Drowning and need saving 🙃

tigerlily91

And no, no child maintenance. Took me to court for two years all through COVID, after I just stopped pushing contact after he tried to take her from nursery without consent (history of just disappearing for months on end prior, alcohol and drug abuse, arrests for assaulting a stranger… painting a real picture here! But definitely wouldn’t fit the image anyone might picture - very intelligent and very much functioning on it all). He failed multiple drug tests. The courts still allowed contact and within two months of achieving that he emailed a pity statement that he wasn’t a worthy Father and he wouldn’t see her again (likely drunk or on drugs). But never heard again. Then CMS account stands at >£5000 in debt. He doesn’t engage with them and they’ve exhausted AOE, Liability, Court Bailiffs etc. He has no assets and plays the system by working 2 months, benefits for 2 months and repeat so that they can’t attach. Painful! 

tigerlily91

kimwp said:

Some useful things to know for a dmp-

1. like an iva etc, it will affect your credit record (because you won't be paying the full amounts)
2. it's a good idea to open a bank account with a bank that you don't have debts with and get your wages paid there to avoid the possibility of your wage being used to pay the debt. Only move your essential bills across.

3. a default takes six years to drop off your credit record, whereas an arrangement to pay will take six years after the debt is paid. To get a default you need to stop paying and don't engage with any attempts from the creditor to make contact.

4. while not paying in order to get the default, it's a good idea to save up an emergency fund as you won't be able to draw on credit (see 1).
5. you can do a dmp through an organisation or by yourself (you can get advise here if you want to do it yourself.) You do not need to pay for an organisation to do the dmp, just make sure you use one of the charities. They may advise you to start the dmp as soon as possible, but it will probably be preferable to get the defaults first (see 3)

Hth

So to default… I’m literally just not going to pay for a few months and wait for them to be sent to DCA? Or I default and then offer a payment plan to my creditors? 

I’ve read about 3 letter / 4 letter for DCAs. I’ve actually helped my Mum do it in the past, with success. 

I’m not after a freebie by any means, but I’m just wondering if this would be a suggested route also?

tigerlily91

Oh and as for the mobile phone - that’s just the robbing yearly inflation charges. 

Sep ‘21 - signed up for £60pcm 
Apr ‘22 - went up to £65.70 
Apr ‘23 - I haven’t seen a proper bill yet. I’ve seen £75.01 on an email, but it also said 14.4% which would be £79. When I’m out of contact in September I’ll go sim only for sure. 

RAS

Any of the debt charities will run a DMP for free. You need to avoid the fee-charging companies.

Try Stepchange, CAB or National debtline. But be careful as there are some fakename companies who still try to pretend they are one of the charities, despite the supposed clampdown on it.

The charities will however generally suggest that you start paying immediately, with the downside that prolongs your period of damaged credit-worthiness. So sort out you SOA properly, put aside the emergency money and when the defaults happen, start paying.

NeverendingDMP

Just to add to everyone else. DMP's are free with charities or you can set one up yourself if that's what you decide to do. I've noticed a lot of companies now advertising with very similar names,/logos and then asking a fee. Cheeky isn't it.
I think the vote is currently happening to see if the payrise has been accepted so hopefully we will know more in the next few weeks.  Your one off payment (if it happens) could potentially wipe a debt but may also affect that months universal credit leaving you not much better off. I'm a fellow NHS on band two awaiting the outcome so I can set my new budget. 
Keep posting and have a think about what's best for you. 

Altior

The debt is pressing here obviously, but I feel like reading this, the underlying issue is that you don't have enough income to fund your lifestyle. So, I believe you will either need to do something to significantly improve your income, or modify your lifestyle. Or else, even if the debts are cleared, you may well be back to this position, alas.

Sarahspangles

Your cost for using technology is high - I don’t think it’s a priority to resolve this right now but at some point you’ll need to replace a device and at that point you could rationalise.

You’re paying for 2TB (terabytes) of iCloud storage and have 1TB of storage bundled in with your Microsoft Office 365 account.  Presumably you have a iPhone so your iCloud is full of photographs, and you have a Windows laptop and lots of Office files stored in the cloud.
You’re paying the ‘Family’ pricing level for Office 365 which is for use across multiple devices/users.  You can actually use the cut down web version of Excel for free, and just pay £1.99 a month for Microsoft Office 365 Basic although you’d have to get your file storage under 100Gb.
Alternatively Apple have a free spreadsheet application called Numbers which will open Excel files although it’s not really usable if all you have to use it on is an iPhone.
I wouldn't suggest buying either physical storage or an iPad just to get round the monthly costs of cloud storage but if your laptop conks out, at that point you should factor it into the decision about what to buy next.

fatbelly

National Debtline and CAB will help you to set up a debt management plan.

But if you want a free provider to process the payments for you, the following will do that and not charge a fee: CAP, stepchange, Payplan

You only posted half the soa so it was a bit difficult to read but it looks like you have £200 to service 22k of debt so that's a 8-9 year plan.

I wouldn't rush into insolvency. Maybe start a dmp, see how things develop and hold bankruptcy in reserve.

Sarahspangles

Presumably you have to run a car to make childcare/getting to work/getting in or getting home at unsocial hours work?

It’s tricky around childcare, but if your mum is up for helping with this (e.g. sleepovers) have you considered Bank/NHSP work to top up your income?

enthusiasticsaver

I think you have no choice other than do a DMP really. You have about £200 a month free to go towards debts but I am guessing if you have been making repayments you have been robbing Peter to pay Paul for a while either by making payments then spending on them again or doing new BTs and taking out more cards. You have to stop now otherwise the current £24k debt will be up in the £30ks before you know it especially if interest is starting to fall due now. You do not have enough income for even minimums so the choice is Bankruptcy or DMP. I don’t know how your leased car would be treated in bankruptcy so for me I would think a DMP would be better for you. Ring stepchange who are a free debt charity to get help setting it up. No fees. If anyone tries to suggest an IVA costing you £4k in fees run a mile.

I think possibly you have overstretched with the car. When it is possible to hand it back I would explore that as I think it is costing you more than you think. Unfortunately nurses are not well paid but your take home pay looks a lot lower than it should for 30 hours so it would be useful to know the full cost breakdown. The cheapest way of buying a car is either cash up front for a used one rather than new or a low interest personal loan if you don’t have any savings. Savings is something you need to do in between setting up the DMP and defaulting on the unsecured loan repayments. Open a clean bank account unless you don’t have debt with your current bank like an overdraft, credit card or loan. 

Initially as you don’t have much spare cash the term of a DMP to clear that amount of debt will be about 10 years. Make sure in the soa you send stepchange you separate out groceries from pet stuff, allow for emergencies and presents and haircuts etc but I think the DMP will be set low as your net income is not high. As I say look at the car because it seems proportionately it is costly in comparison to your income. Save as much as you can both before the DMP and after as you may get full and final offers which will clear the debt quicker.