How do you all manage to pay your debts off??

cherrypie556

Myself and hubby have been with stepchange for roughly 3.5 yrs and our debts just don't seem to be falling. We do only pay £80 a month and most creditors only get £5 each so I know it's going to be a long hard struggle. Stepchange hae told me they do not like debts to be ongoing for more than a few years with themselves, and out expected 'debt free' date is some 25years away :-( meaning we will never be able to get a mortgage and security for our children. Do these debts ever get written off or is that only iva's.
I see some peoples signatures and it amazes me how you clear them in a few years! What's the secret? We have nothing to sell an cannot cut back anymore :-( our only luxury is Virgin TV as we have no social life and that's more for the kids!

Tixy

It is depressing when a DMP is forecast to go on that long. Presumably step change did consider other options for you - e.g. looked at the possibility of one or both of you considering bankruptcy perhaps?

Are you likely to have any significant changes in your circumstances in the next few years that might mean you can afford to pay more to your creditors and clear the debts quicker. e.g. payrises? being able to go from one income to two or being able to work more hours due to children starting school or starting high school or moving out?

Its hard to compare your situation to others as people may have significantly higher wages or lower debt to be able to complete their DMPs in a much shorter period of time.

michael1983l

It appears more favourable to just live off the grid and ignore them until they are statute barred these days. There seems to be little incentive to facing up to your debts aside from "self pride". Well stuff self pride if it means you have no life, you only get one life. I'd rather not waste it myself getting nowhere with a DMP that is going to go on for a very large chunk of your life.

cherrypie556

What do you mean Michael and what does statue barred mean?
No Tixy, nothing ever got discussed other than a dmp. My husbands self employed and we have 6 young kids so I won't e able to work for many more years to come due to childcare. I wouldn't want to go bankrupt a we would lose the car as that's our only assert (only worth 1k) and we need it and don't they take the t.v etc? Hubby's got 1000's of pounds worth of tools that he needs for his business. Would they take all them too? He can't work then.

John1993_2

cherrypie556 wrote: »

What's the secret? We have nothing to sell an cannot cut back anymore :-( our only luxury is Virgin TV as we have no social life and that's more for the kids!

It's not really a secret, the route is going to be down to a mixture of increasing your income and reducing your outgoings.

If you are only paying very little off, then your lifestyle is not really going to change much even when you finish and these payments are gone. If you dream of a life where you can afford more, save a bit, and generally feel more secure, then finding a route to earning more will tend to be your best option.

Earning more is very unlikely to "just happen", so you need to start plannig how you get there, and then working towards it.

What is it that you and your other half do at the moment, in terms of jobs?

John1993_2

michael1983l wrote: »

It appears more favourable to just live off the grid and ignore them until they are statute barred these days. There seems to be little incentive to facing up to your debts aside from "self pride". Well stuff self pride.

The problem with taking this route, though, is that it leads to the sort of place that you find yourself in, where you need to recommend hanging around parks to pick up coppers that teenagers drop, to try and get by.

Hopefully the OP is able to aim a bit higher than that. Telling people to hide their heads in the sand is terrible advice.

HappyMJ

cherrypie556 wrote: »

Myself and hubby have been with stepchange for roughly 3.5 yrs and our debts just don't seem to be falling. We do only pay £80 a month and most creditors only get £5 each so I know it's going to be a long hard struggle. Stepchange hae told me they do not like debts to be ongoing for more than a few years with themselves, and out expected 'debt free' date is some 25years away :-( meaning we will never be able to get a mortgage and security for our children. Do these debts ever get written off or is that only iva's.
I see some peoples signatures and it amazes me how you clear them in a few years! What's the secret? We have nothing to sell an cannot cut back anymore :-( our only luxury is Virgin TV as we have no social life and that's more for the kids!

You need to significantly increase your income. Are you both working? Take two jobs each...get more qualifications and get a better job. There are ways to make a lot of money but it requires a lot of short term effort.

HappyMJ

cherrypie556 wrote: »

What do you mean Michael and what does statue barred mean?
No Tixy, nothing ever got discussed other than a dmp. My husbands self employed and we have 6 young kids so I won't e able to work for many more years to come due to childcare. I wouldn't want to go bankrupt a we would lose the car as that's our only assert (only worth 1k) and we need it and don't they take the t.v etc? Hubby's got 1000's of pounds worth of tools that he needs for his business. Would they take all them too? He can't work then.

They do not take the car and they do not take the telly. They do not take the tools either. You get to keep everything in your house.

monty-doggy

A mortgage certainly won't provide security for your children.
If you come out of work, how will you afford it? Housing benefit at pay the interest only but not the capital.
Also with no landlord what if your boiler breaks or a pipe bursts, how will you afford that?
A house swallows up so much money in maintenance costs, it's not always a security. There is a lot to be said for renting in the current climate.

Your children will far more benefit from a happy home, where they feel safe, secure and loved.
And if you give them the support they need now to do well and succeed, they won't need security of your house as they will hopefully have their own.

Don't beat yourself up, you are addressing the debt and not ignoring it. If your income increases, you can pay it off quicker, but until then you need to put it to the back of your mind and enjoy your life. After all it's too short to be spent worrying about what you can't change.

asparagus1968

it must seem daunting!
the simple answer is spend less and earn more, in whatever way,shape or form you can.

look at how/ why you got into debt in the first place

could you not work evenings/ weekends? ie. when your husband isn't working?
could he get a second job?
avon/ kleeneze /dog walking/ crafts/ cleaning/ handyman/ gargening etc.
have a look at the "up your income" board for more ideas.

re. the Virgin TV, we couldn't afford it, got a freeview box, £25 one off cost, the kids channels are cbbc, cbeebies,citv,pop,popgirl,tinypop,kix. plenty to choose! (along with usual kids programmes on bbc,itv etc)

so you could maybe change to that?

look into bankruptcy, there is a forum on here about it.
maybe seek further advice from citizens advice?

good luck

Tixy

cherrypie556 wrote: »

What do you mean Michael and what does statue barred mean?

Statute barred debts are debts that you no longer legally required to pay. But it involves paying nothing towards your debts for 6years, ignoring contact from them and hoping creditors don't take court action against you. If they take court action then the debts don't become statute barred.

Realistically if you owe over £20k then there is very little chance that non of your creditors would take court action.

cherrypie556 wrote: »

No Tixy, nothing ever got discussed other than a dmp. My husbands self employed and we have 6 young kids so I won't e able to work for many more years to come due to childcare. I wouldn't want to go bankrupt a we would lose the car as that's our only assert (only worth 1k) and we need it and don't they take the t.v etc? Hubby's got 1000's of pounds worth of tools that he needs for his business. Would they take all them too? He can't work then.

Might be worth going back to stepchange and discussing the possibility of bankruptcy for one or both of you (depending on the level of your individual and joint debts).

It won't involved the loss of husband's work tools or your TV and if the car has a value of less than £1k and is needed for work then you would very likely be able to keep it.

They'll be able to fill you in on the process and implications, and even if husband ended up with a bankruptcy income payment arrangement at a similar level to what you pay in your DMP that would only last for 3 years not the 20+ you are looking at currently.