Advice needed - TV Licence

iwanttoberich

Last month I had to cancel 2 direct debits to avoid bank charges. They were my life insurance and tv licence. I reset them and both companies want double payments. However, I messed up on my mystery shopping. I forgot to submit my bank details for one company, and another 2 shops were past the cut off date with another company.

This means that I can't pay something this month. My insurance is important. With my luck, the day I don't have cover is the day something will happen. Since all my other bills have been paid, the only thing I can cancel is my tv licence.

I was looking at some of the online Payday Loans. Has anyone ever tried them? I was considering this instead of cancelling the tv licence. I did this once already a couple of months ago.

Any advice would be appreciated.

tealady

Pop up a SOA so we can see what is going on. Payday loand I suspect will have very high APR's, cutting back is cheaper.

hypno06

I agree with tealady - pop up your soa and we will see if we can find another way to get through the next few weeks.

iwanttoberich

Thanks for the advice so far. Here is my SOA. I have been fortunate to have a landlady that pays the council tax and water rates. I have so little income left that I usually try to manage on whatever is left. I also do loads of surveys and, thanks to this site, have started mystery shopping, pigsback, clicking ads and anything else that brings in the pennies.

Income: £1022
Outgoings: £990.67

Creditor Balance - Payments in brackets
Barclaycard 2215 (5 )
Littlewood CC 2885 (5 )
CapQuest 2496 (10 )
Capital One 313 (7)
Citifancial 3017 (53)
Provident 1100 (15 )
Kays 150 (10)
Shoe Tailor 332 (5 )
Littlewoods 264 21 (2 months, then reduces to normal
payments around £11)
Bristol Wessex 124 (1 )
One Tel 44 (5)
Tax credit O/pment 624 (1) (supposed to be £10)
C/tax Overpayment 105 (15 )



Direct debits
Rent 480.00
Car Ins 19.48
Life Ins 23.04
AOL 14.99
BT 19.50
RAC 8.75
TV licence 22.58
Credit Union 90.36 (£10 goes to saving)
Career Development Loan 86.07 (I just started paying. Don’t want to reduce as I am hoping it would help build credit rating)



I always thought I was doing okay because my bills fit so neatly into my salary. The problem is the unexpected such as the car repairs I had to do for MOT.

How many times do TV licence allow you to reset the payment plans?

anniestar

I had to do exactly the same last year, I cancelled it and then got a few reminders. We then were refunded all the paid up part of the licence it was pretty easy to restart it up the next month. Hope it helps, I know its worrying but honestly it will be ok.

immoral_angeluk

Can I ask why you're paying £90.36 into a credit union and only £10 is being saved?
Personally to me TV licence is more important than life insurance. You're more likely to be taken to court for not paying your tv licence than you are to die.....
Also that's a hell of a lot of debt to deal with there.. what's your credit rating like.. would a 0% balance transfer be an option? Egg for example do 0% on balance transfers for 12 months...which as well as helping you out financially, would neaten things up a bit.

redsquirrel80

Oops double post.

redsquirrel80

What date does your TV licence DD come out? Just wondering how long you've got to raise some extra. I've been tempted by the payday loans too, but it's got to be better to sell something or cut back on something than pay an extra £20 or so to borrow £100! Could you pay less into the credit union this month or has that already come out?

iwanttoberich

I am a victim of the tax credit mess a couple of years ago. All my benefits were withdrawn at the same time, cutting my income in half. I foolishly used my credit cards for living expenses. Hence my position today. No overdraft or credit cards. A year and a half ago CCCS recommended bankruptcy. My daughter talked me out of it. I'm glad she did. I arranged my own DMP.

The reason I am only saving £10 in the credit union is that is the condition of being a member. The rest is repaying a loan for getting my things out of storage and moving them to my current location.

With regard to my current situation, all bills have been paid except the two mentioned. Both due to come out on 1 Oct. I bank with Natwest, since Monday is 1 Oct, they will want the money in my acct by Friday. I get paid on th 15th on each month.

rayday2

If you can't afford legal things like insurance and licences you really could do with speaking to a debt charity and change your priorities of who you pay. Ideally you should be having enough money for food, rent etc and the legal bits then paying the companies with what is left over.

Please consider a debt charity as the places you are borrowing from you will be paying nearly a quarter of interest and you just simply cannot afford to live like that. CCCS, Payplan, CAB or national debt helpline are all friendly and wanting to help.

lolarentt

I would certainly recommend a chat with someone at your local CAB. Where I live (Herts/Bucks) around 75% of their enquiries are for this sort of problem so they have plenty of experience