Advice Needed Urgently Please

Peter_Pan

hI

We have had a disaster today, our 10 yr old cat had to be taken to vets and we are going to have a £170+ bill to pay later today, we don't know what to do, OH is going to be filing for bankcruptcy once we have saved the fees and i am waiting for a new basic bank account to be set up. I have drawn some cash out which is supposed to tide us over for basic living until our next benefit is paid into the new account hopefully , i have 3 options
1. pay it from teh cash i have withdrawn which will leave us short for normal everyday living
2. use the bank and increase the overdraft even more which will become my debt(and i'm not currently working) after OH goes bankcrupt
3. Use a credit card for the last time but not sure how we stand with doing that - haven't notified anyone of our intention or cancelled any DDs etc yet

Any advise would be gratefully received

Peter_Pan

Can anyone tell me if we can use our credit card for the vets bill?
Don't want to do it and then find we get into trouble.

skatescly

i would firstly speak to the vets and explain that you are having difficulty coming up ith the money all at once. arrange an installment plan say over 3 or 4 months.

Peter_Pan

It was all a blur this morning, assumed we'd get some eye drops not kept in for an operation!:eek: the estimate we were given makes it very clear that payment has to be made in full when picking up, didn't occur at the time to think how would we pay it (so used to living off credit cards obviously:eek:).
Have just phoned and yes has to be paid in full unless a special arrangement had been made with manager prior to the operation:(.

betterlatethannever

Peter, this is a really tough question, that i've been toying around with for an hour and got nowhere.
IMO (and only MY opinion) i would put it on a card and admit to the OR at the interview that i knew what i was doing but had no choice. This will then make the OR ask what will happen after BR and you have no credit cards and an emergency pops up. At which point i'd stare blankly into space and shrug my shoulders.
Is there any way you could offer half the cash and leave yourself a 'little' short then pay the rest on card. Maybe a few tears, and some offers of payments would work.
I wonder if the vet really would keep the cat if you can't/don't pay....and then could the vet bill be added to BR???

Chubacca

We are lucky in that our vets allows us to pay installments - just tell your vet once you have the cat in your hands, that you will have to pay in installments.

Additionally, do you receive Housing Benefit OR Council tax benefit or both, OR Income support?

If so, you can apply to the PDSA and they will pay some of your bill for you. They don't usually pay it all, the normal is around £100 - BUT it depends on what funds they have at the time and how many others they have to see to.

You can apply being in receipt of any of the above benefits - even if it is only housing benefit or council tax benefit

Their website is here:

http://www.pdsa.org.uk/

Please ring them and tell them what vet you are using and tell them your situation if you receive any of the above.

There even may be a PDSA vet near you that you can have the operation done - if this is the case, they usually just require a donation.

Peter_Pan

I received all the paperwork from the CCCS today and our SOA includes an amount for emergencies so we will have a built in fund once we get through the bankruptcy, its also been an eye opener seeing how reliant we have been on credit cards and not planning ahead. Going to look at pet insurance as well - not sure they will insure an old cat but i'm sure going to find out;) just in case for the future.
Have also just checked our local court and spoke to a really friendly person and theres only a week waiting list (he did say some courts in other areas have a 3 month list:eek:) so we just need to get the fee together and "DO IT".

I have decided that lets start as we mean to go on and going to bite the bullet and pay cash and perhaps use the card for our fee instead and book an appt for a weeks time and get it over with.

fiveyearplan

Good idea about looking into insurance. If your cat is old this may just be the start of something very expensive. I feel for you because I have 2 dogs.

Peter_Pan

Thanks Chubacca for that info:T, i have phoned them and they are sending a form out tomorrow and apparently our local vet is aware of the scheme and have used it in the past so we have to pay what we can and then tell them we have called the PDSA.
They pay up to £100 depending on the amount of money in the kitty at that time and do ask that you pay as much as you possibly can - to qualify you have to be in receipt of Housing and/or council tax benefits.

However after a lot of juggling figures(spent all day doing this) I think i'm going to pay the full amount this time in cash - start as we mean to continue -it won't be easy but we need to start living differently and today seems like a good day to start. Its wonderful about the PDSA:A and its nice to know its there but i think a wee bit more struggling just for a few weeks until its sorted will be a valuable lesson for us and leaves those funds for someone else (theres always someone else worse off than you isn't there:cool:)

Chubacca

Yes, there is always someone else worse off, but if you need it, apply for it. I have had to use them once a few years ago for my dearly departed dog, because I just did not have the money.

I was so appreciative of their help, it relieved a lot of worry. Now, I have two dogs, and I have insurance so won't need to use them again.

stubie

I used my CC 3 weeks before going BR to get one of my dogs paws seen to, cost £140. At the time my dogs welfare was more important than worrying about BR and money. If I get questioned later about it, I would be more than happy to state my case in court.

The banks just sell your debts on to another company when you go BR anyway, yep they even make money selling your debt.