DEBT/DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO

EimearF

Hi Ronnies, you are taking the first step in the right direction. Dont beat yourself up about the past. 
The advice re bank account is not a switch, you need to open a bank account with a bank with no links to your creditors, a good choice would be Starling or Monzo - dont get an overdraft with them so minimal credit checking other that verifying your identify. Get your employer to pay into that account so you keep your wage otherwise you current bank will take it all to clear your overdraft. 
Move bills etc yourself to the new account as you wont be able to use the switching service without clearing your overdraft. 
Be proud of yourself for taking these steps. 
Also you say you are a loner, try and keep in touch with family and friends on the phone during this lonely time, sometimes a laugh on the phone makes everything seem better. 

Willing2Learn

If you still want to do your SOA, then you can do it manually using the template below.  (I copied and pasted the template from one of sourcrates' old posts).

"Here are the basic categories, you will have to add up the totals yourselves for the time being, then copy and paste into your thread :

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

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

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

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................0
Secured/HP loan repayments..............0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax.............................
Electricity............................. 0
Gas.....................................0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 0
TV License.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services.......................0
Groceries etc. ......................... 0
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
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 ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, Christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Professional subscriptions.............. 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 0


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


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Mortgage...................... 0...............0.............0
Total secured & HP debts...... 0

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


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income....................0
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 0
Available for debt repayments...........0
Monthly Unsecured debt repayments.......0
Amount short for making debt repayments. 0

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

Mr87

Echo EimearF be proud of those first steps. Small steps, and you will feel better and get back in control. Keep posting 👍

ronnies6

Hi Willing To Learn, thankyou very much for the template. I am on my mobile and I am not clued up on computers or how to copy paste etc. I tried typing on the above and it will not allow me. Sorry to be a pain how do I type on it. Thanking you and all for your support its very much apprectiated👍

Mr87

If you hold your thumb down on a bit of text it should eventually highlight. If you take your thumb off and then press and drag the handles that have appeared to highlight all the text you want and let go, a little bubble should appear (press copy). Then go to where you want to type and hold down again until the bubble appears (paste). 

sammyjammy

Or you could click on the quote button at the end of the post that would let you type into it.

Madhatter20

Hi 
I am struggling now financially as I have previously relied on my overdraft facility to get by having been on low income. Anyway bottom line is my situation is affecting my health and mental health.
My outgoings are more than my income which I have done my best to reduce. Plus I have various credit cards and 0% purchases. I relied on the fact that I had overdraft facility and borrowing capacity so I could continue credit card shuffling. With the changes in bank overdraft interests equating credit card interest and the covid 19 and reduced availability of 0%credit cards.... I am now stuck with absolutely no wriggle room.
I would really appreciate some advice please 
I contacted what I thought was CAB (turns out they are some company that keen on IVAs) and they were very quick to jump to an IVA. They asked for I'd bank statements payslips finance agreement etc and suggested 115 per month for 5 years which would pay off approximately 7k of a 22k debt. It sounded doable. I wasn't sure so I did a few checks and realised IVA is not the best outcome 
So then I  contacted step change they advised me to contact all my creditors and offer £1 payment per month and ask them to freeze interest or give me a few months holiday. I'm not convinced this is gonna help.
Happy to complete a SOA on here shorty
Thanks 

fatbelly

Madhatter20 said:

Hi 
I am struggling now financially as I have previously relied on my overdraft facility to get by having been on low income. Anyway bottom line is my situation is affecting my health and mental health.
My outgoings are more than my income which I have done my best to reduce. Plus I have various credit cards and 0% purchases. I relied on the fact that I had overdraft facility and borrowing capacity so I could continue credit card shuffling. With the changes in bank overdraft interests equating credit card interest and the covid 19 and reduced availability of 0%credit cards.... I am now stuck with absolutely no wriggle room.
I would really appreciate some advice please 
I contacted what I thought was CAB (turns out they are some company that keen on IVAs) and they were very quick to jump to an IVA. They asked for I'd bank statements payslips finance agreement etc and suggested 115 per month for 5 years which would pay off approximately 7k of a 22k debt. It sounded doable. I wasn't sure so I did a few checks and realised IVA is not the best outcome 
So then I  contacted step change they advised me to contact all my creditors and offer £1 payment per month and ask them to freeze interest or give me a few months holiday. I'm not convinced this is gonna help.
Happy to complete a SOA on here shorty
Thanks 

Yes, do an soa. But can you post it as a new thread?
You have  already learned that there are sharks out there who impersonate reputable organisations, push IVAs and collect their fees. They should all be hunted down and used for medical experiments.
Also you have correctly worked out that token offers are largely a waste of time. The theory is that you get the creditors' agreement not to enforce, and I guess that can  be useful if your situation is a very short blip, then you can resume full payments.In  most cases it's better not to delay the inevitable defaults.

Before we decide on a strategy let's have a look at that soa.

For now your shopping list is:

1. Address the mental heath aspects with your GP and any local organisations that they can refer you to
2. Make sure you are claiming all the benefits you can (Turn2Us)
3. Get any income that you do have paid into an account with  a bank that you do not have any debts with. Did that make sense? I mean do not let your bank have any opportunity to dip into your account (right of set-off). You need your income to pay priority stuff and so some people are going to have to go unpaid for a bit.

Mr87

sammyjammy said:

Or you could click on the quote button at the end of the post that would let you type into it.

That is a much better idea than mine. 

sourcrates

ronnies6 said:

 Can any one answer my thoughts please which are I have not missed any payments yet so will the card companies refuse my DMP? Also can they ignore my DMP and send debt collectors to my door?  Thankyou

Hi,

Ok, some clarity for you, as you appear to be all over the place just now.

Firstly, creditors cannot do anything for you themselves, until you have missed a few payments, so you have  to be in trouble, to receive help from them, however, most card companies don`t offer much in the way of support anyway, or for a very long period, if your problems are likely to last a while, then matters need to be taken into your own hands.

In the UK people owed £1,680 billion at the end of January 2020 (or more, depending on which stats you look at) a lot of whose accounts are managed by debt collectors, do you really think they have the time and the resources to send someone to everyones front door asking for money ? thats not how it works.

There is currently only one DCA (that i am aware of) who still knocks on front doors, they are called Resolvecall, they mainly work in inner city areas where a large number of clients can be visited in one day, and remember, they are just self employed collection agents, they are not bailiffs, they have no more power than my pet fish do, and currently are all grounded due to covid-19 anyway.

Debt collection is done by phone and letter, as its cheap and easy, cost is paramount these days, if a creditor does not like your DMP proposal, they simply wash their hands of the debt, and either pass it to a DCA such a Moorcroft to manage on their behalf, or they sell the debt to someone else, either way it does not affect you or the payments you make.

This site is full of useful information, [please go through the DMP support group logs, there is a lot to read, but lots of useful info is there for you.