My Debts

Madfool

A copy and paste of my Debt Free Diary, but i'm looking for advice as well. Is snowballing my best option, or should i look at an IVA, or debt management plan instead. I believe i can do this alone, and it will be a lot quicker but i'm no financial adviser. Any help appreciated

Hi all,

So having been struggling with debt for a long long time, mainly caused by a HUGE Gambling problem, ruthless spending and just borrowing way beyond my means when i was younger.

It's time I dealt with my £42,349.38 DEBT !

This total is made up from 3 separate areas:

Total Of Debts;
Joint Debts with my partner: £4.929.38 (Rent and Council Tax Arrears)
My Partner's Debts: £4.846.00 (They are in my partner's name but only exist because I took them out in her name, so they are 100% my responsibility)
My Own Debts: £32,574.00 (Made up of Credit Cards, Personal Loans, Payday Loans, CCJ's, and defaults)

Individual Break Downs:

Joint Debts:-
Rent Arrears: £2,555.00
Council Tax Arrears: £2,374.38

Partner's Debts:-
Credit Card 1 (LLoyds) - £1,643
Credit Card 2 (Bank of Scotland) - £1,560
Credit Card 3 (Halifax) - £2,102

My Own Debts:-
Natwest - £236.00
Active Securities LTD - £273.00
Arrow Global LTD - £300.00
Lowell 1 - £301.00
Djs LTD - £357.00
Ferratum - £357.00
Lowell 2 - £379.00
Lowell 3 - £415.00
Indigo Michael LTD - £541.00
Merligen Investments - £600.00
Anglian Water - £687.00
Lloyds Credit Card 1 - £1,441.00
Halifax Credit Card 1 - £1,516.00
Bank of Scotland Credit Card 1 - £1,517.00
Bank of Scotland Credit Card 2 - £1,530.00
Lloyds Credit Card 2 - £1,533.00
Halifax Credit Card 2 - £1,562.00
UK Credit - £2,865.00
Amigo - £7,896.00
George Banco - £8,268.00

==============================================================
OMG! YOU HAVE SO MUCH DEBT! HOW WILL YOU EVER DEAL WITH THIS MOUNTAIN OF CRAP!
==============================================================

I'm lucky enough to have landed a new job at the start of the year, earning £25,000 PA (£1,699.41 Monthly) for the first 6 months and if no problems this will raise to £28,000 PA (£1871.49 Monthly) after my 6 months probation

After Priority bills (Rent, Council tax, Gas, Water, Electric etc) Starting from March 2019 till August 2019 (when the pay rise kicks in) i have £1,147.46 a month excess, from August this raises to £1,319.54. Barring February where i only have £547.96 due to starting the new job half way through January, so wages cutoff dates, and all that Jazz.

I'm going to use a snowball effect to clear the above debts (unless someone suggests a better way), as they are all defaulted and i believe its the most sensible way to deal with them and clear them in a priority order.

Starting with the Rent Arrears > Council Tax > Partner's Debts > My Own Debts.

Using this method the following should (if i stick to it) happen:

Rent Arrears: CLEARED! April 2019
Council Tax: CLEARED! June 2019
Partners Debts: CLEARED! Oct 2019

At this point i will stop Until January 2020, as i would like to put 2 months wages to one side for Christmas 2019.

January 2020 I will continue to use the snowball effect, starting with my lowest debts and just hammer them each and every month. Just working my way through clearing what i can each and every month. Until they are cleared which i predict (using the joys of Excel) as :T January 2022! :T

I intend on contacting each Debt before making a payment and asking for a full and final settlement figure. As the debts are old, ranging from 1 - 3 years each and no payments have been made for a very long time, I'm hoping i might be able to get some of the debt written off so i can become debt free earlier!

I will update this post every 26th of the month as this is pay day and when payments will be made to creditors.

:T:T:T:T:T Any advice, or words of encouragement welcomed! :T:T:T:T:T

I'm happy to answer any questions as well, be it about the debts, or my gambling problem anything i'm very open and really want to hammer this stuff down!

EssexHebridean

Before we go anywhere else with this, one question:

At this point i will stop Until January 2020, as i would like to put 2 months wages to one side for Christmas 2019.

Why do you need to put 2 months wages aside for Christmas?

ev8

Did your partner know you took out those cards in her name and then spent on them?

anna_1977

I think you need to put up an SOA so we can see where the spending goes. £1699 a month is not a lot if you're running a house etc...

Madfool

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Before we go anywhere else with this, one question:
Why do you need to put 2 months wages aside for Christmas?

I didn't necessarily mean 2 FULL months wages, just our excess. To pay for food, presents etc

ev8 wrote: »

Did your partner know you took out those cards in her name and then spent on them?

Yes, she agree'd i could take them out to balance transfer mine. Which never happened, i just ran them up like an idiot. She had never had credit or debt until she met me, she's 1:1,000,000

anna_1977 wrote: »

I think you need to put up an SOA so we can see where the spending goes. £1699 a month is not a lot if you're running a house etc...

I will do this now

Madfool

anna_1977 wrote: »

I think you need to put up an SOA so we can see where the spending goes. £1699 a month is not a lot if you're running a house etc...

As Requested:

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 3
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1699.41
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1324.76
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3024.17

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 725
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 150
Electricity............................. 80
Gas..................................... 80
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 60
Telephone (land line)................... 20
Mobile phone............................ 0
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 10
Groceries etc. ......................... 400
Clothing................................ 25
Petrol/diesel........................... 150
Road tax................................ 13.59
Car Insurance........................... 31.46
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 10
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 41.66
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1876.71


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 300
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 300

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,024.17
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,876.71
Available for debt repayments........... 1,147.46
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 1,147.46

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 300
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 300

Created using the SOA calculator at stoozing
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

ev8

Madfool wrote: »

Yes, she agree'd i could take them out to balance transfer mine. Which never happened, i just ran them up like an idiot. She had never had credit or debt until she met me, she's 1:1,000,000

I don't know if I can put this here, but anyway.

I was raised in a home with a gambler, and far from being 1 in a million, it's all too common actually. You'll find a lot of women who end up with a gambler end up with debts in their name too.

You need to not use her name again, and she needs to enforce this and not allow anything in her name again, it's really not fair.


What are you doing in relation to your gambling problem now?

a_silver_lining

I'm confused how you have £1,147.46 left for debt payments when some of that is your partners money? Surely you have 50% of that and she has the other 50%?

If you share expenses equally but keep your money separately then you have slightly more, so 50/50 then 1876.71 /2 = 938.36.

1699.41 - 938.36 = 761.05
1324.76 - 938.36 = 386.40

EssexHebridean

Madfool wrote: »

I didn't necessarily mean 2 FULL months wages, just our excess. To pay for food, presents etc

But the excess (surplus) by that time will be £2600 - with the best will in the world you do NOT need Christmas to cost that much, especially allowing that your SOA already budgets nearly £500 per year for presents?

Better by far to budget a sensible amount based on a realistic, but not OTT Christmas spend, and set that amount aside each month into an account specifically designated for the purpose. that way also, when you see something through the year that would be just the perfect present for someone, you can buy it there and then knowing that the money is budgeted to pay.

Another quick note on the SOA - none of the debts are showing on it, currently?

I'll take a look through the rest of the SOA in a bit.

Madfool

ev8 wrote: »

I don't know if I can put this here, but anyway.

I was raised in a home with a gambler, and far from being 1 in a million, it's all too common actually. You'll find a lot of women who end up with a gambler end up with debts in their name too.

You need to not use her name again, and she needs to enforce this and not allow anything in her name again, it's really not fair.


What are you doing in relation to your gambling problem now?

100% agree with you, I've never felt so ashamed when i finally came clean about 2 years ago about the whole situation. I will NEVER take anything out in her name again, with or without her permission. It's why I'm so head on with clearing this debt in her name before my own, as she should never have had it to start with and only does because of me.

We sat down spoke about it, she was very understanding as were my family. My Father has a huge problem as well, so the family were kind of expecting it with me eventually.

I spent 6 months going to GA meetings at a local group, which really helped me to open up and talk about it to family and friends. Knowing i wasn't the only person who had the problem and just being about to talk about it to others really helped.

Steps i took to help: I self excluded myself from the local bookies, the Mrs checks internet history daily, and has access to our online banking account so keeps a very close eye on our finances. I also do not have a debit card so can not gamble online. When i go out if i have cash i only ever take out what i actually need. This helps no end and stop me buying scratch cards, at the local as this is something which was proving difficult to self exclude from.

Madfool

a_silver_lining wrote: »

I'm confused how you have £1,147.46 left for debt payments when some of that is your partners money? Surely you have 50% of that and she has the other 50%?

If you share expenses equally but keep your money separately then you have slightly more, so 50/50 then 1876.71 /2 = 938.36.

1699.41 - 938.36 = 761.05
1324.76 - 938.36 = 386.40

Our income is joint, joint bank account, joint bills. Even though i took the CC's out she wants them cleared just as quickly as i do, so everything is lumped together. None of this 50% is mine 50% is yours, i earn more than you, i'll pay that this month you pay that next month.

Easy way to look at it is:

My partner's income is £3,024.17
My income is £0.00