It's all such a mess and I don't know where to turn

Dr_Hook

If the First Plus loan is secured it will not be bound by the IVA so you'll have to maintain full payments to ensure your home isn't at risk. There will be an allowance in your expenditure for you to pay it though.

Scarlett.1974

Dr_Hook wrote: »

If the First Plus loan is secured it will not be bound by the IVA so you'll have to maintain full payments to ensure your home isn't at risk. There will be an allowance in your expenditure for you to pay it though.

Thanks Dr Hook, I thought so

Wonder why she said it could be then? I was so suprised myself that I asked her 3 or 4 times during the phone call about it and she assured me it could be. Grrrrrrrrr.

Hmmmm, this puts rather a different slant on things now. At the moment we're short the sum of £900 a month :eek: An IVA would cost £300 (she said this was the minimum between the 2 of us - £150 each) so we would still be between £400 - £500 a month short, which is still a huge amount !!!!!!.

shopaholictiedtheknot

How annoying when people who should be in the know mis-inform you!!! Hope you can get it sorted

I LOVE the shopaholic books, I have read them all a few times over (sad i know!!):rolleyes:

Alan1973

Nice going with the progress you've made so far Scarlett :T . I can't offer any advice about payplan or the loans I'm afraid - don't know much about it. Wondered how you were getting on with the Ebay stuff and whether you've had a chance to think about doing some 'matched betting'.

Al

Scarlett.1974

Alan1973 wrote: »

Nice going with the progress you've made so far Scarlett :T . I can't offer any advice about payplan or the loans I'm afraid - don't know much about it. Wondered how you were getting on with the Ebay stuff and whether you've had a chance to think about doing some 'matched betting'.

Al

Hi Alan,

Thank you

The ebay stuff is going well, 6 items now selling with 3 days left to go. Still a few bits not selling at the moment, but all have watchers on them so <fingers crossed>. Haven't managed to get anymore listed today though, been on and off the phone all morning with Payplan! Have got stacks to get on Sunday afternoon though (working tonight and son's birthday party tomorrow - 17 excited 6 & 7 year olds; if I don't have a killer headache tomorrow evening it will be a miracle )

Sorry Al, I must have missed that amongst the posts - could you remind me what the matched betting is please? Sounds interesting.

Slight update from payplan lady - Apparently there was a change in the law due to be put in place recently, regarding secured lending being allowed to e included as part of an IVA, but she said (and I quote): "I'm not an expert in them so I will get someone from the IVA team to call you either this afternoon or Monday morning". Bit miffed that she possibly mis-informed me, but never mind. She did say though, that even if it can't go in with the IVA that she is positive that the people from Who's Lending (also due to call today or Monday) will be able to do *something* to drastically reduce the amount we pay now on secured borrowing, ie. mortgage and secured loan to First Plus.

So..... it's all still a little 'up in the air' at the moment, but we're getting there

Alan1973

Scarlett.1974 wrote: »

Hi Alan,

Thank you

The ebay stuff is going well, 6 items now selling with 3 days left to go. Still a few bits not selling at the moment, but all have watchers on them so <fingers crossed>. Haven't managed to get anymore listed today though, been on and off the phone all morning with Payplan! Have got stacks to get on Sunday afternoon though (working tonight and son's birthday party tomorrow - 17 excited 6 & 7 year olds; if I don't have a killer headache tomorrow evening it will be a miracle )

Sorry Al, I must have missed that amongst the posts - could you remind me what the matched betting is please? Sounds interesting.

Slight update from payplan lady - Apparently there was a change in the law due to be put in place recently, regarding secured lending being allowed to e included as part of an IVA, but she said (and I quote): "I'm not an expert in them so I will get someone from the IVA team to call you either this afternoon or Monday morning". Bit miffed that she possibly mis-informed me, but never mind. She did say though, that even if it can't go in with the IVA that she is positive that the people from Who's Lending (also due to call today or Monday) will be able to do *something* to drastically reduce the amount we pay now on secured borrowing, ie. mortgage and secured loan to First Plus.

So..... it's all still a little 'up in the air' at the moment, but we're getting there

Hello Scarlett

Nice progress with payplan and ebay :T . Whenever I've sold stuff on ebay before I've found that most of the activity is in the minutes leading up to the end time for the item.

Let me give you a quick overview of what 'matched betting' is. It exists for 2 reasons. Firstly, online bookmakers giving out 'signup' bonuses. Secondly, the existence of 'betting exchanges'. Without going into too much detail, a betting exchange allows you to bet against something happen, e.g. betting an outcome to lose. This is known as a 'lay' bet and is the opposite of backing something. The long and short of matched betting is that you get a signup bonus by registering at an online bookmakers. You back an event there and lay the same event at the betting exchange, thereby guaranteeing profit from the signup bonus. Here's a quick example:

1. Bookmaker A gives a signup bonus of £25.
2. 'Back' football team x to win with the bookmaker at odds of 2.0 for example.
3. 'Lay' the same outcome on the betting exchange at odds of 2.0 for example.

(2.0 is the decimal equivalent of evens).

In effect the lay and the back bets cancel each other out and you pocket the £25. I must stress, there are complications and although it's fairly easy money, it isn't 100% risk free so be careful. There is a section of the forum about gambling introductory loopholes which explains it much better and needs a thorough read.

Al

Scarlett.1974

Thank you Alan

Yes, that does sound a little complicated! But H is the betting expert around here and I bet it would make sense to him, so I'll get him to have a read through of that later on. He's still up in bed snoring at the moment! I seem to be up and wide awake, god knows why, I'll regret it later when I'm yawning my head off at 8.30pm!!

Scarlett xx

Scarlett.1974

Good evening all :hello:

A little bit of an update from me: (hope you don't mind - it's as much to keep me 'on track' as well as boring you guys!)

From entering into a DMP with Payplan (this might still only be a temporary measure though, still haven't ruled out IVA or even BR), cutting the shopping budget to £300 (there's definitely scope there too to go even lower) and cancelling Sky I have managed to turn the £900 deficit into £281

Stuff still to do:
Change gas & electric suppliers - £10 saving.
Change house insurance - £15 saving
Tighten up even more on food - £50? saving.
See if we can pay council tax and water over 12 months - £30 saving (£15 each)
Reseach and change life insurance (have dug the paperwork out this evening, so that's my job for the morning!) - no idea on saving!
Find paperwork for sofa and check 1) how many months left and 2) if we can make any overpayments to get rid of it asap - I'm planning on changing as much as possible through quidco and make as much cashback as possible and I'm also going ebay crazy :rotfl: the kids daren't sit still for too long in case I photograph them.

And all this is without H getting a job yet and also I have to speak to the people at Who's Lending to see what they might be able to do to help with the mortgage and secured loan.

So..... I'm quietly optimistic, but obviously not getting carried away - still a LONG way to go.

Scarlett xxx

anniebooklover

Scarlett,

I've just read through the thread and think you have done fabulously well so far. You have had some great advice too.

One thing I did notice is that you said you needed your boiler cover as your boiler keeps breaking down. If you and DH are on benefits, you may be entitled to a replacement boiler from the Warm Front team. I qualified and the boiler was installed free of charge and I got the first two annual checks done for free too. So, you wouldn't necessarily need the boiler cover for a couple of years. It might be worth checking out their website. Every little helps, as they say.

HTH

Annie xx

dsljfreeman

Scarlett.1974 wrote: »

I have managed to turn the £900 deficit into £281

Thats brilliant news Scarlett, well done :T

Just read your diary and I think you're doing really well.

I use Quidco, I think it's brill, did you know you can earn cashback by signing up to do surveys, I've earnt £7.64 from doing this, I even earnt £1.45 for requesting a Whiskas pack :rotfl:

Will be dropping by to catch up on all your progress t'moro xx