Getting back on track. First time post

Innocentredhead

Hi all, totally new here so please be kind.

My basic situation is that I am in debt by about 3.5k, various old credit cards and other debts. I have a CCJ against me as well that is about six months old. My credit score and file is appalling.

I have a plan to get back on track and i'm wondering if you could help me, any advice welcome.

In September I start university and due to our low income, I will get enough student loans and other bursaries in September to be debt free. So this is the first part of my plan. We can survive on my husbands wage so no worries there. Is this a viable option?

At the moment I am not paying a penny on to any of my debts so I am still getting defaults, should I start paying a low amount each month to try and get things a little more even? I don't really want to do this but if needs must I will. Or should I just wait until September?

So, the next part is we want to buy a house when I have finished university in six years time. All student loan/grant payments, other than what I will need fro childcare, travel and books is getting put into savings. But How do I go about improving my rating in that time? Will the time lapsed from being debt free and default free be long enough for them not to consider it on a mortgage application?

Basically i'm just asking if my plan is viable and will get me back on track? Thank you in advance.

National_Debtline

Hi

If you can afford to make payments offers towards your debts at the moment you could do, but if your creditors aren’t hassling you and if you can't really afford it there's no particular need right now.

I presume you mean you plan to pay off your debts with your student loans and bursaries but are you absolutely sure you can afford to live purely on your husband's wage? You should have a good think about whether you'll need extra money for any course materials, textbooks etc. Also will things like your travel and food costs change when you go to university?

You should complete a SOA based on when you’re at university to make sure you can afford everything each month. There’s a template here:

www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php

While you have defaults and a CCJ on your credit file they’re likely to make it more difficult to get a mortgage, but they will drop off your credit file entirely after 6 years of them being added. Once they’ve dropped off they would no longer show up in any credit applications so wouldn’t be a factor at all.

James
@natdebtline

andyfromotley

Hi your plan works fine.

Strip away all the uni stuff, blah blah blah, you are planning to py of your debts for your income.

You have trashed your credit file for the next 6 years so choosing to beaver away at uni and save during that time makes sense.

If you just ignire your debts unitil september you run the risk that they get passed to DCA's and incur large additional fees. I would be tempted to make some sort of token payment to keep them at bay but i dont think its a biggie either way.

Bear in mind that you wont get all of your uni money in one go in september, they spread it over three or four payments throughout the year.

Other tip, uni can be more expensive than people imagined particularly if you get into the routine of takeaway coffees and buying lunches everyday. I take a flask and a packed lunch. It saves me a fortune.

Innocentredhead

Thank you. At the moment, I could spare a small token payment a month, no more than £10 per month to each creditor. I think it is already with DCAs anyway. I think I will contact them, thank you. At leasdt to explain my situation as well.


Yes we have worked it out we can survive on my husbands wages. The money I will be getting is quite high, so will cover all debt, materials I need (I plan on using the library as much as possible) and travel. I already do things like making my own lunch too. Im quite savvy with money now, which sounds odd, but I am good with a budget but not debts.