Drowning - Help

SusieT

Lenners134 said:

SusieT said:

You only have £58 for electricity, if you are on a fixed deal when does it end as that could be going up significantly soon, and with the price of groceries heading upwards it is possible you have underestimated there as well?

£58 is dual fuel, electric and gas.  The SOA didn't have a dual fuel option so just put it under electric 

That only makes it worse!!  The cost of gas and electricity is rocketing, so you look to be underestimating this by a lot. Unless you are in a fixed deal (so the cost stays the same until a set date) or a bedsit this amount is highly unlikely to cover normal usage. 
It is worth you taking meter readings today, and comparing them to an actual reading around this time last year. Then work out how many kw or cubic meters you have used, multiply by the current price, add the standing charge to get the annual cost. Then divide by 12 to work out what you will be paying at the October rate i.e. after the next price rise. I have a nasty feeling you could be looking at around £150 a month possibly more

Floss

SusieT said:

Lenners134 said:

SusieT said:

You only have £58 for electricity, if you are on a fixed deal when does it end as that could be going up significantly soon, and with the price of groceries heading upwards it is possible you have underestimated there as well?

£58 is dual fuel, electric and gas.  The SOA didn't have a dual fuel option so just put it under electric 

That only makes it worse!!  The cost of gas and electricity is rocketing, so you look to be underestimating this by a lot. Unless you are in a fixed deal (so the cost stays the same until a set date) or a bedsit this amount is highly unlikely to cover normal usage. 
It is worth you taking meter readings today, and comparing them to an actual reading around this time last year. Then work out how many kw or cubic meters you have used, multiply by the current price, add the standing charge to get the annual cost. Then divide by 12 to work out what you will be paying at the October rate i.e. after the next price rise. I have a nasty feeling you could be looking at around £150 a month possibly more

I was on a fix at £53 pm, now paying £100 and expecting that to rise to £160ish from October.

Lenners134

Mine was £40, now £58 and like you say, I expect it to go up again in October.

I’ll probably budget for £150 and just hope it’s less than that 

mark55man

certainly worth being generous with your estimate if nothing else its a good reason that noone can argue with for keeping a bit of slack in your required expenditure

Lenners134

Thanks for all the responses so far, very helpful.

In regards to the loan payments I’m making, I have never missed a payment on any of them in one case, for nearly 5 years now. 

So the question is do I go the road of speaking to the lenders and seeing if they’ll be able to give me a payment holiday/lower my monthly repayments or do I just cancel the direct debits and wait for the inevitable defaults? 

warby68

Regarding the amount you pay informally towards your son,  this is probably considerably less than the amount that would be required if you did a formal arrangement through CMS? What would happen if circumstances change and you are required to pay more? The CMS calculation would probably require something like £280 pm. Also if you get your debt under control you may prefer to pay closer to that sort of figure.

I have no idea if you are allowed to include the CMS figure in your SoA? Perhaps one of the experts will know.

SusieT

Lenners134 said:

Thanks for all the responses so far, very helpful.

In regards to the loan payments I’m making, I have never missed a payment on any of them in one case, for nearly 5 years now. 

So the question is do I go the road of speaking to the lenders and seeing if they’ll be able to give me a payment holiday/lower my monthly repayments or do I just cancel the direct debits and wait for the inevitable defaults? 

Personally I would not be asking for a payment holiday since that would put off the defaults. In your position I would stop paying and wait for the defaults to happen. At that point interest will stop, your credit file will have a date in 6 years time when the default will drop off and be clear, by asking for a holiday you are adding months to the date when they will eventually go from your report.
Just make sure you save anything( somewhere you will not access it for everyday use) that you would be paying to a dmp so that you have an emergency fund to fall back on if it is needed.

EssexHebridean

I'd agree - asking for payment holidays now is just dragging things out - realistically you're not just magically going to be able to pay everything again once the holiday period ends are you, so best to let them get on with defaulting and use the funds saved to start building your emergency fund etc.