Looking for debt advice

Busy_Mee

Shame - just thought. Might be worth asking about hydrotherapy, although availability varies from area to area.

I am sorry to hear about your injury and that you have had such a tough time of it. Well done though on getting a grip of the finances

lolls89

Busy_Mee wrote: »

Shame - just thought. Might be worth asking about hydrotherapy, although availability varies from area to area.

I am sorry to hear about your injury and that you have had such a tough time of it. Well done though on getting a grip of the finances

I'll definitely ask. Our hospital is on the brink of closure so has very limited services. I'm very lucky to be able to have basic physio there.

Thank you.

lolls89

We've started paying the bills weekly (household and high interest pay day/car loans) , we're still really behind with them all but we're paying as much as we can.

We have SORN the car.

I really didn't get on very well with ALDI, I am better at shopping online where I can keep an eye on the price. I've manged to get the shopping down to £50 this week.

I had an appointment last week and I have been put on a waiting list to have my metal work removed and arthrolysis, and then I have to be careful for 3 months whilst my bone re heals. There's no guarantee it will improve my movement but fingers crossed by March I should be in a position to start job hunting again.

My partner contacted Stepchange and received a pack from them but he has gave them totally different figures than what he has gave me for the SOA, he also hasn't contacted them to set up the DMP. I think he's in complete denial and wants to be bailed out rather than help himself!

lolls89

We have just received our annual energy summary, our estimated gas cost is £810 and electric is £681.

So that's £1491 per year for both so around £124 pm.
Am I right in thinking this is a lot?
At the moment we are paying £40 per week and are £1k in arrears so our payments at the moment won't be making much difference to the debt.

runforlife

Try the Energy Club to see if you are on the best deal.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub

Make sure you use accurate figures - put in the total amount of KWH for each fuel per year.

Then turn down the central heating a degree or two. Ours is set at 18 degrees which is more than warm enough. Change lightbulbs to energy saving ones and consider reducing the time your CH is on.

That said depending on the size of your house and number of occupants its not a bad amount. i.e. 3 or 4 bed, 3 or 4 occs.

FireWyrm

lolls89 wrote: »

We have just received our annual energy summary, our estimated gas cost is £810 and electric is £681.

So that's £1491 per year for both so around £124 pm.
Am I right in thinking this is a lot?
At the moment we are paying £40 per week and are £1k in arrears so our payments at the moment won't be making much difference to the debt.

Very much depends what type of house you have, but in my case, a 3 bed, 4 storey Victorian mid-terrace house only costs just shy of £900 a year to heat and light. However, I have changed all bulbs to energy saving, the kettle gets boiled on the gas stove and we put jumpers on unless appendages start turning blue. We have just set our heating to 2 hours morning and evening at 15 degrees. Have you thought about switching? Co-operative Energy is pretty good and Ovo isnt far behind them price-wise.

lolls89

runforlife wrote: »

Try the Energy Club to see if you are on the best deal.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub

Make sure you use accurate figures - put in the total amount of KWH for each fuel per year.

Then turn down the central heating a degree or two. Ours is set at 18 degrees which is more than warm enough. Change lightbulbs to energy saving ones and consider reducing the time your CH is on.

That said depending on the size of your house and number of occupants its not a bad amount. i.e. 3 or 4 bed, 3 or 4 occs.

FireWyrm wrote: »

Very much depends what type of house you have, but in my case, a 3 bed, 4 storey Victorian mid-terrace house only costs just shy of £900 a year to heat and light. However, I have changed all bulbs to energy saving, the kettle gets boiled on the gas stove and we put jumpers on unless appendages start turning blue. We have just set our heating to 2 hours morning and evening at 15 degrees. Have you thought about switching? Co-operative Energy is pretty good and Ovo isnt far behind them price-wise.

Thanks for both of your replies.

It's a mid terrace 2 up 2 down with with 3 occupants.

We have all energy saving lightbulbs.
I'll turn the heating down tonight when we put it on.
I am pretty bad for using the kettle during the colder months, I tend to leave to heating off and have lovely hot cups of tea to warm up.

Would we be able to switch with us owing our current supplier so much?

FireWyrm

lolls89 wrote: »

Would we be able to switch with us owing our current supplier so much?

I do not know. I suspect that it becomes a debt to the previous supplier, but dont take my word for it. I've never been in the situation. It might be worth investigating paying off the debt with a loan and then dealing with it that way.

lolls89

FireWyrm wrote: »

I do not know. I suspect that it becomes a debt to the previous supplier, but dont take my word for it. I've never been in the situation. It might be worth investigating paying off the debt with a loan and then dealing with it that way.

Thanks for your reply.
I don't think we'd get a loan because our credit rating is in the gutter and I think the mess we're in at the minute a loan wouldn't do us any favors.

I used the cheap energy club comparison and it didn't come up with any cheaper options. I also got a quote off the co-op and we could save £180 a year, but my partner said that he tried to switch suppliers before and because of his credit rating he couldn't switch.

My partner's going to have to ring them and see what we can do because with what we are paying at the moment we're going to be getting nowhere fast .

lolls89

Argh £50 worth of charges have gone out of one of our bank accounts today leaving us with -£42
I feel like I'm never going to get a grip on our financial situation