Where to start?

kjw327

Hello, first post but I’ve been an ‘on and off’ visitor for around 18 months or so. These visits have mainly coincided with points at which I have believed I would start to put things in order but then didn’t. My head went back in the sand on each occasion. I don’t want that to happen this time and that’s partly why I’m making this post as it’ll hopefully help me to be accountable, avoidance is a dominant characteristic and I’ve recently become conscious of this. I’m also looking to receive some guidance to start my journey to being debt free.

I’m not certain of what my next steps should be once I have completed the SOA. I’m working on this and will aim to post it over the next few days.

Both my wife and I have unsecured debts that grew beyond our ability to meet the minimum payments when our circumstances changed. I did, what I believed to be, the best I could for a while but towards the end of 2016 we were really struggling and started to miss some payments and were late with others. I ignored letters and blocked telephone numbers and continued to muddle through until around mid-2017. I’m not fully certain why this was the point at which it got too bad, it just did and it was here that we just stopped paying everything except the finance agreement on the car.

At this point I made a start on trying to get a full picture of what we owed and to whom. From memory the debt was around £43k across 13/14 creditors with around £28k in my name and £15k in hers.....head back in the sand. I continued to ignore all efforts at contact from creditors and following defaults and no contact I believe that all have been sold on in one way or another.

In January 2018 I convinced myself that I could tackle this and began to make some contact with a couple of companies who now owned the debts. I set up one payment by direct debit and this continues today. That was it, I didn’t do anything else until a couple of weeks ago.

January 2019 is my 💡 and I need to get sorted. My whole life is impacted and I cannot carry on with things as the are. I’ve discovered that I don’t really have a handle on who owns the debts anymore and I’m not sure of the best way to find this out. I’d slowly started to go through what letters I have but there are a lot and it’s been depressing. I’ve agreed a regular payment with another company to start in March but now need to really knuckle down and get to grips with things.

Sorry for the long ramble.

Any initial advice and direction would be most welcomed.

cado1

Firstly well done for deciding to tackle things, I made many failed attempts before I actually did it. I would suggest you speak to a debt charity they can help you assess the situation and suggest options dependent on your circumstances. You are not then obliged to do what they suggest or use their services to do so, but I found it really helpful and made me realise i'm not the only one to get in such a mess. Good luck

elsien

I think you probably need to hold off on any more repayment plans until you've got a firmer handle on what you owe, otherwise you might be promising more than you've actually got.
Have you had a look at your credit files to see if there's anything on there that might help you track things down? Otherwise the starting point would have to be ploughing through all your letters - I know how difficult that can be when there's a pile looking up at you, but you can sometimes track them back to find out which debt they related to in the first place.

kjw327

Thank you both for your replies. I’m going to spend this evening with the letters and take it from there.

Willing2Learn

Yup. That's the way. Go through the letters one by one. Find out how much you owe and then you will be able to write to each creditor, asking to freeze charges and interest while you seek advice. Get your SOA posted up and then MSEers can see where you are...

sourcrates

kjw327 wrote: »

Thank you both for your replies. I’m going to spend this evening with the letters and take it from there.

Its something best tackled as a whole, rather than individually, accounts will show on all 3 of your credit files as well remember.


Posting the SOA tells us which debt solution may be best for you, as this is determined by your individual circumstances, if you own property or have any assets etc, also how much disposable income you have at month end.

kjw327

Taken a bit of work but here I am, SOA and debts included:

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 4
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2500
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 207
Other income............................ 120
Total monthly income.................... 2827

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 268
Rent.................................... 580
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 129
Electricity............................. 164
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 82
TV Licence.............................. 12.5
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 130
Groceries etc. ......................... 600
Clothing................................ 100
Petrol/diesel........................... 120
Road tax................................ 65
Car Insurance........................... 119
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 100
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 55
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 23
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 34
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 25
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 50
Emergency fund.......................... 50
Total monthly expenses.................. 2756.5


Assets
Cash.................................... 3300
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 9000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 12300


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 804......(268)......9.9
Total secured & HP debts...... 804.......-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Cabot (Next)...................1574......0.........0
Robinson Way (Vanq)............3476.85...10........0
Wescot (Barclays)..............7195.88...0.........0
U/K (Argos)*...................1797......0.........0
Lowell (Cap1)*.................4336.42...0.........0
Robinson Way (Barc)*...........2923.95...0.........0
U/K (Vanq)*....................3425......0.........0
Cabot (Next)*..................1730.72...0.........0
Cabot (Zopa)...................1274.05...0.........0
PRA (MBNA).....................8523.42...10........0
Cred Sec Ltd (Halifa)..........2504.91...0.........0
Lowell (Cap1)..................1608.29...0.........0
Lowell (Cap1)..................2724.39...0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........43094.88..20........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,827
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,756.5
Available for debt repayments........... 70.5
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 20
Amount left after debt repayments....... 50.5

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 12,300
Total HP & Secured debt................. -804
Total Unsecured debt.................... -43,094.88
Net Assets.............................. -31,598.88

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

Some points to note:

1 - The debts with an * are in my wife's name.
2 - The £130 for internet services is for TV/Fibre and phone with Virgin. I gave my month notice to leave today so this will give me some money back to the pot but I need to arrange phone/broadband now.
3 - I have 3 payments left on the HP agreement 24 Feb/Mar/Apr so that's back in the pot then.
4- The £3300 cash is made up of our emergency fund/holiday/debt free fund. The debt free fund is what I have been saving since we went completely off the grid as far as the creditors were concerned.
5 - I have put four children but my eldest has left education t is now working. Her contribution is the £120 listed as the other income.
6 - My wife has experienced mental health difficulties and was not able to work for a long time but she is now building confidence and gaining some experience by volunteer working for a few hours a week. The hope is she can return to some paid employment in the near future.
7 - The electricity cost listed is my monthly DD for dual fuel with British Gas.
8 - Water rates are included in my rent.

Thanks once again for your contributions so far and I now look forward to advice/suggestions.

ashfan83

You don't buy any birthday or Christmas presents?! Really?

kjw327

Thanks for highlighting this.

Yes, but for the last 18 months we have taken the money from the fund we have accrued since we stopped paying the debts. Once we determine what the emergency fund should be we will then use the rest to try and make some inroads into clearing something from the lower debt balances. I think it will then be appropriate to add something to the budget for presents. I was also thinking that this would also coincide with some money coming 'back' to us.

WhenIam64

Given the size of the debts and the lack of income, your real options are limited. Go and see a local debt specialist charity. The presence of PRA/Lowell/Robinson suggests you've had this debt issue for a long time.

You mention in one of your other threads about a pay-out for indiscriminate lending. Are all the debts the result of indiscriminate lending?

You've indicated you've made a number of starts but have really not got to grips with dealing with it. Face-to-face help with an independent debt charity is likely to be more beneficial than strangers on the internet - says the stranger on the internet.

kjw327

WhenIam64 wrote: »

Given the size of the debts and the lack of income, your real options are limited. Go and see a local debt specialist charity. The presence of PRA/Lowell/Robinson suggests you've had this debt issue for a long time.

You mention in one of your other threads about a pay-out for indiscriminate lending. Are all the debts the result of indiscriminate lending?

You've indicated you've made a number of starts but have really not got to grips with dealing with it. Face-to-face help with an independent debt charity is likely to be more beneficial than strangers on the internet - says the stranger on the internet.

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

I’m not sure what indiscriminate lending is, you must have me mixed up with someone else.

You’re correct about the length of time, finances became difficult and ultimately we stopped paying the debts as they got too difficult to manage. I know it wasn’t the right thing to do but we just literally ignored everyone. Back then I took the view that I’d never be able to repay under current circumstances, the credit card companies would never accept what I could afford so I’d be better off ignoring it all until it went to debt collectors. That’s what happened, only I still didn’t deal with the debt. I’m not proud of this but I can’t go back.

My plan now is to try and get a £10 per month agreement with everyone and then save £400 each month. When this reaches the level of the lowest debt then I’ll try to get a full and final settlement on it, then move on to the next. In my mind this makes sense and will be the quickest way out of this situation.

Thanks once again for your reply, it really is appreciated.