twitcher11 - can you help this OP?

twitcher11

Here is my SOA at last.

Its taken along time to put together but I think its up to date.

But first a few queries.

As of yet I have NEVER defaulted on a payment to a credit company or on the loan.

I have however run up lots of bank charges on current accounts but THAT is another matter
I want to talk to you all about later.

Tomorrow I am due to pay Barclays £145 loan payment but I am now well over my £500 odraft limit so they
will charge me. Also I have never missed a Morgan Stanley payment which is due on 11th June which I could cover
with a cash payment into Llloyds where it is processed.

Or am I missing the point ? I just stop paying ?





ANYWAY HERE GOES !

A. MONTHLY INCOME/OUTGOINGS :-


Monthly Income :-
Amount
Pension £597
Incapacity Benefit £562

Total Monthly Income £1,159



Monthly Outgoings :-

Mortgage £339.89 (currently on 1 year payment holiday until October 2007)
Life Ins£12.00
House Ins £ 16.61
Contents Ins £31.33
Child payments £120.00
Gas and Elec £33.00
Gas Care £19.66
Council Tax £60.00
Water Rate £17.80
Virgin Media £45.00
TV Licence £11.37
Tel calls £10.00
Mobile phone £6.00
Car Tax £10.00
Car Ins £23.30
RAC £7.00
Petrol £80.00
Car Serv/MOT £15.00
Food £120.00
Clothing £10.00
Laundry £5.00
Homecare £5.00
Personal care £15.00
Hospital fund £13.26
Dentist £10.00
Prescriptions £10.00
Mags £3.00

Total Monthly Outgoings £1,049.22


B. DEBTS :-

1. Credit Cards.


Credit Card Amount APR%/CASH APR%

American Express £1,648 19%

Barclaycard Gold Visa £6,971 22.9%/27.9%

Barclaycard Mastercard £7,122 22.9%/27.9%

Cahoot Card £4,615 15.9%

Egg Card £2,525 17.9%

First Direct Visa £2,215 18%

Lloyds TSB £14,534 6.9% some at 7.9%due to bal.transfers.

Marks & Spencer &MORE £7,776 19.9% (as from letter today - just gone up from 17.9)

Mint £5,206 19.9%

Morg. Stanley Gold Card £6,315 18.9%




Total Credit Card Total £58,927 06/06/08




2. Loan


Barclayloan £6000 at 7.6% (or 7.763%) taken out April 2006

13 payments of £145.82 made leaving £5,104 outstanding.


Total Loan £5,104



3. Overdrafts HSBC First Direct £100

Barclays Bank £765 and possibly growing

Lloyds TSB £100


Overdraft total £965 and growing.



GRAND TOTAL unsecured debt £64,996




D. I have a property worth £90 - £95,000 with 3 seperate mortgages on it.

Late last summer in 2006 I realised I was in trouble and applied successfully for a payment holiday.
I managed to finish a Cahoot loan but failed to shift significant amounts from the cards.

At start of Payment holiday the 3 amounts were £10,191, £11,803, and £16,340 making a total of £38334
I spoke to Mortgage Company last week - loolking for a deal !Rate rises and added interest have take combined total owed
to over £39430


No alcohol for second day !
Exhausted and drained and feel totally lost and shaky when I look at what I have just written.

I know its late SO THANKYOU ALL OUT THERE

goodnight.

mintymoneysaver

Twitcher,
sorry haven't got time to reply to your SOA as just on my way to work but just wanted to say well done for posting and welcome!
P.S You might want to add your minimum repayments to that credit card list?

lynzpower

Hi there twitcher

my first feeling is have you applied for yousing benefit & coucil tax benefits. Your mortgage interest only should be paid by housing benefit, and you have to wait 9 months to get it. However, I have heard of these being backdated. So if you apply now, you COULD possibly have it backdated, which would pay off a chunk of your mortgage and thus pay your monthly charge. Obviously it wont touch the balance but will cover the interest. Do speak to your local housing benefit service adn take some specialist advice from Shelter ( so a websearch)

Your buildings & contents cover looks very high indeed for the value of your property. I would shop around for this and switch immiedately. Anything over 30 quid a month is high I say for both.

What is "child payments"

Do you ABSLOLUTELY need gas care? You can get other covers which are cheaper ask on the "in my home " section of the boards.

You should be in recipt of CT Benefit Id have thoguht.

Virgin Media £45.00- what is this - seems very high indeed. Are you paying for digital channels? You can break this down for us, we can see what youve got and how to get it cheaper

Tel calls £10.00 ( Id expect they should be covered in the 45.00 someone is paying too much

Id suggest you buy your petrol in tescos, it will add towards points you can use for car breakdown cover or your food shopping.

Food £120.00 If this is just for one, you can certainly bring it down a bit.


#In terms of your debt its fairly clear to me that although there are a few cutbacks here and there, there is simply not the money to pay your debts.

I am in two minds here which is the best, so do bear with me and hopefully someone else will be along soon to help, but I see you have 2 options

1) Debt management plan
CCCS or payplan will speak with your creditors, endeavour to freeze interest and thus pay it back over amuhc longer period of time. HOWEVER, given that your income is only benefits Im not convinced this is the right option for you as there is a rule about taking benefits for DMP payments and I cant remember what it is. Someone else will know.
2) the other option is to pursue bankrupcy. this again isnt an area I know a great deal about so again someone else should come along and advise.

In terms of your bank charges though, how much do you estimate you have to come back to you?

pania

Morning hon,

Excellent SOA welldone. i know it's hard and scarey getting it all down on paper but it looks asthough you've really worked hard on it.
OK re the mortgage. Have you shopped around for a remortgage of the 39k or have you just spoken to your current provider? As you currently have 3 seperate amounts you are paying three seperate interests rates. would prob be worth looking for a good deal where you can amalgamate all of these into one without necessarilly extending the term. You may be suprised at the repayment.
Your house and contents insurance looks incredibly high. Take a look on quidco WWW.quidco.co.uk and get some quotes on there. you can get quite a nice chunk of cashback on it to!
Virgin media also appears a little high, i guess this is tv phone and broadband? is there anyway you can trim this at all, maybe a slightly lesser package? Give sky a call and find out what their prices are then call telewest and tell them you want t jump ship to sky. you'll be amazed what they pull out of the bag!! (bit cheeky but hey ho!!:rotfl:)
Please forgive me for asking but re the laundry, home and personal care and the hospital fund. Are these necessities to do with your health or are you able to trim this in anyway? (sorry:o )
re what the money was spent on, do you have any thing to ebay at all or pop on amazon? you can raise some quite good money by doing this. Would be more than happy to help with this. Although you don't work would you be able to set up something from home (ie an ebay business) or would this affect your benefit?
everything else looks pretty good. Then we come to the debt and i think you know there is no quick fix to this. It's going to take a long time but you are certainly in the right place to take this on.
Please book an apointment with the citizens advice bureaux asap. they can give you specialised options.
Also you need to set up a seperate bank account with a bank you don't owe money to and arrange for your benefits to go into this. you've gotta look after yourself and make sure you CAN afford to eat (trust me i've tried the toast diet and it ain't much fun;) ) At the moment you have £340 to pay towards your debt IF you leave things how they are.
Give your loan company and call and tell them that you can't pay this month and would they accept a token payment of £1 for this month. Even if they say no send them a payment of £1 anyhow. you can't send them what you haven't got hon and getting into debt to pay another is counter productive for you.
Hmmm, where next... What are the minimum payments on your cards and what are the credit limits?
This is just my take on things but others will be along with advice soon.
But BIG BIG BIG up to you for not drinking for two days. I think you realised it wasn't going to help you.
Yes this will be a long bumpy road but stick on here and you'll be able to see it through.
Keep smiling. :beer:
P
xx

fermi

Hi twitcher,

First of all, Good luck

You have made the first steps to getting everything sorted out, which is fantastic news.

The frightening B word has been mentioned in previous posts, and from someone who who has gone through with it I understand how scary even the mention of it is.

It is only one of your options, but if you would like to discuss this option with people who have been through it then there is a sub-board called "Bancruptcy and living with it" here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=136

I am not advocating BR, just suggesting an extra source of friendly help.

Good luck.

Snaggles

Hi Twitcher, well done for posting your soa. I haven't really much to add as most of the suggestions/comments I would have made have already been covered by other posters, but just wanted to pop by and show my support, and also congratulate you on staying off the alcohol for another day, that's really great (hope that doesn't sound too patronising, it wasn't meant to be ).

Lucy1982_2

Hi.

Just wanted to say hi and welcome. We all understand the sleepless nights and the stress. But everything seems so much clearer after a few days here. And if not we all try to pick each other up.

Never be afraid to post, generally there is someone out there who will help.

How many children do you have? If your daughter is 18 (and an only child) then maintance payments will stop as she is classified as an adult. This alone would save you £120 a month.

But good luck and if you ever need anyone, post and we'll find you. Congrats on not drinking.... it really does help. Have you seen your Dr about the sleepless nights? He may be able to offer you something to help.

:A

twitcher11

Morning all

No I did not drink last night for second day in a row !
Thankyou for all the comments so far.

But this morning looking at the comments (Thankyou) so far I feel even deeper in trouble.


Can someone please please answer my specific questions about paying Barclays today
and Morgan Stanley on Monday ?

I still have an excellent record with my creditors.

Once I start defaulting thats when the letters and calls start isn't it ?


For the record Bankruptcy cannot be an option.
The lady I have met has ideas of starting a business in the future with me and I cannot
jeopardise that.

Besides even if that is a future "dream" I could not bear the shame and stigma.

I think I will have to try to get a job.

My Incapacity Benefit review is due soon and anyway I can take myself off it if I must.

I will come back and answer questions in a moment after breakfast.

My head is spinning.

bye
x

twitcher11

Hi Lucy1982
Thanks for that.
I forgot to post that i took a sleeping tablet that doc prescribed yesterday.Its Zopiclone (3.75 mg) I got 14 and can take up to 2 per night but I only took one at 3am and it worked.
Doc said I must not use them for along period of time cos addiction starts.

I KNOW alcohol is not the answer.

Iwill get back to answer lots questions later.
bye
x

Lucy1982_2

Well done!

I've been on strong painkillers that I could have taken 2 a time but was worried I'd become addicted.

What kind of business do you want to start? I've been playing with the idea for when I'm debt free.