Possible debt advice

dancingfairy

If you went bankrupt you would be allowed to keep a car of around 1k in value I think ( might be 1.5k now?).. You would need to sell current car and buy a cheaper one. There *may* be an opportunity to argue the case re driving children around and elderly parents.
To be honest you sound quite stressed and clutching at straws and you don't know enough about bankruptcy to be making a sensible decision.
If your wife looses her job you can make token payments for 3 to 6 months whilst you look into a DMP or bankruptcy etc. You might want to have that bit of breathing space and see how the dust settles before making any major decisions.
What I would do is contact stepchange or national al debtline or your local cab and discuss your options when you know what the outcome is with your wife's job.
Df

fatbelly

Gavin78 wrote: »

My wife is on the verge of possibly losing her job (gross misconduct) if found guilty

If she loses her job it will put us about 25k in debt

£207 on a catalogue

£5200 across 3 credit cards

and an unsecured loan from Zopa for about 13.5k (with interest 19k) over 5 years and only just clearing the first year now.

You're already in debt - balance on the Zopa loan is still 19k? Or less now?

Clearly if you can't make the contractual payments, then go to token offers (£1 per month). You won't even get a default until the 3-6 month point.

Forget all the insolvency talk for the moment, and leave the 07 car (it's in your name?) as it stands.

It might be worth making sure you are banking where you have no debt (just to be on the safe side)

pmlindyloo

If your wife is sacked and cannot quickly find another job then I suggest that you check your entitlements to benefits.

Although you may not have been entitled to tax credits whilst you were both working you may be eligible for them on your sole salary. Tax credits are based on the previous tax years so after they send the award letter you can ring them and tell them about the change in circumstances and they will adjust the award. However, you must be careful if/when your wife starts work again that you notify them as you do not want an overpayment.

Also on your sole salary you may be entitled to HB and CT reduction. Use the benefit calculator on https://www.entitledto.co.uk as a guide.

SPELLKASTER

Do any of your debts were taken out before April 2007!?

The reason I ask this is that there is a lot going on regarding unenforceable debt as a large amount of credit agreements were not written properly.

If so, you could send a SAR request to your creditors to see what agreements you may have.

Google unenforceable agreement or look at this link from Step Change;

http://www.stepchange.org/Debtinformationandadvice/Typesofdebt/Creditcarddebt/Writeoffcreditcarddebt.aspx

Gavin78

I apologise for leaving this thread so long.

It looked like everything was ok after her union meeting with her work but now HR want to take it further to a Governors meeting with her job

with the possibility for gross misconduct. wife is meeting her union today to go through her pack they have sent of allegations against her and is going to put a fight up.

This takes place on Tues next week. In the event she loses her job I'll be (poss) 35k in debt.

I might be able to limit that debt for a bit but will definitely default on my Zopa loan (13k) 19K with interest over 5 years at £330 a month currently just coming upto a years payments with them.

We get around £2100-£2200 a month between us and have around £300 a month left to get essential things like clothes,food and fuel.

So you can see the kind of financial mess we have got into. I haven't yet gone through our financial stuff yet and will be going through it by this weekend to see where we are at as can pay the bills this month (July) but not from August onwards

Is there anything anything else I need to do before hand and what should I do after if she loses her job?

Gavin78

Wife has just phoned me after speaking to her union she has said there is a pretty good chance she'll get the sack its her word against the head teacher.

So her Union has suggested she goes for a package deal to pay her upto the end of July but will finish her job this friday. waiting to find out what they want to do if they wont do a deal she'll fight it Tues but ultimately she will probably lose.

So need to put things in order now over the next month

missbiggles1

Gavin78 wrote: »

I apologise for leaving this thread so long.

It looked like everything was ok after her union meeting with her work but now HR want to take it further to a Governors meeting with her job

with the possibility for gross misconduct. wife is meeting her union today to go through her pack they have sent of allegations against her and is going to put a fight up.

This takes place on Tues next week. In the event she loses her job I'll be (poss) 35k in debt.

I might be able to limit that debt for a bit but will definitely default on my Zopa loan (13k) 19K with interest over 5 years at £330 a month currently just coming upto a years payments with them.

We get around £2100-£2200 a month between us and have around £300 a month left to get essential things like clothes,food and fuel.

So you can see the kind of financial mess we have got into. I haven't yet gone through our financial stuff yet and will be going through it by this weekend to see where we are at as can pay the bills this month (July) but not from August onwards

Is there anything anything else I need to do before hand and what should I do after if she loses her job?

How've you got on with doing an SOA and cutting expenditure right back in the last few months?

Gavin78

We didn't because her union said everything should go ok even if it went to a disciplinary she can't see anything more than a slapped hand.

However when the pack of allegations came on Saturday it didn't look good or bad but her Union said it's bad.

I've got about 2 months to start getting my affairs in order as they did a deal where she will get paid till end of August or 16th Aug for her pay date.

We are just about scraping through month by month paying everything but holding out.

Now wife has lost her job and if she can't find work for Sept then that is when I'll default. it will be this week now we know what is happening that we sit down and go through everything.

Some CC I can probably just keep paying the min as some have 2/3 years on them 0% so min payment is like £20/£25 a month so I can pay them.

I have smaller bills like £100 on an argos card, £200 on a cataluge that I can transfer over to a CC so at least if I default it is not on as many multiply accounts to try and limit the damage.

I'm just wondering at what point once I have worked it all out do I start contacting these companies? do I negotiate with them first or default payments and start talking?

ratrace

untill she finds a permanent job again can she do some cleaning or deliver pizzas in the evening, I did this when i was in debt i got my self an evening and weekend job at dominoes as my overtime hours had been cut. It was a shock to the system at first but it really made me appricate that anything can happen

Also as a side note we need to be carefull when we are at work as our actions can have consequences that filter through to our family life

I hope you do an soa as suggested before to see where you can cut back.

missbiggles1

Gavin78 wrote: »

We didn't because her union said everything should go ok even if it went to a disciplinary she can't see anything more than a slapped hand.

However when the pack of allegations came on Saturday it didn't look good or bad but her Union said it's bad.

I've got about 2 months to start getting my affairs in order as they did a deal where she will get paid till end of August or 16th Aug for her pay date.

We are just about scraping through month by month paying everything but holding out.

Now wife has lost her job and if she can't find work for Sept then that is when I'll default. it will be this week now we know what is happening that we sit down and go through everything.

Some CC I can probably just keep paying the min as some have 2/3 years on them 0% so min payment is like £20/£25 a month so I can pay them.

I have smaller bills like £100 on an argos card, £200 on a cataluge that I can transfer over to a CC so at least if I default it is not on as many multiply accounts to try and limit the damage.

I'm just wondering at what point once I have worked it all out do I start contacting these companies? do I negotiate with them first or default payments and start talking?

That doesn't make sense.