I Need Help Clearing My Debts :(

fatbelly

I feel this thread may have reached its conclusion.

EssexHebridean

Frozen this is a forum for advice - and people are desperately trying to give you the correct advice for your situation but you're refusing to accept it because it's not what you want to hear. Similarly on the gambling - by your own acknowledgement YOU ARE AN ADDICT. In the same way that someone might be addicted to Nicotine, heroin, crack, alcohol or any other substance of your choice - your "substance" is gambling. Would you suggest that it was OK for an alcoholic to have "just the occasional drink" or a drug addict to inject themselves "on the odd occasion"? I'd certainly hope not - and I would also hope that if you saw a friend in that situation you would do everything in your power to try to stop that path of destruction. That is PRECISELY what people are doing here - but out of the goodness of their heart for a complete stranger.

Stop a moment and ask yourself why it is that you think that all the folk who've offered you input on this thread - many of whom have YEARS of experience dealing with debt - are wrong, and you're right? Is that not a bit "rest of the army being out of step"?

As I see it your options as a responsible adult are to either accept that bankruptcy is the way forward, or come up with a plan that means paying back the debt as a whole, not try to shuffle out of the bits of it that don't suit you. Essentially, you have run up the debt - you have now to deal with it. That's called taking responsibility - and sadly running oneself into 45k of debt without a sufficient income to manage it does not come totally free of pain.

I wish you luck with your route forwards - I think you're going to need it.

Max_and_sasha

Frozen

If you don't want to go down the bankruptcy road, write to your creditors explain that you are unable to work for a while and come up with a repayment plan, then once you are better and get your 30k or more job repay them ?

Max

Happier_Me

When I started reading this thread I was in the bankruptcy camp too. However you are clearly dead set against this option and now the £25k is a gift and not a loan how about...

Arranging a self managed dmp with ALL your creditors for a token sum (you're credit rating will be trashed anyway which will restrict access to credit, I see no way out of this one!).

Get a job asap - you need to eat and fund your dmp after all.

Bide your time and use the £25k gift to negotiate full and final settlements. Might take a while but you may save yourself some money in the process.

The thing to remember here is there are no guarantees your creditors will agree, it could take a long time to pull off, your credit rating will be seriously damaged and you will be spending the £25k gifted to you on debt you could potentially write off...

How much more restrictive is bankruptcy on credit than a DMP? I'm not sure to be honest!?


Frozen, I think you need to think about why it's so important to you to have credit? This is going to be restricted regardless of what you do! I too have had access to credit all of my adult life, use it to my advantage all the time BUT it wouldn't be the end of the world for me if I had to cut up my credit cards. Admittedly I wouldn't be able to turn as many credit card points into food at the pub down the road but I'd cope.


Having written this down I still favour bankruptcy.

DCFC79

fatbelly wrote: »

I feel this thread may have reached its conclusion.

Agreed

The OP feels his option is best so we should let them go with the idea.

culpepper

Frozen , I think you probably have a gambling problem , my father had one too and never beat it.
Why not change the 'game ' a little and start doing competitions instead?
The excitement of winning is still there but the 'paying money' bit is gone.
Look at the competitions board for inspiration. When you feel the need to 'have a flutter', go and hunt down a competition instead.
As for the credit card thing, some people keep one emergency credit card but wrap it in plastic and freeze it in a block of ice. It's for emergency use only and the need to get it defrosted is a good mental check on whether 'this time' really is one.

fr0zen

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Frozen this is a forum for advice - and people are desperately trying to give you the correct advice for your situation but you're refusing to accept it because it's not what you want to hear.

Who is to suggest the advice given is correct? I'm simply looking at options that best work for me. I take onboard the comments but if one can avoid going bankrupt, then it should be fully explored. Its by no means a clear cut decision from my perspective.

1. I have the support available to clear 25k of my 45k debt without repayment.
2. I will have the means to repay the remaining 20k with a long term DMP.
3. I fully expect to be back earning a significant salary when I am ready & able to work.

With the above in mind, a BRO that lasts 2-3 years will potentially have a major impact on my life and may cost me a significant sum of money in repayments if my earnings are as I expect them to be within that period. If I could guarantee a standard 12m BRO, then I could calculate a small repayment towards my debts before they are written off but i'm not prepared to stay on a low salary for 2-3 years.

tori.k

The advice given is on your actual current position of 45k of debt and no real income, everything else is just conjecture on ideas that are reliant on others agreeing to your terms,
Whichever avenue you take will have an impact on credit available to you, in this case bankruptcy is the option to get you solvent and back on your feet.
Advice can only be given on the facts.

Pixie5740

fr0zen wrote: »

Who is to suggest the advice given is correct?

If the unanimous advice is that BRO is the best option for you based on the ever-changing information you have given us and you suggest that the advice we give is incorrect one has to wonder why you bother coming back for more advice?

If you want a second opinion, type your information into Step Change's Debt Remedy tool. See what it comes back with although I'd be surprised if it didn't come back with BRO too.

Something you haven't considered is the impact receiving a £25k gift will have on your UC but what would I know.

fr0zen

tori.k wrote: »

The advice given is on your actual current position of 45k of debt and no real income, everything else is just conjecture on ideas that are reliant on others agreeing to your terms,
Whichever avenue you take will have an impact on credit available to you, in this case bankruptcy is the option to get you solvent and back on your feet. Advice can only be given on the facts.

I have already agreed in principle F&F settlement terms with most interest bearing creditors of circa 75%. I haven't negotiated any short settlements on the 0% interest creditors so overall my 25k portion of the debt can be cleared for circa 20k. Obviously I am aware short settlements will show on my credit file but i'm looking to get further credit so different.

My only stumbling block seems to be the 20k loan, which I may have to allow to default before re-attempting to negotiatie a more favourable settlement with the creditor OR setup token payments until I am in a better position to deal with this in six months.

Pixie5740 wrote: »

If the unanimous advice is that BRO is the best option for you based on the ever-changing information you have given us and you suggest that the advice we give is incorrect one has to wonder why you bother coming back for more advice?

If you want a second opinion, type your information into Step Change's Debt Remedy tool. See what it comes back with although I'd be surprised if it didn't come back with BRO too.

Something you haven't considered is the impact receiving a £25k gift will have on your UC but what would I know.

Stepchange did suggest BRO, but also advised that based on the fact my circumstances are very likely to change, a viable alternative would be setting up a token payment DMP and re-assess the situation in six months time.

If a £25,000 gift results in me losing £1,800 of benefits over six months, its not a big issue. With F&F settlement offers, I will save this and significantly more with the reduced payment. I'm sure there are ways that this gift which will not result in me having savings over the UC threshold is looked upon as it is intended, to service my debts.

The BRO may end up costing me a similar amount to settling my debts if I am required to pay back £1,000 a month over three years, so why bother going bankrupt and having that on my record for six years if I can clear my debts another way!