Partner earning less than 8k but has debts of 18k - please help.

pathtofreedom

lacoste1985 wrote: »

he is 3 days into his IT degree and has a background of no IT experience hence why this is a change of career for him. He understands there will be no guarantee of a job at the end of it but at least his prospects will be better than they are now. He is willing to start from the bottom in the IT industry and work his way up to the top. Surely being qualified in IT is better than being a cleaner for the rest of his life....thanks you for the suggestion though

You don't need to have much experience to get jobs in 1st line help desk / operation's roles you see that's why I suggested those. Some of the hours can be shift work but this can pay better money. If he wants to work in IT he'd need to get used to working weird hours anyway really.

If he knows the basics and can use a computer, knows what an ip is say and could troubleshoot his own wifi at home if it broke, or add a new laptop to his home network that would probably be enough. The fact he can say he's doing the degree at the same time would show he's serious about learning.

I did the degree first, and even with work experience I ended up doing help desk and working my way up. The degree helped me work up faster, but the sooner he can start getting real life experience the better it will be for him. As even if he doesn't finish the degree in the end, nothing beats experience in IT.

If he doesn't have one already it is worth getting a raspberry pi as well to play with. Also look at courses on coursera.org and edx as they are degree level course, but just not officially counting to a qualification. This would again show willing as you have to be good at learning by yourself and outside of work, as very few places do official training courses, you're just expected to learn new skills in your own time.

I guess it also depends where you are in the country as to if you're in a location with a lot of outsourcing companies, they will be the best places to get in on the ground floor really and learn the extra skills he'd need like ITIL etc.

Some companies though like hsbc do apprenticeships in IT so it might be worth looking into them rather than or as well as the degree. http://www.notgoingtouni.co.uk/apprenticeships-223/filter/sectorFilter/it-16

lacoste1985_2

sweetpeas wrote: »

he is doing 30 hours a week for £604 a month...?!

try and give true figures because there are alot of people on here with the knowledge to help you but if you are having yourself on and not giving the full story they cant help.

he isnt working 30 hours a week for £600.

hes working around 16 hours a week cleaning = 6.70 x 16 = £107 a week
hes doing 10 hours a week delivery work for cash in hand = £44 a week guaranteed but on a usual week he brings home £80 from doing this so it prob is more like £750 a month.

Debtslayer

lacoste1985 wrote: »

just to bring this thread back to its intended purpose, i came on here for some financial advice about which card he should pay back first, pros and cons of DMPs etc etc....

You posted here asking for help, which people have given, although you may not like some of the answers.
No one has a magic wand or solution to make the debts go away, the only person who can help your boyfriend is himself.
There is lots of great advice on this board from people who like myself have been in debt and paid it off. It is up to you and your boyfriend if you take on board the advice people are trying to give you, instead of being defensive

HappyMJ

lacoste1985 wrote: »

hes working around 16 hours a week cleaning = 6.70 x 16 = £107 a week
hes doing 10 hours a week delivery work for cash in hand = £44 a week guaranteed but on a usual week he brings home £80 from doing this so it prob is more like £750 a month.

Is he paying self employed national insurance contributions?

£2.80 a week £12 a month and gets him a year credit towards his pension when the time comes to claim.

He won't be credited with them from the 16 hour a week job as the lower earnings limit is £112 per week. He's £5 a week short.

sweetpeas_2

lacoste1985 wrote: »

hes working around 16 hours a week cleaning = 6.70 x 16 = £107 a week
hes doing 10 hours a week delivery work for cash in hand = £44 a week guaranteed but on a usual week he brings home £80 from doing this so it prob is more like £750 a month.

maybe update your soa then and let the experts help you out on here. it does sound like you're prepared to do an awful lot - he's living for free, working part time and studying and you're doing the rest. I dont blame him like - i would have preferred to work part time when i got my law degree but i had debts to pay so i couldnt... nobody came to pay my rent/mortgage cos the job 'wasnt for me' :rotfl:

Obvs I dont know your circs which is why you should try and be realistic about your situation. It might sound like people are being harsh by questioning but when you come on asking for help and tell different parts to a story it's hard for people to get their heads around it enough to help out. You've already added another 25% to his monthly salary just because I asked you about it.
Try and sit down and go through it all and be more realistic (the 'youre only kidding yourself' saying comes to mind...) and hopefully someone will pop along with some further advice for you.

Best of luck
ps sorry for any typos - on my mobile!

sweetpeas_2

Debtslayer wrote: »

You posted here asking for help, which people have given, although you may not like some of the answers.
No one has a magic wand or solution to make the debts go away, the only person who can help your boyfriend is himself.
There is lots of great advice on this board from people who like myself have been in debt and paid it off. It is up to you and your boyfriend if you take on board the advice people are trying to give you, instead of being defensive

i'd be defensive too if i was working my backside off to pay for someone to live for free cos they decided a job they needed to pay their own debts 'wasnt for them'

sugarcube84

lacoste1985 wrote: »

He will already be studying his course over a period of 6 years part time, 16-18 hrs of study per week minimum. There is no way he could of done this whilst working 45 hours a week, travelling for 10 hours a week on top of this, it just wouldnt of worked. He canot do the degree any slower than he is now, 6 yrs is the part time option. I can see your point in the sense that it may look stupid to have turned down a full time job when he has this much debt but we are trying to think about making a better future for us both, plus the full time job was only min wage any how so wasnt like 20 grand!

Unfortunately I going to be a bit harsh, not like me, but he could work full time and study. 18 hrs works out at just over 2.5 hrs per day which is definitely manageable. My dh works 2 full time jobs one from 2pm-10pm and another from 10.30pm-6.30am so I'm sure your bf could find 2.5 hrs per day to study around a full time job.

I understand about short term pain long term gain but I worked more around a full time uni course, maybe once he has got into the studying mindset you could re visit finding a full time job?

tallyhoh

Could you reconsider the DMP? okay all credit cards won't be used again but that's not such a bad thing. If its just the petrol he;s worried about can't he use his debit card? maybe you could sub him the first month till he's reimbursed

foolofbeans

The usual way to deal with outgoings more than your incomings is to either reduce your expenses or increase your income. It seems a no-brainer to me that your partner needs to get a full-time job and work his OU studies around that. OU designs its courses for working people and many manage to get their degree while working. If you have no caring responsibilities then there is no reason not to be able to study after work.
Has he ever worked out how much it actually costs him in petrol for his takeaway job as it looks like he is earning about £4.40 an hour and it may not be worth running a car for this amount.

HappyMJ

I know you said you didn't want him to consider bankruptcy but going bankrupt may be the best solution.

He won't have to make any payments towards his debts as he is liable for half of the household expenses and I'm sure his income wouldn't cover that.

In 6 years when he's finished the course and got a proper full time job paying decent money his credit will be back to normal and you may be able to buy a house together and get a good rate of interest.

If he half owns a house with you already then you can make him an offer to buy his share of the house from him which can go some way towards clearing his debts.