Credit cards - can you ring them and ask to reduce payments?

sourcrates

survivor84 wrote: »

Also is there a letter template to send them? I am worried about becoming emotional and upset when explaining the abuse that has got me to this situation on the phone.

Thanks so much x

Creditors are not your new best friends, you have a buisness relationship with them, accordingly when you write to them, you do so in a buisness like fashion, try and stick to facts, and dont go into too much detail, keep it concise and to the point.
WTL has provided a link to the National Debtline template letter, but you can also combine it with your own, along these lines.

There are many reasons why people need debt mangement, best to just put something like "due to circumstances beyond my control" when citing a reason for your situation :


Dear Creditor,


I am writing to inform you that due to circumstances beyond my control i find it nessessary to inform you that from (insert date) i will be entering into a debt mangement plan with stepchange.


My circumstances have changed significantly since my account was opened (you can then add specific reasons should you wish to do so) and they are unlikly to improve in the near future.


I will be intouch again shortly with further details of new payment amounts etc, until then, i hope you will give due concideration to stopping all interest and charges on my account, as otherwise this will just lengthen the time it takes to repay it.


Yours sincerely

survivor84

Thank you so much for the templates and advice. I do feel that the £62 will allow me to accrue money towards an emergency fund. And yes sorry about the worry about becoming emotional part, step change just said it was worth giving them the background of the situation. Thanks so much xx

Socajam

survivor84 wrote: »

Thanks so much for the replies. Please find my SOA below:

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 4
Number of cars owned.................... 0

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1901.35
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 1216
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3117.35

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 925
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 158
Electricity............................. 62.1
Gas..................................... 53.06
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 41
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 106.54
TV Licence.............................. 12.13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 32 - This is a luxury you cannot afford. You also have the Internet
Internet Services....................... 33
Groceries etc. ......................... 500
Clothing................................ 100
Petrol/diesel........................... 140
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 20
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 200
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 12.02
Life assurance ......................... 7.47
Other insurance......................... 21
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 30
Haircuts................................ 50
Entertainment........................... 50 - Luxury you cannot afford. Children already attend clubs.
Holiday................................. 30
Emergency fund.......................... 30 - add entertainment to this, saving 80.00 per month
Total monthly expenses.................. 2643.32


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

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
credit card....................9990......234.......0
credit card....................9811......224.......0
credit card....................2750......115.......0
overdraft......................3000......0.........0 - you need to stay away from this, too easy to get trapped
credit line....................1300......53........0
store card.....................1800......60........0
credit card....................3100......173.......0
Total unsecured debts..........31751.....859.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,117.35
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,643.32
Available for debt repayments........... 474.03
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 859
Amount short for making debt repayments. -384.97

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -31,751
Net Assets.............................. -31,751

Any help or advice you can offer is much appreciated. I am finding that making the minimum repayments on all the cards is crippling me. I'm then having to borrow money to make ends meet and it's such a vicious cycle. Thank you so much. xxx

Is there any way you can switch the payments around by paying the higher amounts to the lower debts which will reduce them at a faster rate. For example 234 x 10 = 2340 which could wipe out the store card. As you will be paying on the credit line during this time, the 540 could probably wipe that out as well.
Then you continue working the way up until are able to attack the higher loans which you were paying at a reduced rate.
Once you got rid of a couple debt, you could get the cable TV back.