Advice needed

glasstable

Good evening.

I have been a very long time lurker on this site and I now find myself needing advice.

I have around £30K of credit card and loan debt;

11500 with Natwest
£1700 to Capital One
£2500 to NewDay (Fluid)
£2500 to Vanquis
 Loans:
£4888 to lendable
£6590 to Zopa

This month is the last month I can make all minimum payments.  I am drowning in this debt (I know only have myself to blame) all but capital one are on 0% and these end in a couple of months.

I plan on contacting the companies and offer a token payment which should allow me to build up a little emergency fund.  

Is there a template for this anywhere?

How long will the debts take to default?  Am I better waiting until they default before offering anything?

I am also concerned about some of these companies having my card details to take payment - I cannot remember who does.  I have contacted my other bank to withdraw my consent from CPA and found them pretty useless to be honest.  Wanted me to complete a form with the exact amount and company - I’ve not been in the position where a company has taken off my card so I don’t know what they would take or the amount? Also if the company took a different amount to what I put on the form would this still be taken? 

Am I better to send an email to the bank? It’s Nationwide - don’t really enjoy using them as always think their systems are very Jurassic - can’t even view a pin on my banking app!

I also am not looking forward to the stress of the phone calls, emails, texts, letters, turning up to the house and general pestering! I know they have a process but it’s just a lot. 

I am utterly ashamed at myself for getting into this position.  The last 12 months or so I have been relying more and more on credit to cover cost of living and thought I was on top of things by transferring to 0% when the offers come in but that wasn’t solving anything!

I understand I need to have 2 SOA’s - an actual one and one for my creditors.  Is there anywhere to find out what expenses are allowed and how much? 

I have went online to StepChange and they were allowing £750 per month for food shop.  Family of 3 adults and 1 teenager who won’t stop eating or growing!  

I’m in Scotland if that makes any difference to advice?

Thanks for reading 

glasstable

Meant to add the bank card with possible CPA is linked to a basic bank account 

Rob5342

Yes it's much better for your credit report in the long term if you wait for defaultd before starting payments. I think the guideline is 3-6 months of missed payments, some companies can be very good and default quickly but others make things very difficult and drag it out for ages.

Nationwide are stuck in the stone age whem it comes to their digital services and for some reason have little interest in implementing anything remotely modern. They are like a VHS rental shop in the age of steaming. If you don't like being with them then why not switch banks? Monzo and Starling are vastly better and have all sorts of useful features in their app.

The idea of having two SOAs is that you have one for yourself that you work from that includes money you save for settlement offers, and one your sent creditors to supports how much you actually want to pay them. Don't worry too much about the fabricated one, it just needs to look plausible so they can tick the "we've checked it's affordable" box. You don't always have to send one but if they make too much fuss or can be easier to shut them up.

Don't feel ashamed, lots of us here have been in the same position, I got into 44k of credit card debt and started a Dmp four years ago. Everyone hits a few rocks somewhere in their life, the important thing is that you have now faced up to it and with a bit of determination will be well on the way to sorting it out. 

kimwp

@DodgyDave88, debt can happen for all sorts of reasons. This part of the forum is for helpful advice and support to posters, nothing else. Certainly not "better than thou"-ing on individual threads.

kimwp

I think being in Scotland means there is the option of a formal dmp (not sure name or implications). In England, it would be better tohave no communication  and make no payments to get defaults rather than an arrangement to pay marker (usually affects your credit record for longer). And manually move income and bills to an unrelated (to any debts) bank account to avoid further direct debits being taken or the right of offset being used.

ManyWays

I have went online to StepChange and they were allowing £750 per month for food shop
That is well below the "trigger figure" allowed over which debt advisers expect to have to add a note if someone is spending more for a particular reason. I would not query under £1100 but that would include school meals, meals at work, alcohol, pet food etc

Can I ask if the other two adults in the house are contributing to the household budget?

I suggest an affordability complaint to both of the loans on your list.

Rob5342

[Quoted post removed by Forum Team]

I couldn't understand how my wifes friend had managed to rack up £11k on credit cards, but about 15 years later I had £44k on credit cards.

In my case we moved house which put a dent in our finances, then my wife gave up work to look after our childen which put another dent in our finances. We weren't extravagent but that put us from having a nice excess to save each month to not having quite enough. I started using credit cards to cover it as I thought it would be a one off and we'll just spend less next month. That just snowballed with the repayment meaning we had less the next month and had to borrow again etc, and then 0% deals ended which took out more than I got from payrises. It took a long time to admit that I had a problem, especially as my wife didn't know, but now I have things have improved vastly.   

MattMattMattUK

Can you complete a full SOA?
https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/financecalculators/soa.php

glasstable said:

This month is the last month I can make all minimum payments. 

My initial thoughts would be do not make the payments, start to let things go to default, save the money and start building an emergency fund. 

glasstable

Rob5342 said:

Yes it's much better for your credit report in the long term if you wait for defaultd before starting payments. I think the guideline is 3-6 months of missed payments, some companies can be very good and default quickly but others make things very difficult and drag it out for ages.

Nationwide are stuck in the stone age whem it comes to their digital services and for some reason have little interest in implementing anything remotely modern. They are like a VHS rental shop in the age of steaming. If you don't like being with them then why not switch banks? Monzo and Starling are vastly better and have all sorts of useful features in their app.

The idea of having two SOAs is that you have one for yourself that you work from that includes money you save for settlement offers, and one your sent creditors to supports how much you actually want to pay them. Don't worry too much about the fabricated one, it just needs to look plausible so they can tick the "we've checked it's affordable" box. You don't always have to send one but if they make too much fuss or can be easier to shut them up.

Don't feel ashamed, lots of us here have been in the same position, I got into 44k of credit card debt and started a Dmp four years ago. Everyone hits a few rocks somewhere in their life, the important thing is that you have now faced up to it and with a bit of determination will be well on the way to sorting it out. 

Thanks for your response.  I guess I want to stick with a high street bank for peace of mind.  There is a branch local to me should I need to deposit money, change details or speak to a human. 

glasstable

ManyWays said:

I have went online to StepChange and they were allowing £750 per month for food shop
That is well below the "trigger figure" allowed over which debt advisers expect to have to add a note if someone is spending more for a particular reason. I would not query under £1100 but that would include school meals, meals at work, alcohol, pet food etc

Can I ask if the other two adults in the house are contributing to the household budget?

I suggest an affordability complaint to both of the loans on your list.

other adult is DH and contributes 50% of household bills.  2nd adult is DD and contributes a small amount £100 month. 

Would an affordability complaint stand if loans were beginning of this year? I was already £20K in debt when I applied. Thought consolidation would work 😔

JibberdyDacodo

glasstable said:

ManyWays said:

I suggest an affordability complaint to both of the loans on your list.

Would an affordability complaint stand if loans were beginning of this year? I was already £20K in debt when I applied. Thought consolidation would work 😔

That is exactly what an affordability complaint is made for.

You are essentially telling the lender that they should have noticed you already had debt of £20k, and they should have considered whther you would be able to afford payments for even more debt.