1

Well unlike the first time I'd grown up and didn't want to bury my head in the sand so I contacted my creditors proposing what we could afford.

I then followed it up with a phone call and one of the credit card companies who shall remain nameless had sent out a default notice that morning, I made the comment that I had sent them a letter and was ringing to arrange an arrangement plan. They said that was fine but that it was too late to stop the default! I was gobsmacked!

The others were more than okay with my payment arrangement and for the first three months of the year it was fine, although only one of them agreed to freeze the interest. After the three months ended I contacted them to discuss continuing with the plan and they replied that it was due to be passed to collections due to be over the limit but if I paid £300 to get back within my limit then this wouldn't happen! I don't just have £300 to hand over but I said I'd try but without success. It's because of the interest charges they didn't freeze. The other company have been arguing with me since October saying 'the computer says no' to my payment plan but I could pay £30 a month and it would be okay. Now they are chasing me saying that I've not been keeping within my limit. All this was explained back in October but because I'm not unemployed they don't seem to wanna help, I get that the debts are my problem and originally I was very controlled and paid them off every month but things have got tough this last year (not just for us obviously) so I've been using our cards for general stuff to tide us over (never good).

Anyway I know 1 has defaulted me and the other I'm not sure as I don't remember a letter telling me so but that doesn't mean one hasn't got lost in my pile. My dh unfortunately wasn't so lucky this time and he's had 2 defaults raised despite trying to arrange a plan with them. So we have to live with them. I am going to include some notices of corrections on my credit profile to explain the circumstances.

gemmacantan1

Here's my plan for the next 3 months...

1. Currently talking to payplan about our current situation and exploring all options. Although I believe it will be debt management plan again.
2. Cut up/hide all cards in the biggest forgettable place I can find.
3. Keep up with the current payments I am making
4. Pay my mortgage and council tax on time and in full
5. Don't take on any more credit including payday loans

saterkey

wow, that took some reading, with a grimaced face at times. well done for getting it out there. I hope someone will come along soon with lots of advice for you, you need everything on a spreadsheet in front of you exactly what you owe to whom, and find the best way forward, maybe father in law might be a good person to sit down with. good luck. ps don't take out any more loans

gemmacantan1

saterkey wrote: »

wow, that took some reading, with a grimaced face at times. well done for getting it out there. I hope someone will come along soon with lots of advice for you, you need everything on a spreadsheet in front of you exactly what you owe to whom, and find the best way forward, maybe father in law might be a good person to sit down with. good luck. ps don't take out any more loans

Sorry about the 'book' kind of wanted to cover everything! Believe me, never getting credit again unless I know I will be able to pay it back. Some of it we've kept up with and have no problems so don't know how they will react to the proposed drop in their payment thats if it is by much!

I know I'm an idiot, I will blame it on being young and naive!

gemmacantan1

So a dmp is slowly being put into place again! At first count I thought my debt was around the £11k mark but she's saying its closer to £9k so although bad that as bad!

Looking to be defaulted all over again but I'm going to ask the companies that don't do it within the next three months to get a wriggle on because last time one of the creditors did it 18 months after the others and it annoyed me!

So 2019 before my credit rating will be anything remotely on the positive side but at least I've made a positive decision to tackle my debt and payplan also are going to look into miss sold ppi to see if that can't deduce the balances on some of my credit cards.

On a very positive note the payments are very much affordable and better than the £500 I was paying every month...well was trying to pay! One creditor is on the verge of defaulting me anyway and the other one is not fair behind so I'll have three defaults this time, my dh will have three as well maybe four. He was lucky last time that none of them registered.

I am never getting a credit card again! Whether it be to build my credit rating or whatever! Pre-paid mastercard from virgin all the way!!!