What Can I Do??

ForeverBlowingBubbles

Hi everyone,

I'm completely new here (been browsing the site for a few weeks on and off) and figured it's about time I join in and attempt to get some advice (if anything maybe my financial situation will make your own seem better in comparison ).

First about me: I'm 26, live in London with my boyfriend, work full time and study part time through the OU (hence finding time/energy to do a second job is practically impossible). I've been in debt for the past 3 years but have only realised how bad it is over the past couple of months where suddenly i seem to be in my overdraft within 2 days of getting paid each month. I'm feeling more and more crap by the minute and I seriously cant see a way out at the moment, my life is so rubbish. I'm very overweight, have a few long term health problems, I never have any money and my relationship with my OH of 8 years is feeling like its deteriorating as we never go out anywhere and enjoy ourselves (and even when he treats me to a night out i feel like i cant enjoy it).

Anyways, I guess I should get the bit I'm dreading out of the way so here's my SOA:


Monthly Incomings:
Salary - £1,500

Total - £1,550

Monthly Outgoings:

Rent etc- £450 (this goes into joint bank account where our rent/broadband/tv/landline/council tax/gas/electricity etc comes out of – OH has already cut all this down as much as possible)
TV Licence - £12
Phone - £35
Food - £200
Car Insurance - £ (currently don’t pay anything as my mum paid for a year up front for me but will have to start paying in Oct)
Petrol - £80 (I would love to walk to work more often but have mobility problems so not always possible)
Life Insurance - £6
Platinum Account Fee - £15 (cant cancel this as I have a ‘preferential’ rate on my ‘platinum’ loan )
Blue Cross - £3 (yeah, I know, charity money can be cancelled … am onto it!)
Cancer Research - £2 (as above)
Credit Card/Catalogue Payments (as detailed below) : £379
Bank Loan (as detailed below): £490

Total: £1672

(Also, every few months I get a pre-payment prescription certificate)


Credit Card/Loan Breakdown:
Barclaycard Gold – Balance £1100 (limit £1950) APR 19.9% (min payment £45)

Barclaycard Football – Balance £1330 (limit £1550) APR 19.9% (min payment £35) - £550 of this balance is on 0% APR

LloydsTSB Platinum – Balance £4397 (limit £6000) APR ?? (min payment £90)

MBNA West Ham Platinum – Balance £5085 (limit £5500) APR 6.9% till Oct?? (Min payment £52)

Egg - Balance £4580 (limit £6500) APR 17.9% (min payment £92)

Mint - Balance £1895 (limit £2150) APR ?? (min payment £50)

First Direct - Balance £530 (limit £2000) APR 17% (min payment £15)

My Boyfriend – Balance £2000 (he balance transferred it onto his CC for me at 6.9%APR rather than me pay 29% - I therefore have to pay at least the minimum payment each mth which is £45)

GE B&Q Card – Balance £10.16 (almost gone!)

Studio (Catalogue) – Balance £350 (min payment £20)

SimplyBe – Balance £300 (min payment £20 - £30)


LTSB Personal Loan – Balance £26124 (min payment £490) 5yrs left to go

So ... that all amounts to a grand sum of: £47,701.16 :eek:


Anyway, I guess I'll leave it there and await any questions that you want me to answer ...

viktory

I have no real advice at the moment but wanted to say congratulations on taking the first step to being debt free and welcome to MSE. I am also quite impressed that not all your credit cards are up to their limit! There will be other, very experienced posters along soon.

Good luck!

Gemmzie

Hi Bubbles, welcome to the board and congrats on your LBM (light bulb moment).

Your outgoings are higher than your incomings so firstly you need to sort your SOA so that the debts are separate.

Before repayments your outgoings are £798 (I haven't included the charities as you said you are stopping them or the cat insurance as you don't state an amount)

That leaves £702 for debt repayment. Your minimum payments come to £954. This means you are £250 short.


Petrol and food could be cut too but this will not give you enough to cover the minimums. Is there no way that you could contribute less to the rent figure? Could your OH help out at all? Is there anything you can Ebay?

You mention health problems, would you be entitled to DLA?

ForeverBlowingBubbles

viktory wrote: »

I have no real advice at the moment but wanted to say congratulations on taking the first step to being debt free and welcome to MSE. I am also quite impressed that not all your credit cards are up to their limit! There will be other, very experienced posters along soon.

Good luck!

Thanx Viktory (as for the limit thing, quite a few of them have been!)

MrsTinks

You're gonna hate me for asking... but how did the debts happen? I'm not just being nosey honest It's important to understand how it accumulated so we can help you and you understand how to avoid it in future.
I would also suggest contacting CCCS or Payplan or CAB - you have a lot of debt and you're worrying yourself sick - it's possible that a DMP or IVA is going to be a possibility - yes it will affect your credit rating for some time to come, another option might be bankrupcy, but I would really leave this as a last resort. But if you are making yourself sick through worry about this debt then it might be worth thinking about...
Good luck!

fuschia_2

Hiya wanted to just say Hi and well done on starting your debt free life. I'm starting from today too so if you ever need a vent you know where to come
x

ForeverBlowingBubbles

Gemmzie wrote: »

Is there no way that you could contribute less to the rent figure? Could your OH help out at all? Is there anything you can Ebay?

You mention health problems, would you be entitled to DLA?

He already helps out as much as he can (to the extent that he pays more to the rent than I do and he pays the sofa payments).

As for ebay ... we've been gradually putting things on there (grudge paying out listing fees when they dont sell though!) and planning to do a boot sale or two over the coming weeks ... for the money and also to hopefully get rid of excess stuff before our search for somewhere cheaper to live

Health problems aren't serious enough to qualify for DLA

Gemmzie

It's not really about seriousness, it's about how much help you need.

Is there no way you could bring in any extra income?

Otherwise, you can't do a DMP or IVA as you have no disposable income. Leaving bankruptcy as the other option

Eager_Elephant

Hi,

Welcome to the boards.

I actually think £450 is pretty good value for your half of the bills.

I am a bit concerned about the food - do you buy half each cos that would be a heck of a lot on food or do you buy all the food?

Shouldn't TV Licence come out of joint account as you have already mentioned TV in their unless that is for a rental.

I am assuming you have no children at the moment so why have you got life insurance, you rent so have no mortgage to protect.

What about Xmas/birthdays?

Unless you are due a pay rise I think you may need to enter into either a DMP (debt management plan) with someone like Payplan or CCCS or even an IVA may be suitable.

Any thoughts on my comments?

EE

Eager_Elephant

Gemmzie,

You yourself said in an earlier post that there was £702 before debt repayment and that amount is more than enough for an IVA or DMP.

Even if with a bit added for extras which say could take it to £600 - that would still be enough.

Sorry forgot to say to OP that I am assuming the bank loan was taken out very recently to pay off other debt???

If this is the case did you not pay everything off or have you run up further debt?

EE

ForeverBlowingBubbles

fuschia wrote: »

Hiya wanted to just say Hi and well done on starting your debt free life. I'm starting from today too so if you ever need a vent you know where to come
x

Thanx fuschia and good luck x