Thinking of entering a DMP in late 30s. I'm genuinely scared.

Last_straw_berry

Hi everyone.

I hope you’re all well  

Please accept my apologies for the long message but I really could do with some advice. I am falling apart. I can't sleep well. I just don't know what to do anymore.

I'm in my late 30s and have completely !!!!!! my life over.

Left a toxic job in April, found out they were scamming people, only recently found a job but it's part time as a PA which starts next week but only pays roughly £1000 a month. I am working towards a career change but my mind is all over the place.

I've checked my finances and all in all I am in roughly 33k debt.

Roughly: Two MBNA credit cards 12k Two Tesco credit cards 6k Two Virgin money credit cards 4K

My mum a couple years ago helped me get a loan for 12.5k which I am paying £250 a month to her. I needed to consolidated debts at the time but still had a bit from the above that I didn't mention.

Since leaving the previous role I moved back home but have had no choice but to keep using one of my credit cards to get essential items. Now I have missed two payments from two (MBNA and Tesco) creditors which now add up to roughly £900 coming out next month. I can't afford this right now. I can ask to borrow from family but I really feel uncomfortable. I have been looking st different avenues for work and decided recruitment may be a good choice as I can hopefully make money and also enjoy helping and talking to different people. 

Do I try and deal with it until I get a better paid job or go for a DMP? Will it really mess my life up? I am just terrified. I will let my family down. The DMP will stay on my file until I’m in my 40s which may not seem bad but I feel like such a !!!!!! failure.

Please can anyone advise me, should I just try the arrangement to pay and sort my career out in the next couple of months or does that seem unrealistic? Should I do the DMP via stepchange? I don’t know how difficult it’ll make my life for the next 6 years but I know my finances won’t improve for at least another 2 months.

I appreciate all your advice. Thank you.

sourcrates

Firstly, welcome to the forum, and secondly, calm ........ down, your debts are all with mainstream lenders who operate standard collection policies which are quite easy to predict, you have nothing to worry about here.

Now all consumer credit, is deemed to be "non essential debt", as opposed to, rent/mortgage/council tax/utilities, and food, which are all essential "priority" debts.

You pay essential debts first, if the cloth won`t cut to include non essential debts, then they don`t get paid, its that simple, you must prioritise how you spend what money you do have.

Forget what your credit file looks like, borrowing more money is not the answer to this question, and acting in a manner to protect it, rather than budget correctly is just plain silly, you need to stop making non essential credit payments as you cannot afford them.

Post an SOA (Statement of affairs) so we can see where your money is going, and we can then advise your best course of action, it may well be a DMP, but whatever it is, it will be accepted, and it will run like clockwork, stop worrying about the next six years and concentrate on the now.

Rob5342

I'm on a dmp and it's made my life far far easier than it used to be. I simply pay what I can afford and I've jad no trouble from anyone, they just accept the payments. The defaults mean i can't get any more loans or cards, but that's a good thing as it's forced me to live within my means and put money aside for things i know are upcoming. I make far better use of my money now, i have far fewer treats then I used to (eating out etc),, but when the car needs servicing etc I have the money to hand instead of sticking it on card like I used to.