Making a Plan

Jaytee

Thank you sourcrates. That's exactly what I will do tomorrow morning.
In the meantime I have had more contact (email and call+text) from Opos despite them promising to cease contact for 7 days. Should I ask for a CCA? This credit card was originally a Post Office credit card that was passed to Jaja a few years ago. I would be surprised if they can provide one so worth a shot? 
Final question for now. Two of my debts are up to date. Should I also contact them? Would the creditors I am in arrears with expect this

Thank you so much to everyone. I have been in such a panic even though it seems a bit ridiculous now.

DisabledDan

Hi Jaytee

Well done for taking the first steps to being debt free, you seem like a very decent person and I totally sympathise with your illness and how it has impacted you.

This thread is all about wanting to be debt free and shows ways many debts can be reduced by 60% or even eliminated completely in some circumstances.  At the same time there are also money saving options, moving debt to 0% cards and offers which cut your outgoings.

The reason people have asked you to do an SOA is because it helps to give you the best advice according your situation. 

You can prepare that SOA at the link below then copy and paste it back to this thread

https://www.stoozing.com/soa.php

There is no judgement here, we have all been there and most of us have been in a far worse situation that you find yourself in now.

A few things you should know:

The consumer debts you have are unsecured, they can't take your home or sell your goods, no High Court Enforcement can collect consumer debts.

Debt collectors are superb at writing letters that cause anxieties, but that is just about all they can do, they are vermin maggots. 

If a friend lends you money it will be from net income after tax, but when banks lend you money they invent the money on their computers. I am not against this, I just don't want you to feel bad about being in debt. 

The goals of these companies is you put you in a place where you can afford to service the debt but not clear it and they delight at the misfortune of others because it means they can trap them into paying up to 39.9% interest.  If this sounds like a get rich quick scheme well it is, if they can keep someone in perpetual debt then it really is obscene.

If someone owes £10,000 balance because of perpetually using credit card, has a minimum payment of 4% then out of their £400 payment £319.20 is interest and the debt is only reduced by £80.80.  If they keep using that £80.80 then over the first year they will have paid £3830.40 in interest on this money that did not exist.  Even if they do not keep using the debt, then the debt will take 11 years to pay off at 4% or £200 a month and the interest paid will be a whopping £24,730 rounded down.

There are debt solutions that you can use which freeze interest, lead to a discount of 60% or even wipe it to zero, although I doubt you will use the most drastic of these it is good to know that they are there.  The people you have debt with do not do this themselves, but they have ratios for bad debt so they want it off their books and sell it off for between 5p and 12p in the pound. The people they sell it too then employ firms to collect and they get fired every 3 to 6 months if they do not get anywhere.

Each company then just send a series of template letters, what they are looking for are compliant little bunnies who will jump when they say jump. They use tactics like asking you to do a budget (you can ignore that too), they say they want to help you, but they just want to help themselves.  Remember by this time not only did the £10,000 not exist but it has been sold for £500, why would you pay them anything.

I owed close to £100k, my debts were sold, new debt collectors appointed every 3 to 6 months, each with their own set of vile templates with threats and intimidation.  At the time these were awful but I was given advice to just ignore and file everything unless it was a letter taking me to Court. 

As it was only one company did that and they deliberately used an old address so it would have made no difference, I always paid to forward my mail but this used an address from over a decade before. It made no difference even when they wrote to me at my current address proudly boasting they had a CCJ.  I just felt that they had all earned enough.

I see that you have started the prove it process, that is good, it might make the debt unenforceable and even if it doesn't do not worry.

Do the SOA and we will recommend what is appropriate, please make sure to quote the interest rates, credit limit and balance outstanding for each debt, this allows us to help you shift some debt to lower interest cards you have and possibly to get a zero percent card.

One other thing, please sit your husband down and tell him that you have this under control but wanted to make him aware so that you can get his moral support and not his judgement.  You are in this together, for better or for worse in sickness and in health.  If you inform him then it can only improve the trust but if you don't inform him then his trust will deteriorate, also it will impact his own spending decisions.  He might even turn around and say "I am so glad you told me, I have been paying my debts off every month but I have been hiding this £10k debt that enabled me to do that".

None of this is your fault, the lenders lend irresponsibly, they offer zero percent cards until they can trap you into living well beyond your means, then the offers for those zero percent card disappears and they have trapped you. 

https://www.stoozing.com/soa.php

Jaytee

Thank you DisabledDan. You are very wise. 
I am asking my non defaulted creditors for a reduced payment plan to review in December and see if they agree. If not I will default on those.
For Opos I have asked for a copy of the CCA and see where that takes me.
You are right about my husband. He is a good person but I know it will change how he sees me and that is difficult to deal with.

Jaytee

Hi all
In case anyone is interested and for my own accountability I am updating this.
I can't really do a SOA because my income has varied so much in 2024. Well, it's been consistently under £1k in 2024 but in 2023 I earned gross between £2.5k and £1.75K. I only pay for pet insurance, phone and travel plus costs associated with my business (sole trader) including income tax and NI.
My total unsecured debt is:
Barclaycard £10,359 / £13,650
Barclaycard II (this is the remaining balance from a very old Egg card) £496
TSB £12,955 / £13,900
Next £641 account closed
M&S £4615 /£7000
Also Jaja £8496

The Jaja credit card used to be a PO Card. It is maybe 15 years old and I have sent a CCA request to the DCA plus £1 postal order last week. Used legalbeagles template.
I have written to Barclaycard and TSB using postal address on back of statement sending evidence of my illness from consultant and the NHS website symptoms highlighting the anxiety and persistent weakness bits. I have offered them £150 a month each and will pay that this month. I have told them that I have mental health issues. I just wrote letters and didn't use any template. Haven't signed anything.

So I guess we shall see. Apart from Jaja they are the only accounts I am in arrears with. I hope they play nicely but I'm feeling a bit more confident to face it if they don't. I'm just trying to focus efforts on growing my income.

Thanks again to everyone who posts with advice. Your support is worth more than I can say.