Long story, lots of debt.

Mono2

Hi All,

This has been and still is spiraling out of control and I was wondering if I can ask here for a little bit of advice.

When I left university I had a shortfall on the rent of around £600, they took this from my bank via direct debit and amazingly it went through even though I was pushing the limit already, it took me just over £600 over my limit.

I moved to the bottom of the country to start a job with promised relocation assistance which as I found out later turned into "stay at the bosses for 3 weeks then get chucked out and find somewhere to live with a pitiful advance" I hated it and quit a few months later, finding another job back up north but missing a months pay because of it.

I attempted to set up a payment plan. However since I was living alone and my rent and other expenses to my university and paying back my folks for their help.

This job and the mounting debt made me incredibly depressed and start gambling and smoking...these just sunk me further into debt and I took two payday loans to keep myself afloat (idiotic I know) - these have both been sold when I didn't pay them back to companies I don't even know...it was completely stupid of me as I've always been okay with money before. This just made it even harder to attempt to pay anyone back.

I tried to negotiate with the bank but have to speak to the "collections department" who are quite frankly the worst. The bank will not accept any less than £200/m payback and refuse to freeze the charges on the account, so I've just ended up chasing my tail. The charges mounted when I had to try to find a place to live on my own and didn't have enough left over to pay them. I then couldn't pay the following month because of the sheer amount it had come to, the "collections department" are useless and just keep telling me to pay now.

They are sending me letters threatening to take money out of my other account (which is the one I'm already hitting the limit on each month)

I also had a credit card since I was 18 which I was fine with for two years, however my job just wasn't paying enough to cover this, moving out and the bank as well. I missed a payment, then another one, and finally one when I was moving out; eventually this was sold while I was juggling the other balls. It's been sold 3 times since then, and I can't even get hold of where it currently is....

What can I do to sort out this mess? I daren't even check my credit rating. I'm probably about £4000 in the red right now, with various companies and people I don't even know about. How can I find these companies and set up some kind of plan with them all and make the bank get off my case for a bit and not take money from my other account which I require to live and pay these things off in the first place?

MPH80

Welcome to MSE - you need to repost this in the debt free wannabe forum - here: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=76 - along with a statement of affairs (see the 'sticky' post at the top).

They'll be able to provide you with the best advice.