Feeling Hopeless...

km1987

Hi

I am in a complete mess with nowhere to turn and I am scared of the future.
I have 3 maxed out credit cards, 1 with about 1200 on and a bank loan with about 7k left.

Tesco CC £7900
Tesco Loan £7000 (approx)
Virgin CC £5000
MBNA CC £5900
HSBC CC £1300

I stupidly lent my ex partner £5000 from a money transfer on the Tesco card as he was in trouble with payday loans and had a gambling and drug problem. He is paying this back between 100/200 a month but it's all in my name. I was off work for 7 weeks after surgery and only entitled to SSP which doesn't cover anything 😔

I suffer with Depression, Anxiety and OCD and as much as I know I owe, when I have my dark days I spend recklessly and withdrew cash from the credit cards. I just secured a new job but don't start for another week or two and won't get a payday until end of September. I have so far been making minimum payments but as of Jan the Tesco one will rocket.

Help....... 😔😔😔

National_Debtline

Hi km1987 and welcome to MSE,


First of all, well done for posting and congratulations on your new job! You will have options available to you, and should start by working on a SOA. You will need to look at what money you should take home from your new job and include the payments from your ex and any other income; then minus your living costs, bills, food etc. The money that you have left over is the money available for all of these debts. If this won't maintain the minimum payments you can look at different ways to negotiate lower instalments.


You can do this yourself or with a free Debt Management Company but a key thing will be to stop spending. Easier said than done sometimes, but you could look at cutting up the cards, deleting online spending accounts (or perhaps blocking them) to help curb this problem. You should also change bank accounts if you are banking with HSBC because you don't want to bank with the same organisation you owe money to.


You can then write to the debts to pay what you can, ensuring your offers are fair and proportioned or get a free DMP company to do this for you. It will damage your credit file but don't worry, that can be rebuilt in the future when you are debt free. And the creditors could enforce the debts with debt collectors or the county court, but neither are anything to worry about. You would negotiate with a debt collector in the same way as the bank and county court is mainly done in the post. Try posting your SOA when you get chance and we can look if there are any other options to help you. Best of luck,


Laura
@natdebtline

rockabillygirl

I didn't want to read and run. Congratulations on your job. Fantastic advice above and I'm sure others more knowledgeable than I will be along. Best of luck x

jojitsui

Hi km1987. Congrats on your new job. As above I'd get an SOA completed and posted asap so you can see where your money is going, what you can save on and how to increase what you have left every month to pay off your debts.
There are loads of good challenges in debt free wannabe and lots of other threats about frugal living that might help.
As you have mental health issues there maybe additional support you can receive in relation to your fiances. Try google to see if there is anything in your area.
Good luck x

sourcrates

Hi,

Nothing will happen if you miss a few payments.

We need to see an SOA first before anyone can advise on your options, link here :

http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php

enthusiasticsaver

As others have suggested an soa is a good first step. If you do a DMP your credit rating will be ruined for 6 years or more and you won't have access to credit cards etc but that is a way to freeze the interest and agree a monthly payment you can afford. With £27k+ of unsecured debt that may be the best way forward depending on how much your new salary and other outgoings are. Only an SOA will pinpoint the best way forward. You can default on payments in August then and contact stepchange to agree on a budget and monthly repayment plan.

Another option is bankruptcy but it depends on your circumstances and whether you have a house, car, other assets and whether this will affect your job.

Alternatively if you decide neither of the above options are for you and you want to repay it all without going onto a DMP you can contact them telling them you cannot make this months payments and just pay a token payment for now and then restart payments after your first payday.

Kidder81

Hi

Try not to feel hopeless. There's people been in worst situations and come through. It doesn't sound like something that you can't resolve.

It's important to not beat yourself up over the debt too and lending your boyfriend money. What's done is done. Look to the future.

Complete your SOA. If you need to, call your creditors and explain your circumstances. I'm sure that'll help.

Probably the most important thing is to deal with your mental health issues so you're in a good place as these sound like the root cause of your debt.

Tempus01

Hi


Awh don't feel hopeless. There are so many people in the same situation as you. I have mounted up quite a lot of debt. I have only been on this site for a day but I am already feeling more helpful. there is no judgement on here and it feels great to be able to talk openly to people.


Keep us updated on how you're doing and goodluck x