Advice needed

ryankelly1984

Hi,

This is my first post on here and hopefully the first step in getting my financial situation sorted.

I currently owe 20600 and am struggling to meet my monthly financial commitments ie, rent, council tax etc.

It hasn't got to the point where I have people knocking at my door but that can't be too far away unless I get something sorted. Ultimately I have more outgoing than coming in.

what would you suggest would be the best course of action? I literally have no luxuries and I'm working 50 hours a week and I'm not making ends meet.

Thanks in anticipation Ryan

National_Debtline

Hi Ryan

Welcome to the forum. The best place to start is completing a statement or affairs (SOA). It’s a financial plan to see how much you realistically need to spend on essential living costs and how much you have available for debt payments each month.

There's a template here and you can post your results in the forum:
www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php

From there your best options will depend on how much you can afford and your circumstances. You’re in the right place for support and guidance.

James
@natdebtline

sourcrates

ryankelly1984 wrote: »

what would you suggest would be the best course of action? I literally have no luxuries and I'm working 50 hours a week and I'm not making ends meet.

Thanks in anticipation Ryan

Hi Ryan,

Do the SOA, as suggested by James.

Then we have a starting point, you can include as much info as possible, it all helps in finding a solution.

enthusiasticsaver

As said above start with posting an soa. For a start though you need to pay debts in priority order.

Rent, Council Tax, utilities, food and transport to work are main ones.

Then follows unsecured debt or secured debt if you have a car on HP. If you cannot meet minimum payments on all of these then write to tell them and offer token payments until you have worked out a way forward. Do you have anything to sell which could help you short term?

ryankelly1984

Hi I had to manually type it all so hopefully there isn't any errors. Thanks a lot for getting back to me.

Monthly Income after Tax £1850
Partners 0
Benefit 0
Other income 0
Total Monthly £1850

Monthly Expense
Rent £695
Council Tax £140
Electricity £75
Gas £75
Water £40
Mobile Phone £100
TV Lic £20
Sat TV £50
Internet £50
Groceries £300
Clothing £20
Petrol/Diesel £70
Road Tax £20
Car Insurance £50
Car Maintenence £20
Pet Insurance/Vet Bills £50
Presents £20
Haircuts £5
Entertainment £40
Emergency Fund £50
Total Monthly Expenses £1920

Assets
Car £500
Total Assets £500

Unsecured Debt
Lloyds Credit Card £5600 (£180)
Lloyds Overdraft £3000 (£40)
Aqua £6000 (£220)
Barclaycard £2000 (£50)
MBNA £4600 (£180)
Total Unsecured Debt £21,200
Net Assets -£20,700

Monthly Budget Summary
Total Monthly Income £1850
Expenses £1920
Available for debt repayment -£70
Monthly unsecured debt repayments £680
Amount short for making debt repayments -£750

Personal balance sheet summary
Total assets £500
Total HP and secured debt £0
Total Unsecured Debt £21,200
Net Assets £20,700

ryankelly1984

Net Assets should read -£20,700

Suseka97

Hi Ryan,
My advice would be for you to contact a debt management company such as Stepchange or Payplan and see what they suggest. Looking at your outgoings you seem to be paying rather a lot for your utility bills and I would look online to see if there is a way to reduce your gas, electric and water bills. You also have a high mobile phone plan, can you reduce that at all? From what you've posted you can't be making any payment to your credits surely - so you do need to seek out some expect advice.

tallyhoh

How many people in the household? You don't spend a great deal on petrol so maybe using public transport would be cheaper or even a bike.

ryankelly1984

Unfortunately I work ain't social hoursnap public transport isn't really an option. My commute is 15 miles so not really possible. I have filled in the initial form with Stepchange and they recommended an IVA but wanted to see what people who have been in a similar situation thought was best. Thanks again guys

National_Debtline

The first thing is to make sure you’re living within your means and don’t have a negative before it even comes to making debt payments.

If these figures are for one person there is scope to reduce the housekeeping. Your mobile phone, internet and satellite tv are all luxuries which could be reduced or cancelled if you’re out of contract. If you’re really struggling to pay the essential priority bills you might even need to default on those contracts and treat the outstanding balances as non-priority debts that you make payment offers on.

Also make sure you get the single person discount on council tax if you’re the only adult in the property.

The fuel payments seem high so check whether you can switch to a better deal. There is lots of information here:
www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/you-switch-gas-electricity

To consider an option such as IVA or a DMP you’ll need to have a sufficient amount of surplus on your budget, which you can make a viable payment plan with. It looks like you’ll need to work on reducing your outgoings before those options are possibilities. For now you could cancel your debt payments and send this 'hold action' sample letter:

www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/sampleletters/Pages/Hold-action-on-your-account-%28sole-name%29.aspx

Call us or one of the other free debt advice agencies to go through full advice on your options with an adviser.

James
@natdebtline

chelseablue

Regarding the groceries, is that £300 for one person?