Spent 4 years pretending it's all OK

Puzzcat

NoOneAround wrote: »

So, the credit card that I have not written to and have kept up minimum payments on plus pay extra on to pay off by December has just sent me a letter putting the interest rate up.


That must be as a result of what's appearing on credit file now I guess :mad:
It's the card I wasn't to keep as an emergency only backup as do not yet have an emergency fund. :mad::mad:

That pesky rate jacking is how most of us ended up where we are now..
NOA, sorry I can't recall are you doing a self managed dmp or through stepchange? The reason I ask is with sc you are not allowed any credit so if you are setting up with them you should be doing token payments and stashing what would have been the minimum payments as your e.fund..?

NoOneAround

Hi Puzz, I am not in a DMP plan as such yet as SC said I did not have enough available, hence the token payments to the majority - they sent me template letters and helped with balancing the budget. To be honest I am not sure if that counts as being with SC or not? I understood that it was not as I have been contacting creditors myself. I just wanted to keep a card open for absolute emergencies - have I committed a really big sin? Am struggling to decide whether to self manage - there's plenty of threads on here that have.....


This sounds really bad....like I want to get out more credit, the reason am so nervous is that at moment we don't have emergency fund, if anything happened to one of the cars we would be up ****street as it were as OH car essential for work, mine for everything else inc school runs (rural area)..

Puzzcat

Hi NOA, no you haven't committed any sins! Doesn't sound like you signed up with sc who would have given you a reference number and would be distributing your monthly payments. However, in order to move forwards do you have a plan in place to save for that emergency fund? Sounds like you are doing a self managed dmp which is great but you still need to ensure your budget is accurate and any spare can be stashed for the e.fund.
Do you mind me asking why you didn't go with sc? I have found them fantastic and my debt is now £6k less than a year ago.
Puzz.x

Brogden

NoOneAround wrote: »

Hi Puzz, I am not in a DMP plan as such yet as SC said I did not have enough available, hence the token payments to the majority - they sent me template letters and helped with balancing the budget. To be honest I am not sure if that counts as being with SC or not? I understood that it was not as I have been contacting creditors myself. I just wanted to keep a card open for absolute emergencies - have I committed a really big sin? Am struggling to decide whether to self manage - there's plenty of threads on here that have.....


This sounds really bad....like I want to get out more credit, the reason am so nervous is that at moment we don't have emergency fund, if anything happened to one of the cars we would be up ****street as it were as OH car essential for work, mine for everything else inc school runs (rural area)..

Hi NOA,

Thanks for checking out my diary the other day

This rate-hiking makes me absolutely sick Its a long time since it happened to me as I am on nil interest with all cc's following defaults but you have brought back iffy memories! If you are going with Step Change you really would have to stop using that credit card, include it in the DMP and let Step Change make the 'proportional' payments.

If you are going 'self managed' like I ended up doing then you should do the same so ask yourself how much you really need that card and if you can accrue a nice cash pool for emergencies. This creditor should really be given the treatment with token payments made along with the rest.

I myself have mentioned in my diary that I have not strictly adhered to all the 'purist' DMP principles - I knew I couldn't so I had to go self managed.

Think hard about how you can arrange an emegency fund so you can include this card in your DMP whether you go SC or SM

Have a good day.

Brogden

NoOneAround

Thanks Puzz and Brogden,

I do have a reference number from SC so that I can call for advice, and it is listed on the top of my budget that I sent to creditors. on their headed paper. But I think they said token payments do not constitute a DMP so I guess a DMP reference number must be different? Stepchange said I couldn't set up a DMP with them until I had more money available (can't now remember if they said £50 or £300.....so much was talked about in that phone call). Hence the temporary payment arrangement of token payments dividing ~£30 between 12 creditors (5 accounts in one bank personal and business).


Budget is really tightly balanced but haven't added in the extra spending for daughter's uni yet - plan to do that this weekend.


My emergency pot all got used last year after two big car service bills, and income over summer has been too low to put any buy - especially with extra expenditure for DD. The only emergency pot I have is £500 of c*rrys vouchers from credit card reward scheme when we used to pay back in full every month - allocated for dishwasher and washing machine - both on their last legs:(..so daft as it sounds until I have 1K set by for emergencies I think I need the card? I just need to get a job - finding it hard as self employed working with partner means no unbiased references- so for last 2-3 years have got several little part time 0hr contract jobs to build up those. they generate about 3-4K gross pa. These fit around business and DS school runs for me.


Have started doing surveys etc, but it is painfully slow to get anywhere. This weak have been tweaking 3-4 versions of CV to send of to lots of places. Interview for a marking job tomorrow - fingers crossed. If I got a job for min 17K, that would pay school fees and all business income would be available to throw at debt. At the money we are working month to month, only 6 weeks funds available - not good:eek:
and our line of business usually goes quiet over winter months :eek::eek:
Perhaps I need to confirm with SC how much extra I need again. Need to decide whether to self manage in the next few weeks. Haven't phone MBNA Virgin yet

NoOneAround

Like this quote by H. Jackson Brown Jr.

"Someone once told me that 'time' is a predator that stalks us all our lives. But I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment because it will never come again. "

Puzzcat

Hi NOA,


I've definately heard £5 per creditor being said previously on the dmp mutual support thread, great thread to read which ever dmp route you are taking!! So you would need to free up £60 from your current budget. The only problem I can possible see is the creditors not liking is the monthly school fee, not sure how you can get round that, did sc advise you at all?


The sooner you jump on board and ditch paying ALL the minimum payments and reduce to token payments so you can build up an emergency fund, the sooner you will be able to start your dmp and get that debt gone. I guess without a regular employed job or an increase in the se work you are going to be stuck on low payments for some time, but then when your lad goes to sixth form you will have all that cash to throw at those debts and by then you may well be able to pay them off overtime with f & f's. (full and final offers.)


Each person's circumstances are different and the lovely thing about most of these boards is people don't judge, certainly not on the dmp mutual support thread!!


Maybe another chat with stepchange is due..?


Loved your quote!


Puzz. x

NoOneAround

Hi Puzz,
I had to psyche myself up to tell them about the school fees but SC didn't even bat an eyelid about them, said there were lots of other people in the same boat - they said that dealing with the debt was about keeping the family together, also said that the amount of debt was not disproportionate to what our earnings had been etc. They also said I had no reason to feel guilty as I had paid the creditors about 25K in interest in the last two years and they were laughing all the way to the bank so to speak! The other option to a DMP they said I could consider was to downsize house, which we could, however the reason we extended is that my parents are elderly and will in the not too distant future be living with us. They come and stay fairly regularly 3-4 times per year for a week or so at a time. Dad is blind, disabled, housebound, chronic conditions, mum is full time carer. He will eventually need care, but there is no way I will let him go to a care home. Hence my need to keep the house, the extension has been designed with plumbing etc all in place for easy downstairs conversion.


As we have totally cut back on everything else (no holidays, meals out, no gym or other hobbies, NT membership cancelled, clothes buying restricted to essentials for kids, could go on and on...and SC were saying need to put some pleasure back into life and have an allowance for nice things too!).....


I'm stressing about the interview tomorrow at the moment and am working on Friday morning, so have allocated Friday pm to make debt related calls.


Thanks for you support - xx

Puzzcat

Good luck with the interview, I shall keep my claws crossed for you.
Puzz.x

Verbatim

Me too. GL for tomorrow.