Help after gambling

Beesknees48

I’ve been a nurse 40years never needed financial help. Unfortunately I started gambling while on medication for Parkinson’s disease. A well documented side effect of these meds. Once meds changed I stopped altogether. But the damage to my credit score is done. I need my car for work, but my car needs work doing on it. It’s 10 years old. I will soon need a new one. Nobody and I mean absolutely nobody will lend me any money at all to sort my car. I’ve talked to my bank. I’ve tried credit unions. The bonkers thing is if they loaned me money I could pay off my debt management total too and be paying less than that for the loan I requested. I’m in a spiral and the temptation is to gamble again as it’s the ONLY way I have any chance of making that sort of money. It’s bonkers. Any clues how I can find £3000??? I can do extra hours but my illness prevents me. I don’t know where to turn.

retiredbanker1

You will NOT find it by gambling - end of!

A colleague of mine many many years ago boasted that he had money on a horse that won at 100-1.

I asked him how many 100-1 horses would he have to back (and lose!) before it happens again.

Didn't stop him gambling.

You need to increase cash in (eg sell unwanted items) and reduce cash out (Cut out all gambling - find the cheapest phone, broadband, utility bills etc) until you can save the money.

ManyWays

Are you in debt management? Ask to reduce or take a break from the payments to that to let you cover the car repair costs.

Brie

Welcome to MSE and well done for admitting there's a problem you need to solve.

My suggestion is that we move this post over to the debtfree wannabee board. You've sorted out the meds and the gambling itself doesn't seem to be an issue anymore so it's the debt that needs to be nuked.

On the debtfree wannabee board the first suggestion will be that you do a statement of accounts (SOA, see below in my signature for a link) and post it back so that we can get a good view of your situation. There may be things in your budget that we can see that you can't where we can help you slap things into shape so that life becomes simpler. Everyone will also say that borrowing money isn't the solution to debt, budgeting is the way to go. And just in case we sound bossy (you looking at me??) well mostly we're not because most of us have been there and possibly in a much worse place than you. I'd say we're fairly friendly and obviously we want to help.

Oh and don't worry about your credit score - you're the only one that sees it. What the banks and other creditors see is your credit history. And that sounds like it's a bit of a mess right now, but hopefully we can help you sort that out.

fatbelly

Totally agree with Brie. We're not experts on gambling addiction but you are over that, now that you are on different medication. It's just the debts.

Incidentally there is an article on the BBC site today about someone who had a similar problem on these meds. In his case he stole 600k. As it's a well documented problem, I have a suggestion.

But I would still like to see a soa

My suggestion is that you stop paying the debts, put the money into a car fund and ask the creditors for write-offs.

As I'm also a bit of a car nerd I am going to say that your car is unlikely to be finished at 10 years old. Obvs depends on what it is but mine are 14 and 12 years old and maybe halfway through their life. Just sold one that was 20 years old. Still life in that one.

RAS

So maybe tell us what you are driving and the mileage?

FrugaiMacDugal

Mmm, interesting, I heard this on Radio 4 yesterday.

Brie

I'm wondering if there is any way to get the debt written off on the basis that the drugs were the cause? If it's a mental health issue that was the underlying cause then there's the "mental health and debt" form that could be submitted. Was there credit cards that were being used for the actual gambling? That in itself is a specific issue the creditor should have been acting upon. Or was it a case of using up all the money available for gambling and then needing to use the credit cards (assuming that's the problem) for all the living expenses. An SOA would help point us in the right direction.