Need urgent advice, behind on repayments

JLovely

magentadreamer wrote: »

Your paying £20 for a landline - is this with NTL or BT? Plus £17.99 for Broadband with NTL and £30 for Sky making a total of £67.99 If your phone is with NTL I'd suggest you gave them a ring and negotiated a better package.
I get Phone(plus unlimited calls)TV(XL package) and Broadband from NTL for £33.95 You might be able to get the two for £20 offer NTL are doing at present. I always find a call to NTL worthwhile, especially if you go straight to retentions!

Also reduce Sky down to the bare bones if you can't cancel it. If your landline is a BT one have you thought about the Sky offer at present where you can have Broadband,TV and unlimited calls(Eve/w/k) for £26 plus the £11 BT line rental. I think to get unlimited calls 24/7 it's an extra fiver.

We got rid of NTL because we found them so expensive. lol We have Sky and are unable to cancel, so Im doing some investigating this evening to see if we can get a decent package including the phone and broadband perhaps with Sky, seeing as we cannot cancel just yet - the one you have mentioned sounds interesting so I shall be calling them tomorrow too, thank you. Unfortunately the Broadband is a necessity as I need it for work as I work from home as well as the evening I have. Thanks again.

ginger

Give it a go with the Abbey. I got over £2k back from them recently. It was a bit of a fight and I had to issue court proceedings but they paid up at the very last minute and obviously did not check the figures I was asking for as they were estiimated and when I worked it out later was a lot more than I was due!! They wouldn't provide 6 years statements so I had to estimate on what I knew had gone out in the previous year. They will pay up if you are determined to pursue them.

L

JLovely

Thank you Ginger! Im going to go for it - getting my first letter sorted today - if they pay me what I think Im actually owed I'll be in a better place! lol Anyway, first things first I've been in touch with Northern ROck this morning and they are sending out forms for us to go INterest Only. If that goes to plan (the first lady wouldn't give anything away other than telling me she had seen it done before in situations like these, but I was then put through to someone else about overpayments we have made - yes we have £400 sitting there where we have overpaid, but because it's under £500 they won't release it back to us! Hey ho! - and she siad I was doing the right thing and was very positive about what I was trying to do). It would reduce our Mortgage by £100 a month - so we could continue paying what we are now, reducing our arrears by £100 per month -- then when we were back over £500 on our overpayment with the secured part of our mortgage (we originally got a 100% mortgage, 5yrs ago) then we could release some of that and pay the remainder off.

Just need to speak to Sky now about their package for Telephone, Internet and TV. DH has a few private jobs lined up - and a few roofing jobs where he's allowed to take the scrap metal home - there's money in scrap! I've renamed him steptoe.

Now the secured loan with Black Horse. I have to make a payment by 15th July otherwise they say they're coming to get me. Going to ring them in a few secs to see if they can give us a bit more time, if they can't then I will thinking of other ideas to sort it out. I can make a payment tomorrow - but it still leaves us in 1 months arrears. I have a few things to ebay, so hopefully that will help out.

Thank you everyone for your support over the weekend - you don't know me from adam but you have really made me determined to sort this AND I feel so much more positive and eager to get on and make things better. Thank you. xxxx

misspoppy

Hi

I think you need to look at this from another angle. The problem here is that your husband isn't getting regular work so he needs to change his job. He is not contractually bound to the company forever. Maybe he needs to look at working as an employee that way he will always have work. I know that subing can be lucrative but currently it isn't.

Your hubby sounds like he is quite handy, my Dad used to put an ad in the local paper when work was tight "can't build, won't build" this generated loads of work putting together flatpack stuff from whole kitchens and bedroom fittings to the odd table or wardrobe. He could fit this work in around his other commitments.

JLovely

misspoppy wrote: »

Hi

I think you need to look at this from another angle. The problem here is that your husband isn't getting regular work so he needs to change his job. He is not contractually bound to the company forever. Maybe he needs to look at working as an employee that way he will always have work. I know that subing can be lucrative but currently it isn't.

Your hubby sounds like he is quite handy, my Dad used to put an ad in the local paper when work was tight "can't build, won't build" this generated loads of work putting together flatpack stuff from whole kitchens and bedroom fittings to the odd table or wardrobe. He could fit this work in around his other commitments.

My husband is a qualified Roofer - that's all he knows and finding work as an "employee" in Industrial Roofing is almost impossible in the area we live in. We have tried. Everyone is a sub contractor - so changing job would mean starting from scratch and taking a HUGE paycut - which would destroy rather than help us onto the road to recovery. Also from now onwards (his Boss had a meeting with them all on Friday) there will be regular work from now onwards. The last few months have been touch and go - with 2-3 days off here and there and that has taken it's toll on us - but in the 10yrs we've been together this has been the first blip. We are going to put an advert in the local newspaper though as we have our own Transit Van so we are going to advertise as a man with a van and also roofing repairs and he can also work with sofits, facias and gutters on residential buildings. The doing flat pack furniture, general DIY is a great idea - but if you knew my husband you'd realise it wasn't such a fab idea. DIY is not his thing - I do all the decorating, and putting furniture together in this house as he is absolutely useless at it! lol Thanks for your input though - I do know what you are saying and know it makes sense, it's just we have tried to find Industrial Roofing companies that take on actual employees in our local area - but they all use sub contractors.

misspoppy

Hi

It sounds like you have a well thought out plan to help with lean times, we use subcontractors in our firm and they all use their contacts and will take work from anyone so is it possible for your Hubby to register for work with more than one firm?

I know what you mean about the DIY my bf really doesn't know how to use screwdrivers I find it very frustrating!

Now for getting back on your feet if you don't think you can make the black horse payment I would contact a debt charity, these people are ruthless and some professional support would be a great way to get through it.

JLovely

We have until the 15th to make a payment, which I can do in the next few days. I have just put a Top Hat that I inherited to auction and have a bathroom suite that I was given going onto ebay in the next day or so - hopefully the two will make enough for me to pay the payment that is outstanding. If it doesn't then I shall contact one of the charities that you have mentioned. Thanks again. x

hypno06

Glad that you have managed to make progress today. It must be a huge relief to you. Keep posting and let us know how you get on.

RAS

Hi

Yea - you have come a long way in the last few days. Well done.

solventguy

Thanks for your interesting and honest SOA.

Your situation sounds worrying. My take on it - and correct me if it's misinformed - is that, on average, your husband doesn't get 5 days a week work. In the next few weeks he might, but if you looked over the last year or two, on average, my suspicion is that he gets less than this.

So, this is the problem. I'm sure that he can't control when or if he gets work - it's the nature of his trade. But what can be done is to be more realistic about what, on average, he's going to be able to get, and to live within this lower estimate.

You want to make additional commitments in terms of a larger house and a larger family. Fair enough. But you aren't able to make your current commitments, so you might have to take a step back for a moment and have a think and a talk about all of this. Try to see things as they are.

I wish you the best.