Oh god really struggling

sourcrates

Imgonnagetouttadebt wrote: »

What would happen if I did than in terms of blacklisting and credit rating its just that I need an okayish score so that I will be able to be put on monthy gas and electric and prepayment is a rip off and I want a fixed rate.

Hi,
There is no such thing as "blacklisting", this is another common untruth.

I have never heard of a bad credit rating effecting any utility deals, I went through a 6 year IVA and have always paid monthly for electric etc, I don't think you are credit checked for that, and if you are, they are only able to check public information on your file.

Credit ratings are mentioned on here regularly, they do not exist, it's a made up number, devised by the credit reference agency's, in order to sell you credit improvement products, that you don't need, it's all a con.

You should not worry about unimportant things, you need to have enough money for your essentials, unsecured credit payments are not essential !!!

Imgonnagetouttadebt

Ive tried to get off the prepayment meters in the past and they said they were unable to as I din't meet the requirements.

sourcrates

Imgonnagetouttadebt wrote: »

Ive tried to get off the prepayment meters in the past and they said they were unable to as I din't meet the requirements.

Ok, so I'm assuming you've had arrears in the past, and the energy company installed prepayment meters, so, if your stuck with them anyway, it makes no difference, in respect to your utility bills, if you default on your credit payments or not.

I would suggest you give National Debtline a call, phone number is in my signature, they will probebly tell you something along the lines of what I said in my previous posts.

tiger_eyes

Imgonnagetouttadebt wrote: »

Ive tried to get off the prepayment meters in the past and they said they were unable to as I din't meet the requirements.

If you don't have enough money to cover essentials like food and clothing, you cannot afford to maintain your debt repayments - that's all there is to it. It's not worth you and your family going hungry tonight in hopes of maybe getting off your prepayment meter some time in the future.

Imgonnagetouttadebt

I never had arrears ever with gas or electric. but I shall try and sort it out on monday and if that doesnt work ring national debt help line

northerner999

Credit rating is the greatest myth I see on here. There isn't one, and if you are struggling to feed you and your child the last thing you should be worried about is access to more credit.

Your SOA is not as in depth as many on here, working out each area could help with picking out any fat there is no matter how lean you think it is. We don't know how much your debts are with each card.

My advice is to look at easy ways of raising income. Flog any old CDs, DVDs etc. Sign up with the online survey companies, and suddenly you could have extra income to reduce the debt.

patchwork_cat

Have a read of this and see if they are correct in saying you can't switch your meter. http://www.moneysupermarket.com/c/news/how-to-switch-from-a-prepayment-energy-meter/0014939/. Martin is doing a special tonight on his show about this.

clippy_girl

Re credit check for utilities- I'm with British Gas at the moment and they credit checked me and both accounts appear on my credit report.

I've just switched to first utility and they emailed to say I had failed the credit check and they would not put me on monthly unless I paid a deposit of £300! Luckily it was an error with my house number so it was fine when they redid it.

But shows thAt at least those two do it. I think it's worth checking with your current provider again if you have not had arrears.

I would strongly recommend that you call one of the debt charities before you stop paying. You need enough to live on but you don't want to make it worse. They will be able to talk you through your options and put a plan together for you. I've read on here a lot of people delay setting it up for a few months so you can save what you would pay to debts for an emergency fund.

Good luck

andyfromotley

Hi I'm gonna,

couple of things.

Unless you het a job very quickly and up your income considerably then this debt is unsustainable. Working will be your only way to sort this without trashing your vredit history. Is this likely? Dont forget childcare etc?

If you go down that route move quickly and just try to scrape through till payday. Then once you are earnong crack on and reduce the debt.

However if you think realistically that you are not going to be able to work your way out of this, then just acceot that your credit history is going to be wrecked for the next six years and stop worrying about this.

Follow the advice of sourcrates and others. call stepchange and take thier advice on what to do. Do not make any more than token payments to your debts unless stepchange tell you to. Save up as much as you can whilst you are making token payments to 1. Build up a deposit for a Utility company. 2. build up an emergency fund.

Your essential priorities for you and your lovely little family are 1.food, 2.Shelter 3.Utilities. Note CC's are not on that list!!! This plan will give you breathing space so in time you can find appropriate work and pay down this debt.

One final thing, do not be ashamed to be on benefit. Its there to help people who are suffering. In your case it is doing exactly what it is supposed to do. You have nothing to be ashamed of. You sound to me as if you are keen to get work and sort this out. You will get out of this mess.

Good luck.