Sinking..

D_M_E

Talk to Stepchange or Payplan - both of these offer free debt advice, will set you up a plan if necessary and do not charge a fee.

Debtwise will charge a fee and will take a large percentage of any payment you make with them, so that what's left after they've taken their fee goes to your creditors.

fatbelly

Bored wrote: »

That is a very expensive car. I don't know much about hire purchase agreements, but is there any way to get out of it? My car is very reliable despite my sizable commute and I bought it for £2000.

Yes, you can voluntarily terminate. Your liability is limited to 50% of the credit, so if you do this at the halfway stage (broadly speaking) you can walk away from the deal. However, you have the problem of how to get to work if you don't have savings to buy a new one.

Your soa looks ok but I wonder how realistic it is. Are you really able to overpay your debts by £377 per month? You need to work on the soa so it reflects reality. Put something there for clothes, car maintenance, road tax.

Do you spend whatever is 'left over' on entertainment as that's how it reads? Make yourself a fixed (small) allowance each week and build this in.

As for an IVA you are not insolvent so tell the idiot from debtwise where to go, and to stop impersonating National Debtline

ditty1234

Just a quick note on mobile bill : I pay for 3 mobile phones on good data contracts for £25, and your car is very expensive on a monthly basis. I am in a situation similar to yours (without the car expense), lower income and a young person to look after. Starting a DMP is the best thing I have done, primarily as it cuts interest to 0. I looked at an old cc statement today - i only spent about £800 on it last year, but paid thousands into it, what a waste.
You have a good chance to make a dent in your overall debt with a good income, and once you have crashed your credit score you can't get more debt - so it works perfectly well both ways.

Karonher

Is there anyway you could use public transport for part of the journey to work? Drive part way then get a bus or train. It may be cheaper than driving all the way, especially if the £40 parking is for work.

enthusiasticsaver

I think you are stuck in the trap of living and working in an expensive area on an average wage. The car loan and presumably consolidation loan mean about a third of your wage goes on those repayments so you have resorted to using an overdraft and credit cards to plug the gap. That has compounded your problem.

I don't think an IVA is the way to go. That soa is incomplete for a start. You need some emergency savings to stop you resorting to credit and the borrowing has to stop. The interest rates are not great but not awful and even allowing yourself a personal allowance for clothes and entertainment and putting something in emergency savings and car fund you can afford a small overpayment to debt.

If your overdraft fees really are £50 a month on a £1000 overdraft start by targeting that as that is 60% interest apr.

Can you get a second job in the evenings or weekends just to get you out of this debt situation?

fatbelly

If here's an overdraft in there (it's not listed in your debts) here is some advice about how to deal with it

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/cut-overdraft-costs/

As for the credit card debts, if you have a good credit 'score' why are they not on 0% deals?

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/balance-transfer-credit-cards/

As your soa stands, you don't need a dmp either. But things are probably tighter than it looks.

When does the car hp finish?

When does the consolidation loan complete?

sourcrates

Tamar7 wrote: »

I went to debt advice service and have just had a chat with some chap who said he was from national debt line.... his email says debt wise tho???? any who, he recommended an IVA, which on the one hand sounds sensible on the other hand I want to make absolutely sure its the right thing and the chap is legit etc

Second post this week where a fee charging debt mangement company has tried to pass itself off as a debt charity.

DO NOT DEAL WITH THESE PEOPLE !!

The ONLY reason they "recomended" an IVA is because thats what they sell, and they make large profits from the fee`s that are charged.
Don`t get me wrong, IVA`s are perfectly suited to some situations, but not yours, as Fatbelly has said, you are not insolvent, so an IVA is certainly not nessessary in your case.

Unfortunatly these companies mis-sell these arrangements on an industrial scale, to people who do not need them, but also don`t fully understand what it is they are signing up for, don`t contact this person again, would be my advice.

ditty1234

Unfortunatly these companies mis-sell these arrangements on an industrial scale, to people who do not need them, but also don`t fully understand what it is they are signing up for, don`t contact this person again, would be my advice.

In May when I first looked for options, and before I had even stopped paying my debts a company was ready to place me straight on to an IVA, but thanks to forums on here ... I am now on a DMP and taking my time about making long term decisions.
Best of luck to you Tamar.