Debt Help Needed

shawy

Hello,
I really need some advice. I am currently struggling massively, my partner and I have a 6 month old daughter and we are finding it impossible at the moment financially.

Basically she was a student nurse, she failed her last year of her course and had to re-sit it, however during the final year she fell pregnant. She has had a healthy little girl, who as mentioned is now 6 months old. The OH has now had to return to Uni/placement for 12 weeks to complete the course and her mother has recently given up work and looks after our daughter 3 days a week (OH is on 12 hour shifts) for £15.00 a day and also her other grandchild for the same cost, which is reasonable for all parties involved.

During the OH’s period of maternity she was only entitled to the one off sure start maternity grant, the Uni/Bursaries would not pay her maternity pay as she had failed the final part of the course, equally the government would only provide income support of £70.00 a week plus £20.00 a week child support, as she had not worked prior to falling pregnant, this has now stopped as she is back at Uni. Anyhow this no longer matters. But I am sure you will appreciate this time was extremely difficult financially for us.

The OH doesn’t know that I am seeking assistance, mainly as my money situation is the massive worry, she is very good with money and I am certain that once qualified and working she will clear her debts immediately. Our debts current stand at;

OH

• Bank loan (Natwest) - £4000.00 – paying £68ish a month I believe – Around £2000.00 left
• Car Finance (unsure of lender) - £4600.00 – Paying £80ish a month and has 3 months left to pay
• Credit card – (Natwest) – £1300.00 – Was passed to debt collectors as in arrears, currently paying £10.00 a month - this figure was £1600.00 but I managed to claim £300.00 back from unfair bank charges

My Debts

• Car Finance – (Motonovo) - £5600.00 Remaining – Taken out 1 year ago – Paying £147.00 a month
• Capital One Credit Card – Credit Limit £1000.00 – Current Balance £960.00
• Capital One Credit Card 2 – Credit Limit £500.00 – Current Balance £502.00
• Aqua Credit Card – Credit Limit £700.00 – Current Balance £710.00
• Barclaycard Credit Card – Credit Limit £800.00 – Current Balance £760.00
• Vanquis Credit Card – Credit Limit £750.00 – Current Balance £450.00
• Very Catalogue – Credit Limit £5250.00 – Current balance (BNPL first one OCT 2014) £1400.00
• Loan from family member - £500.00 – Paying £50.00 a month return for 10 months

The majority of my debts have came from my youth, i have had many of them since I was 19/20 and I am now almost 25. I have had a gambling addiction and used cards as an easy way of getting cash. Unfortunately I have a really bad credit score too as I have had missed payments on my account, I have defaulted any payments though and recently I have kept up with at least the minimum payment on each account.

In terms of monthly income I get around £1300.00-£1400.00 a month inc overtime, I pay all of our bills and the OH pays her own debts then food shopping/some baby items. My outgoings are as follows for “non debt items”;

• Rent - £450.00
• Council tax - £112.00
• Phone, Internet and TV - £48.00
• Gas/Electric - £100.00
• Water - £38.00
• Diesel - £150.00
• Car Insurance - £53.00
• Mobile Phone Contract - £32.00
• TV Licence £29.10 (will soon decrease to £12ish I believe in April)

Bear in mind these are only the “priority” outgoings, every so often I have car tax, MOT (stung me for £400.00 recently, HAD TO GO ON A CREDIT CARD), haircuts etc.

After everything including the debt payments come out I am left with around £15.00-£30.00 if I have managed to get £1400.00 in overtime, which is possible most months, I cannot get any more than that though as we have limits on the amount of work we can take on in my role.

Now I know 100% that there is no simple or easy way out of this! I need some serious advice in how I can begin clearing some of this debt, I have been told on several occasions that there is little point in writing to the creditors as they won’t do anything unless I default or something. Is this true? I have attempted to claim back the unfair bank charges on some accounts but to no avail, equally I have no PPI on any of them, so I cannot even try to claim that back to help tide me over.

Honestly what advice could you give me?

Sazzie23

Hi Shawy

Congratulations on being a new dad, I expect it's quite a big life changer in lots of ways.

First advice is to be honest with your partner about the level of your debt and how and why it was acquired. Nothing worse than hearing about issues when it's too late.

Second is to post you SOA on here, people will come up with ideas about redusing your outgoings.

Third, consider looking at the online Stepchange debt remedy, can be done anonymously if you wish, and will advise on what they think is your best way to approach the problem. It won't be the only option though so keep an open mind.

Well done for making a start, hope it works out well, plenty more advice on here once you get going.

shawy

Sazzie23 wrote: »

Hi Shawy

Congratulations on being a new dad, I expect it's quite a big life changer in lots of ways.

First advice is to be honest with your partner about the level of your debt and how and why it was acquired. Nothing worse than hearing about issues when it's too late.

Second is to post you SOA on here, people will come up with ideas about redusing your outgoings.

Third, consider looking at the online Stepchange debt remedy, can be done anonymously if you wish, and will advise on what they think is your best way to approach the problem. It won't be the only option though so keep an open mind.

Well done for making a start, hope it works out well, plenty more advice on here once you get going.

Thanks very much I love being a dad, makes all of this seem to go away on some occasions I will get onto the SOA side of things shortly.

Sorry i didn't make it clear in my original post that the OH does know about my debt, where it came on and my silly mistakes:( she understands and is a great help.

I'll get the SOA up once i have a few spare moments.

thecassman86

Hello :wave:

I agree with Sazzie23... Fill out a proper SOA and we can then look at helping you as it gives a clearer view of your situation... Go here http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php, fill it out, press "Calculate" then "MSE" and paste it back in here.

You need to talk to OH. I understand that it's not easy but finding out at this stage is far better than later on. If you approached it in the manner of "This is the situation, but i'm already doing A, B and C to sort it", then that shows that you're in control. But they should know their home situation.

First of all - pay the bits into the credit cards that are over their limits!! the charges you'll be paying there will be massive. The SOA will show us your interest rates etc.

I'd also second the recommendation to talk to Stepchange. Your SOA might show that it's possible to do this alone but the possibility of a DMP might make the whole process much more comfortable for you and will keep your creditors off your back.

Good luck, you've come to the right place!

thecassman86

shawy wrote: »

Sorry i didn't make it clear in my original post that the OH does know about my debt, where it came on and my silly mistakes:( she understands and is a great help.

Ahh, just seen this in your second post. That's great

shawy

Thanks for your support so far and for the link for the SOA, i'll get on that on my lunch break.

I have tried 3 time's on my own but seem to struggle half way through or in one case reverted to gambling and lost it all over again! So this time i have firstly sorted out the gambling problem. I am now looking to sort the money side of things and i would probably agree that the DMP sounds like the bets option and safest for my situation.

Thanks again.

thecassman86

shawy wrote: »

So this time i have firstly sorted out the gambling problem.

That's, by far, the most key point. Great news . Too often people try and get back on track financially before actually dealing with WHY they got into a mess in the first place.

Sazzie23

shawy wrote: »

Thanks for your support so far and for the link for the SOA, i'll get on that on my lunch break.

I have tried 3 time's on my own but seem to struggle half way through or in one case reverted to gambling and lost it all over again! So this time i have firstly sorted out the gambling problem. I am now looking to sort the money side of things and i would probably agree that the DMP sounds like the bets option and safest for my situation.

Thanks again.

OOps my mistake about the OH knowing, sorry.

Re DMP/Addictions, be prepared for wobbles on both counts, I know from personal experience that its better to be prepared that things may not be straightforward, so have a what to do if...plan too

Welshlassie

Congratulations on becomeing a dad, expensive times.

My initial thought is your council tax looks quite high as you OH is a student, you may well be entitled to a 25% reduction in this as she gets a student discount.

Get your SOA on here and see what else people can find to save you.

shawy

Hi Guys,
Just a quick update, i haven't forgotten, i will be doing my SOA, i have just been working every hour I can recently.