Help Please - SOA

Beyondskint

Yes i have paid more than a third of my car off already.

The reason the debts show zero is because that's what i'm paying them. That's why i am going to do a spending diary.

theoretica

Do you absolutely need the car? If you live and work in a city you might be better off without it.

Sanctioned_Parts_List

Beyondskint wrote: »

We have been struggling so much with money and got into more debts to survive. It says we have £255 left per month but we dont, so will do a spending diary.

Hi, and well done - you've immediately identified exactly the right thing to do next!

As retrospective spending diaries are just as good as forward diaries, take a couple of days to go through historic bank and credit card statements, at least 3 months worth, but the farther back you can go, the more likely you'll be to pick up "odd" expenses like MOT and car servicing.

While you're doing that, though - get your statutory credit reports from Experian (£2), Equifax (free via ClearScore) and Noddle (free) and make sure that your list of creditors and balances is up to date and that you haven't missed anything nasty like a CCJ.

Also, you're currently not paying a number of these debts. Are they all fairly recent, or some getting a bit long in the tooth? In some cases, for debts of a certain vintage, there are apparently creative ways of making them go away, although I have no personal experience of doing that.

If you were to pursue the Debt Relief Order route, you would need assets of less than £1000 - which draws attention to the car. I know being car-less is hard with two young'uns (been there) and will make OH's job-hunting harder, but do consider selling the car back to the dealer to clear the HP* and some of your other unsecured debts. Again, if they've been sold on a few times and are getting a bit old, creditors can be persuaded to take much less than face value as a full and final settlement if you have cash.

You have a long list of creditors, but some of those debts are tiny - less than you've budgeted for presents. Perhaps even while you're doing your spending log, you can find something to sell on ebay, or skip buying this month, to allow you to get rid of a couple of the smaller debts outright - that £35 Vanquis one, perhaps? One less letter through the door each month is a good thing...

* As far as I know, selling the car back to the dealer from which you bought it is the only easy legal way to clear HP, but hopefully someone on here knows better.

Beyondskint

I do rely on the car with the kids, as both our parents live a cars drive away so it makes keeping in contact with them easier, and also my step kids stay a half hour car journey away so allows us to keep our regular contact.


However even if I did sell the car I'd still have a huge lump of the finance still to pay back as the car seemingly is only valued at £1000 to sell or £380 as a part exchange so it would mean I would still have the £50 payment to pay, although I would gain in the expenses, but I would then need to pay out on buses/trains to go visiting.


I'll have a look through my bank statements as suggested to give me a better idea of anything I may have missed or wasted money on.


My debts are a mixture of new and a few years old. I definitely want to get the smaller debts paid off first. I have already contacted Vanquis and they have given me all the payment details that I need. Once this has been paid I will contact the next smallest and keep going until hopefully it's paid.


During the time that we were struggling the most we sold everything we had at that time, so I doubt there is much left to be honest. I use a baby site where I can swap clothes with people so I put a lot of my used clothes on there and that way someone else then gives me there unwanted clothes in the size that I now require so this helps out a lot.

enthusiasticsaver

There have already been some good suggestions and keeping a spending diary is a must if you cannot account for the £255. Cash withdrawals which get frittered away are a common cause of discrepancies on soas.

When you have identified the source of the discrepancies update the soa. I would suggest as you are on low income that you withdraw grocery and petrol money in cash weekly and keep to that. Lots of meal planning needed to be frugal in that area but as others have said £400 is high although I appreciate you probably have nappies for 2 children in that.

You need an emergency fund as you have a car although I guess if your partner cannot drive then his income is not dependent on it. I would also say that you are spending £217 a month on your car or £2604 a year and it accounts for 25% of your debt. This does seem crazy considering it is not being used to get to and from work so is not helping your earning situation. I hear you about keeping in touch with parents and step children but is it not possible for maybe your parents to visit you and you get rid of the car as your income is so low? 20% of your budget being spent on this seems high.

Your best chance of getting out of this is more income, whether a second job for your OH or a weekend job for you to fit in with childcare. Obviously you need to look at how your benefits would be affected by that though but I cannot see how that income is sustainable in the long run.

Have all your debtors agreed to freeze interest?

Sanctioned_Parts_List

Ah that's awkward - I always thought with HP the dealer guaranteed a certain (usually quite reasonable) return value if you handed the car back. Oh well... next!

WRT your older debts, hopefully sourcrates will be along shortly to lend his expertise to CCA requests and other ways of getting debts set aside.

As you've pretty much cut back to the bone, while OH is looking for work, is there any other way to grow your income? Can you or he babysit occasionally, walk the neighbour's dog or clean windows for cash? Can you beg, borrow or scrape together a £200 starting float for matched betting? Would either of you have skills that a micro-job site like fiverr could use?

After #1 son was born, to stave off boredom during her month's rest, my wife bought every puzzle and sudoku magazine going, posted off and occasionally won the prize draws. Anything we could use, we kept, anything else, we sold. Sadly we didn't win high ticket prizes, but at the time even a fiver made the difference between meat or no meat with dinner.

OK, none of these are as good as a full time job, but any extra money is good money, right?

Beyondskint

I have looked at going back to work full time, and due to the amount of benefits I receive I wouldn't actually earn any more than I do at the moment, which I find silly!! If my partner could find work then it would definitely help. I do some of the survey websites but only ever seem to be able to claim my rewards about once a year sometimes less.


I am going to look at reducing my grocery bills, my oldest son is currently potty training so hopefully we will only need nappies for one child soon.

National_Debtline

Hi Sanctioned...

Sanctioned_Parts_List wrote: »

If you were to pursue the Debt Relief Order route, you would need assets of less than £1000 - which draws attention to the car. I know being car-less is hard with two young'uns (been there) and will make OH's job-hunting harder, but do consider selling the car back to the dealer to clear the HP* and some of your other unsecured debts. Again, if they've been sold on a few times and are getting a bit old, creditors can be persuaded to take much less than face value as a full and final settlement if you have cash.

It's possible you missed this point further above (as I initially did), but as BeyondSkint lives in Scotland, a Debt Relief Order is not available.


Re: the HP vehicle, the OP won't strictly speaking have the right to sell the car - just to either make payments or terminate it in accordance with their rights under the Consumer Credit Act. If the lender has already issued a default notice in respect of the missed/reduced payments, then the OP will now have lost that right to "voluntary termination".


Dennis
@natdebtline

Sanctioned_Parts_List

Thanks Dennis - I'm now a little more educated

DCFC79

You say your husband don't drive but there are jobs out there eg a drivers mate, maybe not the most glamorous job but its a job that pays.

Might have missed it but have you considered your partner staying at home and you going back to work full time, is that what you meant by losing benefits.