Hi New Here and feel sick over money all the time

jamess55

I can strongly recommend "Christians Against Poverty" because they spend their time looking at *why* you're spending money and not just come up with a repayment plan. The only thing is that they don't operate in all areas of the country and they don't have an office you can visit, so if they can't visit your home (because they don't operate in that area), they probably won't be able to help. Oh, and just to emphasise, despite the name they're not there to "push" Christianity or convert you!

However even if you can't use them, all is not lost. There are other organisations who can help, and the key thing is to remember that you mustn't pay for any monthly help because it's money for nothing when other companies will sort it out for free. The one I use is Payplan but the other is StepChange (who were previously known as the Consumer Credit Counselling Service). Both can be found through a Google search [sorry: new users can't post links!]

But whoever you use (or even if you do it yourself), the things to remember are: (a) your creditors are all on non-secured debt, which means you won't lose your home; and (b) even if the creditors keep pushing and it goes to court (worst case, because it's very expensive for them) you'll only be asked to repay what you can afford, which means that they are likely to accept a repayment offer if it's based on a realistic assessment of your income and expenditure; and (c) well done for recognising that you need some help.

I have been in debt for the last 5 years and spent the first 18 months in denial. When I phoned up Payplan I had about 20 creditors because of the number of payday loan comapnies I was dealing with. But now, I am 2 months away of being debt free and can hardly believe it. My only wish is that I had done something sooner and recognised that drastic actions (such as selling my home, going bankrupt, taking out another consolidation loan) were options I didn't need to consider.

In summary: you can only repay what you can afford. Please remember that and tell your creditors your honest situation. You may be surprised at how accommodating they are once they know they're going to be repaid.

There is no easy or quick answer to debt but I stopped making myself ill with worry once I knew that my creditors had accepted a repayment based on what I could afford. I strongly hope you find a way to do the same. Good luck and please keep us posted!