New to the forum, previous bad debtor but clawing our way out!

Plodder

Good evening, newbie here just saying hello!

I thought I'd share with you my experiences with credit and debt to where I am today. I've been consistently bad with money right from the word go, my first foray into the world of debt was in the 90's. I'd just joined the army and would frequently (on a monthly basis) take an unauthorised overdraft on the bank by drawing what money I had in my account over the counter and then running round to the ATM to draw my money again as there wasn't time for my over the counter transaction to register on the computer (I know, this could be viewed as technically fraudulent but I was young, foolish and wanted to go out on the lash with the lads)

I advanced to store credit from Currys/dixons etc and of course quite often defaulted resulting in extra charges.

I then took out a NAAFI card (basically a store card for use in the barracks shops), horrendous APR and again quite often defaulted.

Another avenue of finance available was NAAFI loans, I met a girl (now happily married) and decided to go on holiday, we both had no savings, I took out a NAAFI loan, she took out a loan with Mercantile credit; it paid for two weeks in the Dominican Republic (sadly we had about £200 spending money between us).

And so it went on, we dined out every night during the courting period, racked up a £1000 overdraft that we couldn't get out of, decided on getting married which was financed to the tune of £13k, by the time we moved into our married quarter we were taking home about £1,700 PCM but our outgoings (just talking loans/store cards) amounted to £2,300....... we were seriously in the brown and sticky but by this time (and rightly so) no lenders would touch us.

Both our parents helped us out by getting consolidation loans for us that we were to pay back, to my shame this took ten years of missed payments, empty promises etc.

During this time I left the army, struggled to find work, had ill health etc which made the financial situation even worse...... at this point we had racked up debts of about £50k in unsecured loans. We went to Provident and have had tens of thousands from them (all paid back), my credit rating must have improved because I managed to pick up a Barclaycard, Capital one, Vanquis and Rise credit cards, sadly I didn't use them properly and defaulted.

My mother agreed to be a guarantor for a couple of Amigo loans, we took these out in my wife's name as my credit report was laughable, again we had over £10k from them, we used Yes car credit, welcome finance for car purchases and paid extortionate amounts of interest.

We never entered into an IVA nor did we ever go bankrupt, we didn't even speak to a credit management company as we had a close friend who was being ripped of left right and centre. I would bury my head in the sand when it came to bills, my wife took total charge, even down to having the authority to speaking to creditors on my behalf..... needless to say we don't own our own home and live in a housing association home (some months our arrears were over £1000)

I'm pleased to say, we have turned a corner, for the past 7 or so years I have been an accountant (I retrained). I now have total control of the bills and run a very tight ship when it comes to spending. After all our utilities/TV/mobile phones/insurances etc are paid, I allow £300 per week for groceries/petrol etc and still have between £500-£1000 to put aside in savings accounts. We have no debts, no credit cards and this is the first Christmas ever we haven't relied on the mother-in-law for use of her Argos card for Christmas presents.

I have one CCJ (fully paid off) that is due to drop off the credit file in 3 months and for the first time in years I applied for and was accepted for three credit cards, Capital one/Aqua/Aquis, I don't need the credit but I do want to appear an attractive prospect to mortgage lenders when we decide to buy our first home. It's been a long painful slog but we're finally here.

One thing I did notice was that despite my CCJ, I have a higher rating than my wife who has all the Amigo loans/yes car credit/ welcome history on her file and she has no CCJ's, the only black mark is an amount owing for Orange mobile for about £15 when she changed mobile phone providers, they have chased once in about 6 months and she has forgotten to pay it.

So here's to you! :beer: If I can do it (with my impulsive spending behaviour and 'bury my head in the sand' reaction to bills) then anyone can, it certainly isn't easy, we celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary this year and it's taken the best part of 15 of those years to clear 80% of our debts. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, it may be a long tunnel but there is definitely a light!

Kind regards
Plodder