In quite a bit of debt, advice needed!

Floss

Jvoke said:

This SOA is what I would aim for. Currently we don't have £200 per month on entertainment, it's what I would put forward for a DMP so we don't go insane over the 3-4 years of repaying this...

You need to write up your SOA as it stands now - it doesn't matter that it won't add up, but to be able to help you, you need to give the actual figures not aspirational ones.

Jvoke

Floss said:

Jvoke said:

This SOA is what I would aim for. Currently we don't have £200 per month on entertainment, it's what I would put forward for a DMP so we don't go insane over the 3-4 years of repaying this...

You need to write up your SOA as it stands now - it doesn't matter that it won't add up, but to be able to help you, you need to give the actual figures not aspirational ones.

Sorry, here it is: 
It's pretty much the same just minus the budget for entertainment, clothes and gifts. I haven't been able to afford myself clothes for months now, same with gifts for events etc. Entertainment spending has been 0 this month, just stayed at home and watched Netflix (on our iPad as no TV currently) (I included netflix and spotify subscriptions under internet services).

In terms of selling stuff, we don't really have anything of value, we barely have enough furniture to furnish the house and we're collecting that slowly from facebook marketplace/charity shops etc.

This is why I created an SOA with a bit more room so I can continue getting setup back in the UK while still being able to pay debts.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details

Monthly income after tax................ 3800

Partners monthly income after tax....... 0

Benefits................................ 0

Other income............................ 0

Total monthly income.................... 3800

Monthly Expense Details

Mortgage................................ 0

Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0

Rent.................................... 1450

Management charge (leasehold property).. 0

Council tax............................. 176

Electricity............................. 150

Gas..................................... 50

Oil..................................... 0

Water rates............................. 100

Telephone (land line)................... 0

Mobile phone............................ 35

TV Licence.............................. 0

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0

Internet Services....................... 69

Groceries etc. ......................... 600

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............ 50

Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0

Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0

Buildings insurance..................... 0

Contents insurance...................... 10

Life assurance ......................... 15

Other insurance......................... 0

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0

Haircuts................................ 20

Entertainment........................... 0

Holiday................................. 0

Emergency fund.......................... 0

Total monthly expenses.................. 2725

Assets

Cash.................................... 0

House value (Gross)..................... 0

Shares and bonds........................ 0

Car(s).................................. 0

Other assets............................ 0

Total Assets............................ 0

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR

Loan...........................8200......189.......22.3

Loan...........................15950.....580.......17.2

Loan...........................1600......335.......14.5

Variable credit card...........5403......570.......26

Credit card....................3950......180.......29.6

Credit card....................3950......200.......31.1

Total unsecured debts..........39053.....2054

Monthly Budget Summary

Total monthly income.................... 3,800

Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,725

Available for debt repayments........... 1,075

Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 2,054

Amount short for making debt repayments. -979

Personal Balance Sheet Summary

Total assets (things you own)........... 0

Total HP & Secured debt................. -0

Total Unsecured debt.................... -39,053

Net Assets.............................. -39,053

Created using the SOA calculator at www.LemonFool.co.uk.

Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

Grumpelstiltskin

Can I ask why your water rates are £100 per month?

Jvoke

Grumpelstiltskin said:

Can I ask why your water rates are £100 per month?

Truthfully I haven't had a water bill yet so no idea what it's going to be. Was assuming with £100. Whats the average water bill these days anyway?

stu12345_2

£30 to £40 a month imo  and why is your electricity £150 a month are you using old fashioned storage heaters for heat

TheAble

With a £1000/month shortfall it seems inevitable you will default anyway before too long, as you will eventually run out of credit to run up.

£40k of debt at those interest rates is ruinous: you're spending £8k a year just on interest.

It's definitely a situation you need to take in hand with some urgency, especially with a baby now. Were you to lose your job or be unable to work for any reason you wouldn't be able to pay your rent, might lose your home and so on.

Jvoke

stu12345_2 said:

£30 to £40 a month imo  and why is your electricity £150 a month are you using old fashioned storage heaters for heat

Again just an estimate. Probably will be lower yes but not by a huge amount is my guess.

Jvoke

TheAble said:

With a £1000/month shortfall it seems inevitable you will default anyway before too long, as you will eventually run out of credit to run up.

£40k of debt at those interest rates is ruinous: you're spending £8k a year just on interest.

It's definitely a situation you need to take in hand with some urgency, especially with a baby now. Were you to lose your job or be unable to work for any reason you wouldn't be able to pay your rent, might lose your home and so on.

Yes indeed. No savings or safety net so yes pretty dire at the moment.

On the interest front, it's not as bad as you stated.
Most of the debt is personal loans so that's a fixed amount of interest every month and calculated in the monthly repayments, so they never change and the balance has been going down.

The variable credit card also has pretty low interest overall, only 2 purchases are on the 26%, everything else is lower interest. The 2 purchases work out at about £1200 extra over 2 years.

The 2 credit cards that are pretty much maxed out and not reducing are the issue. I worked it out if they stay at this balance all year, each one charges between £70-90 per month in interest. So in the region of £840 each per year in total interest.

So in total the interest accrued in a year has been around £2300 in a year while the balances on the loans have gone down.

The largest loan £15900, started at £20k for example, and that was just last year. So 1 year in and it's reduced by £4100-ish. 

The £1600 loan started at £7000 (my first loan).

So I have been steadily clearing the debt, it's just with my new added costs in life (rent from moving back to the UK, my rent before was way cheaper, so was food etc) have meant I can't meet the minimum repayments now.

I also added international flights on a 3 month 0 interest which are finished paid off this month on the variable card, so that was another big hit. That will reduce my variable credit card repayment down to £380 in August, £280 in September, down to £250 in November, then stays at £250 for about a year until it's all cleared.

Grumpelstiltskin

You say you haven't received a water bill yet, you do realize it will be backdated to when you moved in so where are you going to find that money from, electric also, aren't you providing monthly meter readings to the company?

Jvoke

Grumpelstiltskin said:

You say you haven't received a water bill yet, you do realize it will be backdated to when you moved in so where are you going to find that money from, electric also, aren't you providing monthly meter readings to the company?

Yes I realise that. That's why I am thinking of just freezing/not paying some of my creditors this month (July) so I can assess the situation further in August once I have a better idea on running costs. 

Stepchange won't speak to me as they just say with my high salary I can afford repayments (I can't lol) and that I should just keep up with my minimums.

No idea what to do, I need a DMP for sure, but what approach I take to that DMP I am undecided still. I obviously want to minimise the length of impact on my credit score so the default approach is the one I am contemplating the most, also allows me to pick and choose myself what creditors to default and DMP. 

God knows...