Debt has finally caught up with me

ChillyP

Hi, 

Others are better placed to offer advice, but I didn't want to read and run. I actually found doing the SOA really useful, in helping me break everything down. Might be worth a look, even if you don't need to post it. 

I have won a successful irresponsible lending claim against updraft - happy to discuss this with you it it would help.

sourcrates

I thought Admiral sold insurance?

Updraft and Novuna are brokers/introducers or direct lenders, so should be ok.

Community Finance, is that a credit union loan?

If it is, credit unions have little in the way of sympathy for non or short payment, and they may go for legal action.

You will need to check what action this company may take if you stop making the contractual repayments, they may have some leeway, but you should check first.

EssexHebridean

I'd agree that putting together your full SOA would be a useful exercise for you. If you did want to post it, you may well find that people here could make some useful suggestions of where savings might be able to be made, too. 

As for telling your wife - imagine the positions were reversed. First think through what your reaction might be when she told you. Then imagine how you would feel if you found out years later and then realised that that she was going through all the stress around it on her own?  Better by far that you tell her now, rather than her finding out (and she will find out, I promise you that) as at least then you have honesty between you. The alternative is that months or years down the line she will be confronted with the fact that you didn't trust her sufficiently with something which was affecting your life to such an extent - that's a lot harder to deal with than debt, and a plan for dealing with that debt, I promise. 

fatbelly

I agree. Credit Unions are amongst the least sympathetic and unhelpful lenders. Treat like the others st the moment.

enthusiasticsaver

Even without you doing a full soa we can see that your income is not enough to sustain debt repayments for that amount of debt on top of child maintenance so I think you have no option but to default and enter a DMP either self managed or through stepchange.  I honestly think you should tell your wife as you are linked financially through the mortgage so if she applies for anything she may well be turned down due to her financial association with you. Surely it would be better to tell her and explain your plan rather than her finding out some other way? 

First thing is to let the debts default and save for emergencies.  You have to stop using credit cards and definitely do not consolidate. If you are able to  use that £1700 to go to the debt each month you would be clear in less than 3 years providing the interest is stopped. The defaults will stay on your record for 6 years though.  

andy26599

Ok, so do I default ALL my accounts, or do I carry on paying the 0% ones? Is there any benefit to not having all the accounts defaulted?

enthusiasticsaver

I cannot see any benefit to not defaulting on them all.  Indeed if stepchange are managing a DMP for you they will not agree to you prioritising one debt over another.  Your credit record will be affected whether you default on just one or all of the debts and the key for you is to set an affordable monthly repayment which should be divided proportionally amongst all the debts.  

If you self manage obviously you can choose how the money you feel you can spare each month (£1700?) is divided amongst your creditors.  If you decide you want to carry on with the 0% debts bear in mind eventually the deals will finish and you won't get others. 

andy26599

Coming up to the cut off point for cancelling Direct Debit payments and I'm really struggling to actually go through with it, it just feels like the final nail in my coffin and once it's done, then I'm actually confronted with the scale of my financial failure. I know I will have to go through with it eventually, but I'm just feeling so guilty about it, as I've always managed to pay my debts before.

Then there will be the hassle of dealing with all the letters, phone calls, etc and waiting for the defaults (and how long that wait will be) and setting up the DMP with stepchange and its all just getting a bit too overwhelming if I'm honest.

 

lillypoo

The phone calls and letters are no hassle. You open the letters, understand they're computer generated and routine, file them. 

Phone calls ...you don't answer any numbers you don't recognise. Google the number and you'll get to know ehos calling. Just ignore.

Or you can write to them and tell them to only contact you in writing.

Honestly after the first few you realise you're just an account number and that's all. 

Don't think of this as a nail in your coffin. Think of it as the first step on the ladder to debt freedom.

And if you don't want the hassle of setting the dmp up with step change then don't use them. Do it yourself. But to be honest that's a few months off anyway. The defaults you need first will take a while.

andy26599

lillypoo said:

The phone calls and letters are no hassle. You open the letters, understand they're computer generated and routine, file them. 

Phone calls ...you don't answer any numbers you don't recognise. Google the number and you'll get to know ehos calling. Just ignore.

Or you can write to them and tell them to only contact you in writing.

Honestly after the first few you realise you're just an account number and that's all. 

Don't think of this as a nail in your coffin. Think of it as the first step on the ladder to debt freedom.

And if you don't want the hassle of setting the dmp up with step change then don't use them. Do it yourself. But to be honest that's a few months off anyway. The defaults you need first will take a while.

Tbh I think I'd much rather let Stepchange deal with it rather than the hassle of setting one up myself, it was more the hassle of setting one up either way which I was dreading.

My last query is regarding the defaults, do I need to wait for ALL of them to default before contacting Stepchange? Or just some of them? Done a lot of reading about the DMP process and the recommendations on here to default and then DMP rather than DMP then default to build up an emergency fund, so just want to know how long to leave it before setting up the DMP and if there is such a thing as leaving it too long.

I assume once defaulted then they will pass the debt on to someone else, at that point do I get in touch with them to tell them I plan to move onto a DMP and then leave it all to stepchange to sort out?