I'm a mess. Where do I start??

themessyone

Hi everyone. It's time I need to sort my life out, but I don't know where to start! Any help of advice would be very much appreciated.

I have lots of old debt that I've burred my head in the sand about. I rent my house. I have no assets. I have two cars on HP and a very high rate of interest, because of my credit rating. Neither of the cars are in my name. One if for my Wife and the other is for me to work. I'm 34 and have my own business and it's starting to grow. I want to make a better life and my ultimate aim is to buy a house. The way things are at the mo it will never happen so time to make forward steps to make a change but I don't know where to start.

I have my noodle and Experian credit report. For some reason my Experian report has a lot missing. Including 2 CCJS that are on my noodle. I've also applied for my Equifax, but I've had to send documents of to gain access so haven't seen it yet. I can spare around £250 a month to clear the debts.

My Debts are:

Arrow Global (MBNA) £1,699 CCJ
Idem £1,649
Pounds To Pocket £1,160 (I only had one loan but there are two entries for some reason?)
Pounds To Pocket £1,159
Hoist Portfolio Holding 2 Limited £296
British Gas - Gas £59
British Gas - Electric £147
British Gas - Electric £64
British Gas - Electric £83
British Gas - Gas £111
British Gas - Gas £355
Ee Limited £126
Lowell £245
Lowell £293

Some of these companies are offering me discounted settlement figures, but I've heard this is still not great on your credit file? Do I just start chipping away at the list and make payment plans for the larger debts? Or do I go for a Debt Management Plan. Step Change have said at £220 a month it will be clear in just over 2 years. But will my credit not even start repairing until everything is paid off?

Thanks you in advance for the help.

bettyboo71

When I finally got around to sorting out my many debts several years ago, I went to the CAB. They negotiated affordable terms with everyone, and I avoided any sort of agreement/plan that would appear on my credit file. I think (but I might be wrong) that once you have made an arrangement, as long as you stick to that arrangement, this appears as you meeting the necessary payments in terms of your credit report - maybe someone else can clarify if I am right about that?
If the £220 monthly is within what you can afford, and it would only take two years, that time will pass so quickly. And if your business is growing, maybe in a year you can increase payments, or even start to pay the debts off one at a time?

You have made the first step - and it is probably the hardest one to take :-)

Sazzie23

Hi

Well done for making a start, confronting debt is well, confronting and you've done brilliant to look at this so far.

Not sure I have any real suggestions to help, but I wonder if you really need a DMP as the debts are comparatively small amounts in some cases.

Have you acknowledged (made payments/offers etc) on any/all of these debts?

Saz

hannahroberts1985

Hey,

Just started a diary myself so am checking of a few other new ones. Good start getting it all of your chest. Have you tried using a snowball calculator. You can google them. You enter all your debts, minimum payments, interest rates and it tells you how to pay them off with laying the least interest. It's all laid out on a table so is easy to follow.

Hannah

HappyMJ

themessyone wrote: »

Hi everyone. It's time I need to sort my life out, but I don't know where to start! Any help of advice would be very much appreciated.

I have lots of old debt that I've burred my head in the sand about. I rent my house. I have no assets. I have two cars on HP and a very high rate of interest, because of my credit rating. Neither of the cars are in my name. One if for my Wife and the other is for me to work. I'm 34 and have my own business and it's starting to grow. I want to make a better life and my ultimate aim is to buy a house. The way things are at the mo it will never happen so time to make forward steps to make a change but I don't know where to start.

I have my noodle and Experian credit report. For some reason my Experian report has a lot missing. Including 2 CCJS that are on my noodle. I've also applied for my Equifax, but I've had to send documents of to gain access so haven't seen it yet. I can spare around £250 a month to clear the debts.

My Debts are:

Arrow Global (MBNA) £1,699 CCJ
Idem £1,649
Pounds To Pocket £1,160 (I only had one loan but there are two entries for some reason?)
Pounds To Pocket £1,159
Hoist Portfolio Holding 2 Limited £296
British Gas - Gas £59
British Gas - Electric £147
British Gas - Electric £64
British Gas - Electric £83
British Gas - Gas £111
British Gas - Gas £355
Ee Limited £126
Lowell £245
Lowell £293

Some of these companies are offering me discounted settlement figures, but I've heard this is still not great on your credit file? Do I just start chipping away at the list and make payment plans for the larger debts? Or do I go for a Debt Management Plan. Step Change have said at £220 a month it will be clear in just over 2 years. But will my credit not even start repairing until everything is paid off?

Thanks you in advance for the help.

Why do you have 2 cars on HP? You could get by with one car and share it. There's no real need to have two cars. One or either of you can get public transport. What do the cars cost and how much do you earn from them?

As neither of them are actually in your name the creditors you have will not see you have the expense. The person's whose name the cars are in is responsible for the payments.

Personally with over £6,000 of debt I'd consider making the payments over 5 years at £100 per month. Yes you technically can afford more but you also need an emergency fund and you also wish to save for a home. So I'd use £150 of your £250 disposable income and save that. You can show on your SOA that you spend that money on essentials but actually spend less on things such as groceries.

Another option is to ignore some or all of the debts. Debts from those companies almost never turn into CCJ's and after 6 years of no payments they drop off your credit report anyway. You can then save £250 per month and if one of those companies does on the off chance get a CCJ as long as you settle it within 28 days the 6 years waiting period won't start again.

Your credit will not be at it's best until 6 years have passed from the last default so you may as well stretch the time to pay over as long as you can.

Whatever you do make sure all your current bills are up to date and in credit. Pay the full year of council tax, make sure you pay your rent every month without fail and pay the electricity and gas by direct debit and choose to pay the largest amount each month so you are in credit and have less to pay your creditors.

You don't need to get a DRO or go Bankrupt at this point. I think you can avoid that by saying to creditors you don't have anything.

National_Debtline

themessyone wrote: »

Some of these companies are offering me discounted settlement figures, but I've heard this is still not great on your credit file? Do I just start chipping away at the list and make payment plans for the larger debts? Or do I go for a Debt Management Plan. Step Change have said at £220 a month it will be clear in just over 2 years. But will my credit not even start repairing until everything is paid off?

Hi

Any CCJs and defaults will no longer show on your credit file after 6 years of being on there. It’s only then that your credit history will really start to improve. In the meantime paying your defaulted debts off on partial settlements would be an improvement over unsatisfied defaults. Perhaps not as good as fully paid off debts in the eyes of some creditors, but any CCJs on your file are likely to have a negative impact anyway until they drop off.

If your income fluctuates due to being self employed you might find it useful to speak to Business Debtline. They can help you work out your finances and look at suitable payment plans.

www.businessdebtline.org

James
@natdebtline

Moneycoach

themessyone wrote: »

Hi everyone. It's time I need to sort my life out, but I don't know where to start! Any help of advice would be very much appreciated.

I have lots of old debt that I've burred my head in the sand about. I rent my house. I have no assets. I have two cars on HP and a very high rate of interest, because of my credit rating. Neither of the cars are in my name. One if for my Wife and the other is for me to work. I'm 34 and have my own business and it's starting to grow. I want to make a better life and my ultimate aim is to buy a house. The way things are at the mo it will never happen so time to make forward steps to make a change but I don't know where to start.

I have my noodle and Experian credit report. For some reason my Experian report has a lot missing. Including 2 CCJS that are on my noodle. I've also applied for my Equifax, but I've had to send documents of to gain access so haven't seen it yet. I can spare around £250 a month to clear the debts.

My Debts are:

Arrow Global (MBNA) £1,699 CCJ
Idem £1,649
Pounds To Pocket £1,160 (I only had one loan but there are two entries for some reason?)
Pounds To Pocket £1,159
Hoist Portfolio Holding 2 Limited £296
British Gas - Gas £59
British Gas - Electric £147
British Gas - Electric £64
British Gas - Electric £83
British Gas - Gas £111
British Gas - Gas £355
Ee Limited £126
Lowell £245
Lowell £293

Some of these companies are offering me discounted settlement figures, but I've heard this is still not great on your credit file? Do I just start chipping away at the list and make payment plans for the larger debts? Or do I go for a Debt Management Plan. Step Change have said at £220 a month it will be clear in just over 2 years. But will my credit not even start repairing until everything is paid off?

Thanks you in advance for the help.

1. Start with a budget.


2. Pay your debts with the £250 starting with the smallest first, once that is paid off move to the next one. You can settle for less on dormant debt but get it in writing as settlement in full. Then it won't affect your credit.


3. You can pay this off in 2 years or less, you do not need a loan, dump or anything else, just some discipline.