Any Help with Settlement Offers?

Honey1971

Hello,

I have too much unsecured debt due in part to a nasty accident which stopped me working for 6 months and since returning to work has resulted in a 40% drop of income. I am a 36 yr old single massage therapist and I travel to peoples homes and get paid in cash or cheques.

I have tried in vain to arrange payment breaks with all my debts when I first got injured, as the small print on my injury insurance did not cover my injury and I had large debts even then and no savings. The 6 months I was off I lived totally on credit, as a homeowner I did not qualify for anything other that £29.60 a week disability allowance!!! The 9 months since my return to work I have been supplimenting my outgoings with further credit. I have to now admit that I can no longer continue like this and i'm desparate to not have sold my home and still end up without a penny to my name.

I have been talking with National Debtline who have helped me write full and final settlement offers to my creditors, but 3 months in and my initial offer of 28% of the debts is being systematically turned down and the annoying phone calls and threatening letters have escalating.

I stopped paying all of my monthly dd's to my creditors (though not my mortgage) in July and I owe a total of £56,500. I have just accepted an offer on the sale of my house, which will leave me with approx. £50,000 after sale costs. I've also decided to return to full time study and am applying for a degree to begin next year. It's high time I changed to a more mentally challenging job that doesn't require my wellness quite so utterly.

My questions are to anyone who has had full and final offers accepted, or who can offer relavant advice etc:

At what point should I increase the % offer to the banks?

What % of the debt have the Halifax, HSBC and NatWest accepted your offers?

Once my house sells & I bank the profits, will they know how much cash I have?

If they force me to court CCJ's what is most likely to happen then?

I am trying to avoid taking a lengthy repayment plan as would like to sell up in order to draw a line under my problems and start afresh. I do not want to risk losing all of my cash equity as I will need to fund myself through university.
I have been generously offered a place to rent with a friend, but even then my outgoings will be high compared to my current level of massage income.

I have been trying these past 9 months (since my return to work) to increase my business through various incentives and advertising, but too little avail thus far.

As I earn cash in hand, I am contemplating wether I might qualify for any income support once I return to study and live in rented accomadation etc. Any Thoughts?

I owe the following;

HSBC unsecured loan £18,357
HSBC overdraft on old account £1,662
HSBC credit card £ 2,882

Halifax credit card £3,910
Halifax unsecured loan £23,771

Nat West credit card £5,396

Alliance & Leicester old account £430

Total debts £56,407

Please help if you can.

Kind regards

Honey

onamission_2

sorry I;m sure someone more knowledgeable will be alone in a bit but have you looked at Working Tax credits for the Self employed if your income (profit) is low?