what to do?

pmlindyloo

Plus, since you know what your OH is paying I do not see why you could not combine the two incomes and expenditures for an income and expenditure sheet.

beth1611

It was more from the car point of view that I didn't want to bring his income into it. He needs a car and it is his. If we combined income I was led to believe that the car would then be listed as an asset?


Our tax credits are lower than they should be because there's an overpayment from when I worked in my last job in which I earned commission. There's still £1400 to be paid off (still not sure how they overpaid me by so much when I didn't earn that much commission but oh well)


The rent we pay is right for the area we live in, I have been looking and similar properties are about £50 more per month - we have very good landlords who haven't raised our rent at all in the 5 years we've lived there.
I think we qualify for about £11 a week housing benefit, I am in the process of trying to fill in the very lengthy forms for the council.


Thanks for you're help.

enthusiasticsaver

If you do not want to go bankrupt I would suggest you speak to Barclays and MBNA/ Barclaycard and offer a payment you can afford and see what their response in. Some creditors are helpful if they can see there is a chance they will not get anything back. To be honest on yours and your OHs income I cannot see how you got that amount of borrowing at all unless you have taken substantial wage drops since taking the loan or credit card out.

beth1611

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

If you do not want to go bankrupt I would suggest you speak to Barclays and MBNA/ Barclaycard and offer a payment you can afford and see what their response in. Some creditors are helpful if they can see there is a chance they will not get anything back. To be honest on yours and your OHs income I cannot see how you got that amount of borrowing at all unless you have taken substantial wage drops since taking the loan or credit card out.

I have. I left my job that was paying £27,000pa after having our second child for a job that pays £11,000pa as my husband has developed depression and anxiety and couldn't look after both children by himself when I was working weekends. We don't have any family near by who could've helped him so i had to find something that wasn't weekend working and could only find a part time job.


I'm going to open a new bank account so that Barclays can't access my funds and i'll give them all a call and see what they say.

National_Debtline

Hi again Beth

beth1611 wrote: »

It was more from the car point of view that I didn't want to bring his income into it. He needs a car and it is his. If we combined income I was led to believe that the car would then be listed as an asset?

Maybe some crossed wires here in the advice that you were given. Using a combined budget sheet would not make your partner liable for your personal debts in any way, and by extension it would not put his belongings at risk either. The main benefit of doing the joint budget sheet is that it helps to ensure that the household's essential costs can be met, and that both parties are paying their fair proportionate share. Based on the figures you have given, your household spending seems to be split fairly equitably between the two of you.


Dennis
@natdebtline

beth1611

While I'm waiting for new bank account to be opened and decisions on whether the creditors will accept lower payments-should I pay nothing or should I pay them what I'm proposing to pay?

National_Debtline

beth1611 wrote: »

While I'm waiting for new bank account to be opened and decisions on whether the creditors will accept lower payments-should I pay nothing or should I pay them what I'm proposing to pay?

I guess it depends on which route you envisage taking. If you're looking at bankruptcy, then it probably makes more sense to put payments on hold altogether as you need to raise the application fees from somewhere.


If, on the other hand, you're aiming to get some sort of durable payment agreements in place, then starting to make any sort of payments now demonstrates good will to creditors and could help you secure their agreement more easily.


Either way, do make sure not to leave yourself short for anything essential and any forthcoming one-off expenses.


Dennis
@natdebtline

beth1611

So I would just cancel the direct debit/standing order and tell the creditor I can't pay and am looking to go bankrupt if that's the route I take, or cancel the direct debit/standing order and tell the creditor I can't pay the full amount, can pay x and hope they'll accept it?


The cab seemed to think it was highly likely that Barclays would take me to court for the loan, do you think that would be the case?

fatbelly

beth1611 wrote: »

The cab seemed to think it was highly likely that Barclays would take me to court for the loan, do you think that would be the case?

No

It's very difficult to predict court action, so I'm surprised they did.

I'd say it's a less than 50% chance that any of your 3 creditors would take court action.

beth1611

I have an unused overdraft facility of £750, in theory could I withdraw that money and use it towards paying for bankruptcy and then include that debt in my bankruptcy?