£15k debt, no income until May - best course of action to take here?

help2getdebt3

ManyWays said:

Can I ask why you havent complained to Castle Community Bank, Finio and Amex? Have you taken a copy of your current credit record showing the QuidMarket loans, if not get that downloaded immediately

Are you sure you can spare this 597 refund and get through to the end of the month without being short? If you can then Cashasap has to go first. Then I suggest all the rest to Finio, these interest rates are killing.

Would I have grounds to complain to CCB, Finio and Amex? Amex especially was the first provider I took a credit card out with - in fact for months I was paying my full balance every time.

I am more inclined to go to Zopa and Vanquis as those cards came later.

I have got a copy of my credit report, thank you, and on second thoughts I think you're right and I should keep some of the £597, so I may just take out Cashasap for the time being.

help2getdebt3

Confirming I've now actioned complaints emails to Castle Community Bank, Finio, Vanquis and Zopa. Updating my tracker below for my own purposes:

Due to hear by 22/05/2025
1) Fernovo - £10 compensation offered, 1/1 loans wiped
2) FundOurselves - still waiting
3) Money Boat - still waiting
4) Savvy - still waiting
5) Lending Stream - still waiting
6) Tick Tock loans - still waiting
7) QuidMarket - £597 compensation offered, 2/4 loans wiped
8) MyFinanceClub - still waiting
9) MrLender - still waiting
10) The Money Platform - still waiting

Due to hear by 28/06/2025
11) Finio - still waiting
12) Zopa - still waiting
13) Vanquis - still waiting
14) Castle Community Bank - still waiting

help2getdebt3

help2getdebt3 said:

Confirming I've now actioned complaints emails to Castle Community Bank, Finio, Vanquis and Zopa. Updating my tracker below for my own purposes:

Due to hear by 22/05/2025
1) Fernovo - £10 compensation offered, 1/1 loans wiped
2) FundOurselves - still waiting
3) Money Boat - still waiting
4) Savvy - still waiting
5) Lending Stream - still waiting
6) Tick Tock loans - still waiting
7) QuidMarket - £597 compensation offered, 2/4 loans wiped
8) MyFinanceClub - still waiting
9) MrLender - still waiting
10) The Money Platform - still waiting

Due to hear by 28/06/2025
11) Finio - still waiting
12) Zopa - still waiting
13) Vanquis - still waiting
14) Castle Community Bank - still waiting

Add to this Capital One, who I've contacted today (so should hear back by 28 June). I only have a credit card for £200 with them which I got in January, but I was clearly already juggling multiple lines of credit including payday loans etc. so who knows, maybe it can be cancelled.

ManyWays

It isn't at all likely that you will win complaints about one cashasap loan or this tiny cap one card, probably not worth taking them to the ombudsman if the lender rejects.  

help2getdebt3

Two slightly disappointing but not unexpected updates:

Lending Stream did not uphold my claim, in fairness they were two quite small amounts and both three years ago, before I got myself into any real money trouble.

Vanquis also did not uphold my claim but have allowed me to began repaying from 29th of this month.

No compensation or changes to my credit record but I wasn’t expecting either (very much going into all this with the mindset of expect nothing and be pleasantly surprised), and they’re not biggies

Onto the next ones…

help2getdebt3

Have literally just heard from Moneyboat, who are not upholding my claim. I took 5 loans out with them over the course of 2024 which, in my opinion, shows financial distress. Is this worth pursuing with the Ombudsman?

RAS

Yes........., don't ask, can't get.

help2getdebt3

Do I send a counter email refuting their points or just go straight to the Ombudsman?

ManyWays

If they had made a low offer it might be worth negotiating, but I would go straight to the Ombudsman with an outright rejection

dankemp

help2getdebt3 said:

Hi there

Owing to some stupid overspending when I was in my early-mid twenties, and then constantly dipping into other sources of finance to avoid sticking to a budget, I've now found myself in £15,179.09 worth of debt, split between credit cards, overdraft, a PayPal Credit account and a couple of nasty payday loans:

American Express: £2,139.73
CapitalOne: £199.12
Castle Community Bank: £3,207.48
Lloyds overdraft: £1,960
M&S Credit Card: £3,996.95
Finio: £454.97
Vanquis: £600
Zopa: £504.60
PayPal Credit: £1,048.81
QuidMarket: £291.21
TheMoneyPlatform: £562.89
CashASAP: £213.33

Total: £15,179.09

I got myself into a terrible habit of making payments and even making overpayments on payday, and then taking out more lines of credit to fund holidays, nights out etc. This has left me with no savings and a £15,000 debt.

At the time, I was earning £48,000 (worked out at around £2,750 a month), and able to keep up with repayments. However, in February my employer was acquired by a new company and I lost my job. I received PILON for a month and a half's work, as I actually had only been with them for a year, and I used this to make my last set of payments on the above debts in February.

Thankfully, I've now found a new job, at £45,000 with a £5,000 end-of-year discretionary bonus, which I'll be beginning on 20 April. However, owing to this late start (I tried to have this moved, but was told it wouldn't be possible), it means I won't be receiving my next regular paycheque until 25 May. In the meantime, I'll be unable to make payments on March and April's due dates - I have around £1,000 cash leftover from my PILON, but I need to use that to live on.

I'm currently unsure what the best action is to take. Once back in work, I plan to follow the snowball method to get everything listed paid off over the next year or two. However, I'm concerned that not making payments on 12 (!!) debts for two months is going to be disastrous. 

Any advice on how to keep afloat for the next two months and tips for paying it down are appreciated.

Hi, I am new here so forgive me if I go over ground already covered on other threads.

The question that I don't think you have answered for yourself is WHAT IS YOUR OBJECTIVE.

Of course you want to be debt free but there are several different roads to that.

1. Do you want to pay off all your debt at the asking price and then get back on the credit wheel of Mortgage, Car and Mobile phone or do you think your earnings and location (for property purchase) will always mean you are chasing a moving target. All in the knowledge that it will take a few years of responsible credit use to begin to heal your credit record and it will take 6 years for the latest stuff to fall off the record.

2. Do you want to get a discount of up to 60% off your debt in the knowledge that it will trash your credit record but you can start to repair it in 6 years?

3. Do you want to go nuclear and not pay any of this money to any of them (usually the solution only if you do not have any prospect of being gainfully employed or facing life changing issues).

I ask this because it seems to me from your posts that these vermin have still got you chasing your tail in a panic, you do not seem to realise that you can take control and not paying them whether when you get paid or ever is no big deal.

You started off well getting a great result of an award of compensation, but they are all culpable as they all have view of your credit record, you can prove this with a subject access request for all data they have on you, including all phone calls, all system notes, all emails related to you, all information they have received about you and all information they have shared about you.

Accepting £10 and a wipe from your credit record suggest you are still jumping to their demands. 

Everyone is different and "gets it" at a different time, for me it was when I was told they invent the money on their computers. They literally have a license to print money, while if you borrow £1000 from me I have to earn that money.   Couple this will them selling debt off for pennies in the pound when you default and one begins to realise the true value of debt.

I am not suggesting everyone throws away their credit record, that is a bona fide thing for determining if a punter is good for the money they are asking to borrow, what I am saying is do you want to play this game where you are constantly chasing your tail.

If you decide that you can't see yourself being able to afford your own home because even the stamp duty on an average home is eye watering, then maybe you might want to consider a DMP as it seems most people on here do.

In short a DMP is you deciding not to pay any more debts and to wait until they sell the debts to a debt consolidator company for 3% to 12% maybe at an auction. Such debt is packaged, it can be rotten all through or it can a decent bit in the middle but in the end it means you pay substantially less.  Do do not need a debt charity to do this for you, checkout the sticky messages on self managed DMP's.

While you are not paying these creditors you save the money you would have paid in an emergency account which you will use to make settlements down the road.  Meanwhile you live frugally, use all the tips on the MSE website to reduce your outgoings massively.

It may take a year or so before some companies give up, the trick is to not engage except a letter saying you are having a mental breakdown due to all this debt and you will not be making any payments for the foreseeable future.

Before you do this you change your email and give them the number of a £1 sim, once they start using these you withdraw their right to contact you except by post, citing how this aggravates your mental health.

When you default you won't need to snowball because all interest will be frozen by the default, if the pay day vermin abuse their terms report them to the ombudsman and if the lender decline at the complaint stage your only reply should be "please confirm this is your final position and that we are at deadlock".

If you go down the DMP there should be no exceptions, your suggestion of using the £500 award for reduce debt would actually make other companies keener to chase you.

As I said it comes down to your objectives, if you still want to play the game then fine, pay off the highest APR and keep running on the hamster wheel for as many years as it takes you to have £15k of free disposable income.

I used Debt Camel myself and they were very helpful,  I used another forum that I realised later was somehow in the debt industry.

I would advise you amend your previous posts and round up your debts as they are a fingerprint to your credit record.

I am living proof that you can get through this, although I feel like Al Pacino in Godfather III "just when I thought I was out they pull me back in" but the difference is my debt has been statute barred for years and it seems I will have a claim myself against the shylock vermin.

I am not saying I am immune to the anxiety of debt, I had £25k of new demands just for two debts, but reading this site has helped me a lot, shame I did not find it sooner.  I used the nuclear option myself.

Have a think about your situation, save your money and create your own insurance for your security, if you rent and need to move then be prepared to pay 6 months rent upfront plus deposit.  If you need a new mobile phone buy a second hand one that will last a good few years yet.  Do not get attached to assets, I had to lose everything before realising it is all meaningless.

Even if you get on the debt train can buy a house and pay off your mortgage, it will all be taken from you later in life to pay for social care, a care home and inheritance tax, so what is the point of getting on the treadmill that never stops.

Sure if you earn a lot like some of my nephews and nieces do you can get into property, but do it as an investor and get proper financial advice, remembering it is a business with legal processes not a hobby.

Try not to say "how high" when these companies say JUMP, focus on your needs to save and to have cashflow, their needs are irrelevant.