Help with life after a DMP

shabbychic123

Good afternoon, I am looking for some advice on life after a DMP please. So I was on a DMP, which I paid off in full in 2016. Since then I have been working hard to remain debt free, I do have a couple of credit cards which I are paid off in full each month. I also had to take out a £5000 loan in 2017 to pay for a car as I needed something reliable as I drive approx. 30000 miles a year.






My issue is that my trusty workhorse of a car has recently broke down, with no hope of being fixed (well the cost of repair is higher than the value of the actual car so obviously there is no point in fixing it and it has been to several garages to confirm this). A car is essential for work, so I have gone out and bought a cheap run around which will suffice in the short term but it is very impractical. In the long term I am going to need something bigger, and more reliable so I was looking to get a car on finance. My clearscore report isn't good because I have obvious defaults on my accounts from the DMP and an outstanding loan. I am really looking for some advice for how I can improve this over the coming months so that I can get a reliable car (preferably one with a warranty!)


Any advice greatly received


Thank you

EssexHebridean

Go through your current up to date SOA and roll things back to the point where you were when you were paying off debt - so cut everything you possibly can to the bone, remember all the old tricks - turning the thermostat down a bit, making sure lights are out when you're not in the room, making sure you'r paying as little as you can for everything you buy, shop from the cupboards & freezer as much as possible for a few weeks to save money on food spending, then shop as economically as you can - back to all the old good cheap options - I'm sure you remember how it worked. Every single penny you can save doing that goes into your fund for a replacement vehicle as and when the runaround gets uneconomical to repair - hopefully it will hang on long enough to enable you to replace when needed with something which will be better for you.

Going forwards, if you have an older vehicle then something you do need to stash money aside for is a replacement - it needs to form part of your budget.

To get a car with a warranty you're talking something really quite new - many warranties don't go beyond 5 years at best. Better to "self insure" by setting aside a sensible amount each month for the sort of repairs you expect, with a contingency amount over the top for the more pricey stuff that you don't!

One "food for thought" thing - just because the cost of a repair may be more than the actual book value of a car doesn't ALWAYS mean that it's not worth paying - if the value of the car to YOU is higher,m then it's worth weighing up.

theoretica

Is your cheap runaround being unreliable on you, or does it just make you worry?