New here and considering DMP without my husband knowing

Martico

If - and it appears to be a big if at the moment - you do decide to tell him, then it may be best to do so once you have a clear plan in mind that you can present to him, to show that you are taking responsibility and are in control of things. The people on this forum can certainly help you formulate such a plan. First up, as above, would be to work through a Statement of Affairs

curlu

Thanks everyone for your comments. To be honest I have been in debt for years and he’s never known because we manage. We don’t have joint banking, I’m not likely to ever need a mortgage, car loan or any of the things that might get turned down.  My debt started with a tax bill, resulting from the contractor loan charge, I panicked and took out a loan to settle it. Then I got hit with another loan charge before the other one was paid off, so I’m paying that off over 10 years. I also got into gambling, which has now been dealt with, I accessed counselling but I still have 5 credit cards and 2 loans and with the interest unless I can get on top of them I’m treading water until the loans end, which is still 3-4 years away. Stepchange say Breathing space isn’t an option because I’m not behind with any payments. They calculate 5yrs8 months to pay it off which will be manageable. My husband pays for all the treats like holidays and meals out anyway. I pay for utilities, council tax and my own expenses.

Rob5342

I suggest that you seriously consider stopping payment to your debts and wait for them to default before you start a DMP
The reasons for that are two fold:

1, Once defaulted a debt drops off you credit report after 6 years. If you start a dmp now you are likely to get an arrangement to pay marker which stays on your credit report for 6 years after the debt is paid off, so your credit report is could be harmed for far longer.

2, Once defaulted a debt is likely to be sold to a debt collector who will be open to settlement offers, so you could potentially settle them for far less. 

curlu

Rob5342 said:

I suggest that you seriously consider stopping payment to your debts and wait for them to default before you start a DMP
The reasons for that are two fold:

1, Once defaulted a debt drops off you credit report after 6 years. If you start a dmp now you are likely to get an arrangement to pay marker which stays on your credit report for 6 years after the debt is paid off, so your credit report is could be harmed for far longer.

2, Once defaulted a debt is likely to be sold to a debt collector who will be open to settlement offers, so you could potentially settle them for far less. 

Thank you, that was what I was planning to do. I’ve opened a new bank account. I’m guessing once I default there will be lots of mail?

curlu

[font=courier new][b]Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet[/b][b]

Household Information[/b]

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

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

Number of cars owned.................... 2[b]

Monthly Income Details[/b]

Monthly income after tax................ 3600

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

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

Other income............................ 0[b]

Total monthly income.................... 3600[/b][b]

Monthly Expense Details[/b]

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

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

Rent.................................... 0

Management charge (leasehold property).. 0

Council tax............................. 298

Electricity............................. 350

Gas..................................... 0

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

Water rates............................. 0

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

Mobile phone............................ 10

TV Licence.............................. 15

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

Internet Services....................... 0

Groceries etc. ......................... 200

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

Petrol/diesel........................... 60

Road tax................................ 35

Car Insurance........................... 50

Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10

Car parking............................. 80

Other travel............................ 73

Childcare/nursery....................... 0

Other child related expenses............ 0

Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 130

Pet insurance/vet bills................. 70

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

Contents insurance...................... 0

Life assurance ......................... 10

Other insurance......................... 130

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 60

Haircuts................................ 45

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

Holiday................................. 0
Tax bill  300

Emergency fund.......................... 0[b]

Total monthly expenses.................. 1646[/b]

[b]

Assets[/b]

Cash.................................... 1000

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

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

Car(s).................................. 3000

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

Total Assets............................ 4000[/b]

[b]

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts[/b]

[b]Unsecured Debts[/b]

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

Santander loan.................22255.....708.4.....25.9

Cherry Godfrey loan............15000.....463.......6.75

Tesco CC.......................4998.54...251.......0

Loan from family...............50000.....500.......0

MBNA CC........................7104.87...222.3.....29.94

Virgin CC......................4062.1....130.8.....26.49

NatWest CC.....................9810.5....116.8.....29.9

Barclaycard CC.................6279.79...91.57.....0[b]

I don’t pay anything towards rent as our house is paid off but it’s not an asset I can use as equity as it’s in joint names
my car is 11 years old, cheap to run and has no finance
we only have electricity as energy
utilities not covered are paid by husband
 

Rob5342

curlu said:

Rob5342 said:

I suggest that you seriously consider stopping payment to your debts and wait for them to default before you start a DMP
The reasons for that are two fold:

1, Once defaulted a debt drops off you credit report after 6 years. If you start a dmp now you are likely to get an arrangement to pay marker which stays on your credit report for 6 years after the debt is paid off, so your credit report is could be harmed for far longer.

2, Once defaulted a debt is likely to be sold to a debt collector who will be open to settlement offers, so you could potentially settle them for far less. 

Thank you, that was what I was planning to do. I’ve opened a new bank account. I’m guessing once I default there will be lots of mail?

You tend to get a fair bit when you stop paying as you'll get written to to say you've missed payments, reminders to pay, and notices saying what you have to do to avoid a default. Once you default you'll get people writing to you wanting payment but once you start paying it all calms down.

Martico

Thanks! There would have been a totals section on the SOA, showing total debts, total paid towards unsecured credit, and what's left over for you (or not) per month. Are you able to return to the page and grab that info?

[Edit after mental tot-up]
It looks like your minimum debt payments exceed your income (after essential and regular spends) by a few hundred each month. And other than high allowances for electricity and presents, there's not an awful lot of slack for you 

ManyWays

Cherry Godfrey - are you mainland UK based? was this a business or personal loan?

Loan from family. - are you going to carry on paying this? 

RAS

Electricity, medical and other insurance are high, if you are UK based?

We often suggest that people write telling creditors only to write. In this case, changing the details of your email and phone to burners might be a good idea? 

You will need to open all physical mail as any legal notice has to be sent by mail and some requires response in 14 days.

I'd also suggest that in addition to the emergency fund, you have another account into which you put money towards a replacement car, if it's vital to income. Then you can choose to replace rather than make a panicked decision.

EssexHebridean

I've not had time to do more than skim the SOA but the thing that literally leapt out at me was that £350 for Electricity - that is a crazy amount! 

Have you checked that you are being billed on actual, correct meter readings? This even applies if you have a smart meter - you need to be sure that it is communicating and doing so correctly. 

Have you checked you are on the correct tariff - ie NOT the standard price-cap standard one, but a fix with competitive pricing.

If both of the above are correct then the next thing is going to be to establish why you are using so much energy. Unless you are living in a mansion, it seems fairly sure that things are wrong somewhere though!