How can I reduce/get rid of this debt pleaseeeee

Debthelppleaseeee

27 single mom of 3 on UC, 1 child I can’t claim more than £15pw for and I get DLA for my disabled child (reason I’m not currently working) so finances aren’t great but do have a small wiggle room to contribute towards debt but I don’t want to be paying tiny amounts that will never clear my debt anytime soon. My debt is somewhere between £7000-10,000 I’m not actually sure
lowell hold most of my debts (12)  totalling £5000odd and another £1000odd now with overdales (ccj) 
I called Lowell up the other day to see if I could get a discount on my debts and managed to get 50% discount and I’ve set up a dd for £50 pm which will take 2.5 years roughly to clear but I’m wondering if I could push for a bit more how likely is that?

please don’t judge as most of this debt comes from being an 19 year old moving into her first flat with a baby and no furniture 

Brie

No judgement from me.  Lots of people have or have had debts, many of them posting here.

How desperate are you to have a good credit history?  I ask as you might be suitable to get a debt relief order which would clear all the current debt but would be noted on your credit history for 6 years.  This will only be possible if you don't own your own home (which I assume your don't) and don't have any assets worth more than £1k.

To do this you will need to sign up to a debt advisor - and make sure it's a free one.  National Debt Line, StepChange, Christians Against Poverty and the Community Money Advisers (often working through food banks) are all good places to look for help.  

Debthelppleaseeee

Brie said:

No judgement from me.  Lots of people have or have had debts, many of them posting here.

How desperate are you to have a good credit history?  I ask as you might be suitable to get a debt relief order which would clear all the current debt but would be noted on your credit history for 6 years.  This will only be possible if you don't own your own home (which I assume your don't) and don't have any assets worth more than £1k.

To do this you will need to sign up to a debt advisor - and make sure it's a free one.  National Debt Line, StepChange, Christians Against Poverty and the Community Money Advisers (often working through food banks) are all good places to look for help.  

Thank you for the reply and not judging, see my credit is in the toilet so I’m not fussed and I rent and don’t have a car, I have checked and I’m eligible for one but stepchange are no longer able to do them only CAB and money wellness are and they want to dig around in my bank statements which makes me feel uncomfortable (no undisclosed income etc but don’t want to be judged whenever we’ve ordered McDonald’s etc) 

Grumpelstiltskin

Dont worry about a debt free charity digging around your bank statements, they are not interested in you ordering takeaways, they just want to check your income etc and once the DRO is set up they don't look.

Surely it is worth it if your debts disappear

Debthelppleaseeee

Grumpelstiltskin said:

Dont worry about a debt free charity digging around your bank statements, they are not interested in you ordering takeaways, they just want to check your income etc and once the DRO is set up they don't look.

Surely it is worth it if your debts disappear

Well when I asked if it was only to see income they said no they want to see my outgoings too 

Grumpelstiltskin

Have you read through this thread?

Debt Relief Orders (DRO) - Information & help thread - Page 520 — MoneySavingExpert Forum

It will show you  are  worrying when there is no problem.

fatbelly

Good advice above. If you want to just get rid of this at the least cost, a £90 DRO seems to be the way forward. Stepchange are now referring to Money Wellness and we have a poster on that DRO thread who got one much faster with them than he could with CAB.

There are maybe 8 organisations who an do DROs but unfortunately Stepchange have opted out because of the way they were treated by the Money and Pensions service

sourcrates

No one is judging anything, please remove all such thoughts from your mind.

They need to see what you have coming in, and what you have going out, to determine if you meet the £75 monthly disposable income acceptance criteria, nothing more sinister than that.

It`s the perfect time for you to do a DRO, as your not working, so stable benefit income, after 12 months, your debts are written off, and you will be debt free.

The benefits far outweigh the slight intrusion into your life.

EssexHebridean

A little bit of intrusion -v- your debts going away and you being able to start afresh...I know which of those sounds better to me! 

Even if you DO go for the DRO (which for what it's worth, I totally think you should!) then you still need to ensure that you are budgeting properly going forwards - and that includes saving for things that you want, and building an emergency fund. As a priority you should divert that £50 you have established you could pay towards debts straight to building that EF - this is vital, particularly if you are renting unfurnished - having the money in the background to deal with the situation fast if the fridge goes on the blink, or the washing machine stops spinning is an absolute godsend, don't underestimate how empowering it is to know that you can deal with a genuine emergency situation without reaching for a credit card! 

I'd suggest that you go through your budget line by line - you can either use the SOA calculator (link in my signature) for this, or the MSE budget calculator is very good - I use that and you can save the results back to your own computer to adjust when your situation changes. Set yourself a budget for a treat here and there - if you say that the first Friday of the month is "takeaway Friday" for example, it makes it more likely you'll just stick to that rather than being tempted at all sorts of odd times. How about learning to make some of your takeaway favourites at home as "fakeaways" too? If you can lay your hands on a copy of the book "The Takeaway Secret" this gives lots of great recipes for recreating various different type of takeaway food - I think there are other books in the same series now as well.