CC Co. wont reduce payments

egamar

piper911 wrote: »

Thanks for the sympathy ! But heck, i'm the one that got me into this, and i'm not looking for any. Nice of you all the same

It's not sympathy - it's support. You may indeed not feel entitled to the former, but you're welcome to the latter.

I also thought you were just going to pay them without doing all the paperwork and so forth. Sorry for my misinterpretation. I can see you have not buried your head in the sand at all. I shall have to find somewhere else to park my bike, clearly.

Good Luck.

piper911

Thanks egamar
Thanks Rob - more good advice. Great place this !

SOA Per week

Rent £100.00 ( includes C Tax )
Gas £8.00 ( card meter )
Lec £8.00 ( card meter )
Water £7.50
TV £3
Food £40 ( includes dog )
Fuel £10
Ins. £4
Road tax £4
Sundries ( loo roll, toothpaste, deod., washing powder, cleaning liquids, cloths, scourers - you get the picture ) £4

total £188.50

This leaves around £8 per week for ALL emergancies. IE If my dog is ill ( she's 11 years ), or visit to dentist, motor trouble blah blah

Robflh

Hi piper911

Worst-case scenario, how much would the car be worth if you sold it tomorrow and can you walk, cycle, or get the bus to work.

Again, I am at a loss, why are you paying council tax. To be paying council tax you should be renting a property but I cannot see how you could be paying for rent on a property for anything less then £150 a week excluding Council tax.

Having a dog will make it more difficult to find somewhere else to live but never the less I would start look ASAP. Try to get a room to let. You would then be able to claim Housing Benefit and you would not be paying for council tax, gas or electric.

Then you would be able to make ends meets. At the moment, you could not do it but this is how it works.

I have just realized something. You have done your SOA per week instead of the normal monthly and that had thrown me a little bit. You are paying £43 per month for petrol and £173 on food. That is a total of £216 per month and you have a total of £34 left each month.

That makes a grand total of £250. You pay for food and petrol with one of your credit cards. That means you still have £250 left each month, which you can use to make the payments on the credit cards.

Each month you only pay the minimum on the card you are not using and pay as much as you can over the minimum on the card you are using.

At the moment, the outstanding balance may go up a little bit each month but you will be making the payments each month on both the credit cards.

This will give you the time to sort out your accommodation so that you are paying a lot less and then the total debt will start to go down.

I am sorry I did not see it sooner. I was working monthly in my head but using the weekly figures and not the monthly figures. If I have not explained what to do clearly enough, let me know and I will try to do it differently.

GeorgeUK

If you can't get to CAB, try phoning one of the charities i mentioned. They don't charge you anything at any time.

Also look at http://www.entitledto.co.uk/ and make sure you are getting everything you are entitled to.

egamar

If you are going to apply any time for housing benefit or council tax benefit do so the moment you are in the position to be able to do so. One of them (I forget which) is not backdated by more than a few weeks if at all.

Not much help that, really, was it? Oh well .....

piper911

Robflh wrote: »

Hi piper911

Worst-case scenario, how much would the car be worth if you sold it tomorrow and can you walk, cycle, or get the bus to work.

Again, I am at a loss, why are you paying council tax. To be paying council tax you should be renting a property but I cannot see how you could be paying for rent on a property for anything less then £150 a week excluding Council tax.

Having a dog will make it more difficult to find somewhere else to live but never the less I would start look ASAP. Try to get a room to let. You would then be able to claim Housing Benefit and you would not be paying for council tax, gas or electric.

Then you would be able to make ends meets. At the moment, you could not do it but this is how it works.

I have just realized something. You have done your SOA per week instead of the normal monthly and that had thrown me a little bit. You are paying £43 per month for petrol and £173 on food. That is a total of £216 per month and you have a total of £34 left each month.

That makes a grand total of £250. You pay for food and petrol with one of your credit cards. That means you still have £250 left each month, which you can use to make the payments on the credit cards.

Each month you only pay the minimum on the card you are not using and pay as much as you can over the minimum on the card you are using.

At the moment, the outstanding balance may go up a little bit each month but you will be making the payments each month on both the credit cards.

This will give you the time to sort out your accommodation so that you are paying a lot less and then the total debt will start to go down.

I am sorry I did not see it sooner. I was working monthly in my head but using the weekly figures and not the monthly figures. If I have not explained what to do clearly enough, let me know and I will try to do it differently.

Cant sell the vehicle. I would be cut off from my family who i only see at Christmas. I'm also looking for a job with more money - and this may end up being miles away and wheels would be needed. So thats out.
I'm paying council tax in with my rent. Thats how the real tenant is charging me. Its not really C/tax. I dont pay seperately. He just says its all in.
The credits cards are now both blocked. They can no longer be used. I've also recently been told that theres an advice and help shop on my estate that deal with debts like mine and they will contact the CC's on my behalf,

Could be good news, but still, i'm only going to give the CC's £5 a month each. Thats it take it or leave it. I cant and wont give them every spare £. That would leave me with zero. I need bog roll and sundries just the same as every one else.

George - thanks mate !

Egamar - you've already been a great help. Fear not pal !

Robflh

Hi piper911

The more pieces of the puzzle you have the easier it is to see what it is.

Therefore, you are the Sub tenant of the person that is renting the place and that is why your tenancy is illegal. They are making you pay rent and the council tax.

If they are not receiving the single persons allowance, you would if it was your place, then you are paying too much council tax. Personally, I do not think you should be paying any council tax.

The car goes like this, if it is worth £2,000 and you sold it, you would have that money in your hands. If you then buy a car for a few hundred you will still have a car but you will also have over £1,500 in the bank.

A lump sum of around £2,000 could be enough to clear your debts. I will explain later.

Your credit cards are now useless and in your current financial situation, I do not think anyone here can help you reduce the debt on these cards. However, not all is lost.

Tomorrow morning ring in sick or take a day’s holiday. Tell them the washing machine has gone wrong and the kitchen floor is flooded.

That means you can go to your local council offices. You need to see someone from the housing support department. Tell them you are going to be evicted from where you are currently living.

You will have to go back later for an interview at which point they will let you know if they have anyone at the moment that is looking for a lodger. Also look in your local paper to see what accommodation if available, including house shares.

Cut and paste the template letter below and send a copy to each of the credit card companies you owe money. Then contact Payplan www.payplan.com 0800 9177823. They are a charity and because of this it will cost you nothing.

There are two options. A debt management plan (DMP) or an individual voluntary agreement (IVA). Both require you to make regular payments of more then £5, which at the moment you cannot do.

There is an alternative IVA for which you pay a lump sum. This can be as little as 30% of what you owe but I think it would be more like a maximum of 60%. That is where the car and or family come in.

TEMPLATE LETTER (Enclose a monthly SOA)

Their address

---

Your address & date


Dear Sir/Madam

Re Account No.xxxxxxxxx

Since opening the above account with you, my circumstances have changed and I am no longer able to afford the monthly payments.

Ironically, this is because I am now employed. I am on a low salary and things like petrol & food are costing me more. So I now find myself in a very strange position, I have a job but I can no longer make ends meet.

During this time, I am offering a token payment of £5 each moth as a gesture of goodwill. Please can you supply with your bank details so that I can set up a Standing Order to make these payments.

If interest or other charges are being added to the account, I would be grateful if you would freeze these so my debt does not increase.

I am currently in discussions with various companies for financial guidance. They or I will contact you again as soon as I know which route I am going to take or if my circumstances improve.

I would ask you not to contact me by telephone but to instead put all future correspondence in writing and send it to the above address.

Your assistance during this stressful time would be greatly appreciated. I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

Yours faithfully

egamar

Robflh wrote: »

<snip much useful stuff>

The car goes like this, if it is worth £2,000 and you sold it, you would have that money in your hands. If you then buy a car for a few hundred you will still have a car but you will also have over £1,500 in the bank.

This is much more viable now than when I were a lad. In my days, for a couple of hundred quid you'd be lucky get a car that started if yer mam had hung the washing out near yer pride and joy, let alone if it was raining. If it did rain that was it: you had a week before the driver's seat fell through the floor pan .....

These days you can get at least a year's reliable motoring for £500 or less including tax and MOT and probably 3rd party insurance too for all I know. Sure you have to be careful not to buy something that'll kill you at the end of our road, but it's still very possible.

I reckon you could motor at close to £1/day plus petrol these days (well £2/day as you have to start saving for a new car for when this one fails its MOT at the end of the year).

liz105

If you only see your family at christmas and this is the main reason for the car is there another way you can travel to them? train? coach?

piper911

Thanks everyone - more great advice. That letter is particularly sweet and will use that to send to them.

I'm not willing to part with my wheels, and i've just remembered its still on finance till next may so it would be illegal to sell it.... anyways, its far more useful than just visiting my family. I also need it for my dog and to get to work, shopping. You can only carry so many bags on a bus. I'm also thinking of a little cash in hand work taking peoples rubbish away...gardening stuff and the like.

AS for the rent / C tax thing, well it doesnt matter what he calls it. He could easily just say the rent is £95 a week , thats it. If you rent a property to somone, you can word how you like, but the amount you pay is the amount you pay. I;m only renting illegally because the private sector rarely take pets.