New SOA - first one in about 10 years

anni999

Used these boards a long time ago when I was trying to tackle debt....fast forward many years and the debt has mounted up...mainly due to a failed business where we were personal guarentors on loans. Anyway, decided I need to not bury my head in the sand and work out a way forward....so any suggestions on my new SOA? DOn't know whether we should just consider a bankruptcy route as will take so long to pay it off,  but we don't want to loose our home...on the plus side, when we first moved into our home 12ish years ago, my SOA was showing as -£30,000 net assets so at least it's showing as a positive now even if we do have an eye watering debt .... we signed up with stepchange about a year ago, but wondering whether I should just manage that on my own.... so any thoughts on our situation welcome 

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information

Number of adults in household........... 2

Number of children in household......... 2

Number of cars owned.................... 1 (leased)

Monthly Income Details

Monthly income after tax................ 1500

Partners monthly income after tax....... 2500

Benefits................................ 174

Total monthly income.................... 4174

Monthly Expense Details

Mortgage................................ 860

Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 750

Management charge (leasehold property).. 15

Council tax............................. 216

Electricity/Gas............................. 155 (combined)

Water rates............................. 45

Mobile phone............................ 30 (3 x sim only plans)

TV Licence.............................. 29.5

Internet Services....................... 26

Groceries etc. ......................... 500

Clothing................................ 20

Electric Car charging...................... 40

Car Insurance........................... 73.5

Other travel............................ 50

Other child related expenses............ 160

Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 15

Buildings  & Contents insurance..................... 25

Life assurance ......................... 9.63

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 100

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

Entertainment........................... 200

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

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

Ring doorbell........................... 4.99

Car Lease............................... 492

Total monthly expenses.................. 3836.62

Assets

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

House value (Gross)..................... 350000

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

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

Other assets............................ 0[b]

Total Assets............................ 350000

Secured & HP Debts

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

Mortgage...................... 146000...(860)......0

Secured Debt.................. 95590....(750)......0

Total secured & HP debts...... 241590....-.........-  

Unsecured Debts

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

Stepchange.....................65188.....369.......0[b]

Total unsecured debts..........65188.....369.......- 

Monthly Budget Summary

Total monthly income.................... 4,174

Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,836.62

Available for debt repayments........... 337.38

Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 369[b]

Amount short for making debt repayments. -31.60

Personal Balance Sheet Summary

Total assets (things you own)........... 350,000

Total HP & Secured debt................. -241,590

Total Unsecured debt.................... -65,188

Net Assets.............................. 43,222

[i]Created using the SOA calculator at www.LemonFool.co.uk.

Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.[/i][/font]

Brie

Glad you decided not to wait....sooner is always better than later.  

So....
You lease a car but don't have to pay for petrol? Or is it electric?
House insurance but nothing for contents?
£29+ for TV licence which implies that you have just gone monthly on it.  But do you actually need it?  Or do you watch live TV?

And everything that is with StepChange....did all those defaulted prior to setting up the payment plan (DMP I presume?) or are they still clocking up interest?  If you can't afford the plan that's set up then it's time to change it.  I'm assuming SC isn't getting a fee of any sort and all that you have been paying them is going on the debts.  

sourcrates

Stepchange are a debt charity, they don`t charge fee`s for debt management plans.

The personal guarantee loans, is that what the 95k secured debt is?

Is it actually secured by a charge on the deeds?

Also £500 quid a month on a car you can`t afford.

What sort of deal is the car on? can you sell it, get something cheap for cash, with no monthly outlay except running costs?

You`re 160k in the red and spend £500 a month on a tin box on wheels, Dave Ramsey would call that stupid!!

anni999

Hi thanks for reply...

House insurance is building and contents combined and yes it's an electric car which we mostly charge at home. TV licence lapsed as direct debit went unpaid so just signed back up...I do mainly watch netflix but do watch stuff on iplayer too

Not sure on the defaults before stepchange...they were credit cards and loans that have now been moved to other companies (Link and PRA) - when I go on my credit file it says the accounts are in default, so I think so?

Only one that hasn't been sold off and isn't showing as default is a loan with Hitachi/Novuna....... on credit file, it just says I've missed 6 payments but I've definitely missed more than that. It's my smallest debt of just over £2000

anni999

sourcrates said:

Stepchange are a debt charity, they don`t charge fee`s for debt management plans.

The personal guarantee loans, is that what the 95k secured debt is?

Is it actually secured by a charge on the deeds?

Also £500 quid a month on a car you can`t afford.

What sort of deal is the car on? can you sell it, get something cheap for cash, with no monthly outlay except running costs?

You`re 160k in the red and spend £500 a month on a tin box on wheels, Dave Ramsey would call that stupid!!

Yes the secured debt is from the business, they wouldn't agree a payment plan with us until they filed CCJs and charging orders over our house ..... they were very aggressive but I guess it's our own fault. 

Not sure if we can get out of our car lease. We are about half way through a 3 year deal... it's electric and maintenance included so not a lot of running costs day to day but agree £500 is a lot when we have so much debt. Definitely worth a phonecall to see if we can get out of it but I don't know how strict lease deals are to be honest.

Makingabobor2

£200 on entertainment and £100 on Christmas and Birthdays? 
What sort of entertainment is this?  Even if you had one night out or takeaway a month, it wouldn't come to £200 
If I was you I would be cutting right back on Christmas and Birthdays...that's £1200 a year on other people's cards and presents....seems a bit extravagant. When we got into debt we realised that the only people who really needed a present was the grandkids, they get £20 each.  Nobody else gets presents and we don't send Christmas cards any more. Think there are some savings to be made there. 

ManyWays

There is normally no way out of a lease contract. Your real problem is that you will not be able to get a replacement when the lease term is up.

Do you have a list of the debts that went into the DMP at the start? One thing that has changed from 10 years ago is that some people can get some balances reduced by making an affordability complaint to the original lender, that would only be for personal debts, not business ones.

£500 for groceries and £20 for clothes both look low 

PennysIntoPounds

Hi @anni999, welcome/back

The bits that stood out to me are

What is the other travel for £50 a month? If that is something that could be avoided since you're paying for the car, that alone brings you to being able to pay your monthly debt payments

£160 for other child related expenses seems a lot per month when you've covered so many other things in your SOA, is there anything there that's not really necessary?

I thought £500 for groceries and etc's looked reasonable for four people, but have a think if there are shops or own-label brands you could potentially use to cut it down a wee bit if you don't already

£100 a month for presents and £200 for entertainment seem quite a lot, what do those cover and are there ways of getting rid or cutting down?

Good luck and good on you for tackling it!

RAS

However, £50 emergency fund and £60-70 for a modest holiday would be acceptable.

£20 per person would be more reasonable for clothing, a bit more for growing teens.