After all your support here's my SOA

ScorpioLady_2

After all your wonderful support this weekend, I've plucked up the courage to post my SOA.

(I'm scared that if you didn't read my distraught post then you'll critcise, so please,please go easy on me!)

Monthly Income: Incapacity Benefit/Income Support £563.00
Child Tax Credit £346.00
Child Benefit £130.00
Maintenance £ 40.00
Total £1,079.00


Monthly Outgoings: Mortgage* 344.00
Building/Contents Ins 46.00
Secured Loan** 183.00
Gas/Elecricity Combined 100.00
TV licence (got rid of sky) 11.00
Water Rates 26.00
Life Insurance(term) 20.00
Telephone(BT line rental) 15.00
Internet Access 17.00
Mobile 25.00
Housekeeping 250.00
Car Ins/Petrol/Tax 55.00
Credit Card*** 250.00
Total £1,335.00
Deficit £256.

Not accounted for:
Birthdays/Christmas
School trips/Activities
Pocket Money
Hairdressers
Holidays
Car Maintenance
House Maintenance
Pet Insurance - Cancelled
Clothing
Entertainment
Childrens mobile top-ups

Credit rating good.............ie no defaults or CCJ's. All payments totally up to date (for now!)

As previously mentioned my mortage is £65K, house worth £190K. On the market at the moment to address the problem and maybe buy another house for £160K. Need to keep credit rating good so will be able to get another mortgage, but can't sustain the CC payments.

I'm a single parent (for the last 10 years) with 2 children and a year ago had a breakdown, hence the low income. Kept all payments up to date by selling on Ebay, short of selling the kids (joke) don't know what to do next.

CCCS told me to go away (in very polite terms) until my debts were about double!!! Due to the equity in the house.

*Abbey, on fixed rate at the moment (interest only!). Stayed with them for 14 years, even though they make me feel I have to be VERY grateful to them, due to having a diverse income, ie tax credits, maintenance etc

**First Plus £15,000 over 12years, 11 yrs to go! Trying to claim on PPI due to my unexpected health breakdown.

***Halifax £11K up to limit, only paying minimum.

Ironically have 3 more (nil balance) Credit cards with total available £17K!!

I think thats about it. Anyone got any suggestions please?

blackangeluk

Ok - my first thoughts what is the interest rate on your Halifax card - compare it to the rate on the other 3 redundant cards (are any 0% at all within any introductory offer) and see if it would be cheaper to switch to them. If not you could always try a call to the Halifax to see if they will reduce the interest rate, if you say you are looking to balance the balance and want LOB rate instead?

To be honest can't see where else you can cut down drastically - possibly the gas or electricity - check out the comparison sites.

Can you combine your internet and phone package - I'm sure others will come alone with advice on this but I'm sure I've seen cheaper packages?

Mobile - do you use it often, is it PAYG or a contract?

Housekeeping - what does this include food/household shopping presumably. Have you gone over to the OS board. Prior to my light bulb moment I was spending £400+ on shopping, currently working on getting it down to £240 and thinking I can get it down even further. Bulk buying, freezing meals, menu planning etc you could potentially bring this down even further.

Re your deficit - I'm afraid I don't have any real suggestions - I know people on here have done their own DMP and negotiated with their creditors. I know this is something you don't want to do until your house is sold, what is the position with your house, are there any people interested in it?

All I could suggest in the short term is ebay, amazon, looking how to cut gas and electricity bills by turning off switches etc etc

You have done so well and I do hope people come on with more advice than me, I do not think for one minute anyone will come here and criticise.

x

lynzpower

hello flower,

glad you have come back

Now I am fairly experineced in going through the SOAs, so I like to think I have seen a thing or two on here.

The only thing I can see thats high and poss a bit out of hand is your utilities, gas & lecky. Seems a bit high, but then again Im getting slammed for superhigh bills at the mo even thouh I do everything in my power to get them down. Do take a look at www.est.org.uk to see if there are any money/energy saving tricks you can use. We will all have to do them sometime what with global warming going mad ( hailstones in July!) so do see if theres anything you are not doing as yet.

The other thing I would say is the 3 credit card that are sat empty, close them down they are impairing your credit rating.

Now Im looking at this , and I reckon you are cut back as much as you can be. Short of not eating or not heating, there simply is nothing there screaming "waste" like most of us have ( yes i do include me!)

Therefore I suggest you take some advice from Payplan.

I think you may well be able to go into a DMP or ( and im no expert) bankrupcy. Personally, on your income I cant see why you should have to slog off paying forever and a day, you cant afford it and thats that.

If you want some advice about selling your house- Im more than happy to help out. I have worked in property for a while, and also sold my own flat on the poxiest of budgets so very well versed in keeping costs low in this respect. Do let me know if theres anything i can do.

Lynz
x

ScorpioLady_2

Many thanks for your quick reply.

My mobile is contract and still has 6 months to go.

Phone(BT Landline)/Internet(Tesco) package..........what worries me is the horror stories I've heard about switching provider, ie downtime for 3 weeks????

Housekeeping, (this is for me plus two, plus a dog and two cats) to be honest I already use all Value stuff anyway, and make some wonderful concoctions out of pasta and soup. I think any excess is used to blot up all of the extras that aren't listed.

The Gas/Electricity.........includes an underpayment last year.

The empty CC's are all old, so don't have introductory offers, I think I used them and then swapped them to another.

Would Halifax accept any sort of letter asking for help, as I really couldn't phone them.

The house has been on the market for 9months, but is very different and quirky, lovely and characteristic but not your standard Redrow. So might not appeal to everyones taste.

ScorpioLady_2

Forgot to add

CCCS also said, that obviously on such a low income, then I cannot offer anything on a DMP. And that I must go away and find ways to increase my income!

lewisandjake

Been paying loans back with IVA for the last 7 years. Can I do anything about getting these written off?.

SarahNeedle1872

Hi ScorpioLady,

Just a quickie ref ur unused credit cards... u could try phoning them up and say that u are looking to do a balance transfer from another credit card, and ask them what special offer they can give u - a lot of card companies will do a deal of some kind esp if u haven't used that account for a while.

Sarah x

Parallel_Universe

Hi ScorpioLady - well done for being so brave! This might just be a drop in the ocean but how about joining a site like pigsback (see freestuff board) to help save for vouchers to be used for things like birthdays/xmas?

Good luck x

LJD1_2

Nothing to add to the advice already given i'm afraid. Has someone already suggested doing clicks on pigsback, surveys etc. Not a lot of money but you might get vouchers and points towards christmas. Good luck xx

lamplady

If you phone the CC companies to close the cards they may well offer you a good balance transfer deal. I know it seems scary, but you wil be doing them a favour as they will earn commission on getting your business and you not closing the card.

I quite often phone up my cc companies and ask them for a better rate, and I've not had a refusal yet

ScorpioLady_2

I understand the theory on the credit cards but can I write to them instead. I'm really not very confident/strong at the moment?