25 & In A Lot Of Debt

ClioScott

Hi Everyone

Its taking me a long time to admit this to anyone apart from my wife but i'm 25 years old and in a fair amount of debt. Its really depressing me now its affecting my family life and i need to sort it.

Mainly payday loans, phone contract, Barclay bank & Barclay loans, court fines, council rent arrears, housing benefit over payment that have got me well and truly stuck in a massive rut!

I've looked at the Bankruptcy route and if that was the only way out then i would use it, but i would rather face up to the debts as i took them out and committed to pay them back.

There's a lot of issues:

I've signed up for 2 credit reports, Experian, Noddle.

My Experian report says that i have £13.792 in defaulted accounts
When i add my Noddle report up it says £14,793 in defaulted accounts

I have a CCJ for £869, where a possession warrant was put on my car, ive had to sell the car just to keep on living so no doubt that will cause issues for me also.

But in 2013 (i think) we went through a folder of all the letters & demands i received and i'm pretty sure it totalled at least £23k

I have absolutely no idea where to start with these and i'm so confused.

I know i need to sit down and sort through everything but i'm so confused.

Thank you in advance
Scott

FireWyrm

ClioScott wrote: »

I know i need to sit down and sort through everything but i'm so confused.

Why are you confused?

Someone once gave me some sage advice. "When eating elephants, proceed one bite at a time".

The first logical stop is to print out your bank accounts going as far back as possible.
The next logical step is to go through all of your correspondence and find out who your creditors are. You need to write to each one and ask for a statement of account. You want to know the account number, the payment history, the last known payment and the outstanding balance.

As you have correctly assumed, you needed your credit files and that is a really good place to start.

Finally, you need to face up to your income and outgoings situation and fill out an SOA (statement of affairs) - http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php which will give you something to start from.

Your final step once you have all of that information gathered, is to get some proper accounting software. An excel spreadsheet will do, but you can search for plenty online. MoneyDance, YNAB, Mint, MoneyDashboard are all a good start.

Finally, work out your fixed outgoings and your variable outgoings, your income . You need to subtract the first two from the last and that is how much money you have for debt busting.

That's it.

Nothing magical at all about the process. Stop panicking and think logically. Creditors cannot eat you. They must do as you tell them. When you work out what you owe and to whom, you can then incorporate payments into your budget plan. Slowly, you will dig yourself out.

rockm87

Love a bit of FireWyrm advice!

Total agreement, you can do this! take a step at a time.

ClioScott

Thank you both of you i will become debt free!

Is it still possible to get bank statements even if the account was defaulted and closed? i say this as my Barclays Current Account was closed and my Barclay Loans were attached to this account.

Many Thanks
Scott

FireWyrm

The bank should still have records, but it is likely they will ask for a token payment to cover admin. Your best bet is to go into the branches, explain your situation and ask for someone to help you.

ClioScott

FireWyrm wrote: »

The bank should still have records, but it is likely they will ask for a token payment to cover admin. Your best bet is to go into the branches, explain your situation and ask for someone to help you.

Many thanks FireWyrm

sourcrates

ClioScott wrote: »

Many thanks FireWyrm

But if there not chasing you, why not wait until you are contacted ?

Registering for you credit reports may awaken a few sleeping bears, so it may not be too long before the storm clouds break !!

ClioScott

Thanks for the reply sourcrates,

I understand where your coming from with regards to waiting to be contacted, for example the last letter from Barclays was the 11th July 2013 from Moorcroft Debt Recovery.

One part of me is saying wait until i'm contacted about

and the other part is saying sort them all out so i know where i stand.

RuthnJasper

ClioScott - it is possible to break free of this. It's not easy, but you have made a very important step in deciding that enough is enough.

I have been in the same position as you now are and I got an IVA. These are NOT appropriate for everyone, so you need to think carefully about it.

I strongly recommend that you pop on over to http://www.stepchange.org/. They can advise you and help you to set up a practical plan of action. They are free to use, helpful and non-judgemental.

In the meantime, whilst there are occasional trolls roaming around these forums, for the most part the support here is amazing and extremely helpful.

You can do it! Good luck to you, and very best wishes for the future. x

FireWyrm

sourcrates wrote: »

But if there not chasing you, why not wait until you are contacted ?

Registering for you credit reports may awaken a few sleeping bears, so it may not be too long before the storm clouds break !!

I said to get printouts of the account from the banks...I wasnt aware that this could provoke collection activity though. The OP already got their credit file.