SOA questions

in_need_of_direction

could your son be eligible for additional benefits? Also, can you get a discount on council tax as the other person in the house receives pip?

SPM87

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81923178#Comment_81923178

default on all unsecured borrowing and pay nothing and save save save and save. Then wait until everything defaults and then come back and forget everything else.

I am a joint mortgage owner myself fyi

ArtyJ931

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81925403#Comment_81925403

that is my plan… getting my nerve up

ArtyJ931

Not that I have a choice unless I want to retire with all this debt!

SPM87

well done Arty. Try to reframe this as business management. Take all emotion out of it (the DCA have 0, so should you) this is just business now. You don't need credit. Credit I have learnt is just for poor people to keep them poor with exception of a mortgage to buy a house. It is a clever design to take your hard earned wages and make money for the people offering it while keeping you from building wealth.

Once that debt is sold to DCAs.. the value of that debt plummets to something like 10% of its original value.

You need to think of your earnings like your own business.. you earn 40k a year? your turnover is £40k per year… then your cost of living is the all the costs of running the business. The idea is to improve turnover where possible and cut costs ruthlessly to make a profit.

just get them all defaulted for now and save ruthlessly each month.

ArtyJ931

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81930699#Comment_81930699

Thank you - that's such a helpful comment. I will try to reframe this!

ArtyJ931

Just getting through all the initial admin and keeping my figures up to date etc and two queries have popped up…

I have a virgin media account and also a virgin cc. If I change the dd for virgin media will the cc take money from it? Am I better cancelling VM altogether? Likewise my son's mobile is with tesco and I have a loan and CC with them.

Secondly I have a sofa with DFS which is with creation - is this a HP debt? I have paid 2.5 years off but still has 1.5 years to go ( a bit regret this one as I never liked the feel of the new sofas but not much I could do once they were here).

Thanks :)

saajan_12

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81923169#Comment_81923169

BUT I have a rental house with a BTL mortgage- could creditors put a charging order on that? Equity is only circa 30k and my unsecured debts are +£60k.

Where is the income here going? Is there any profit after paying the mortgage and repairs each month? Could you sell this to clear out a chunk of the debt?

SpireCaptain

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81933844#Comment_81933844

Currently after mortgage payments there is £210 every month. It just goes to pay credit card minimum payments and I haven't saved any of it since the house was bought in 2015. The mortgage is up for renewal next month and looking at the rate rises I'll need to increase rent by at least £50 perhaps £100 to make it viable.

Selling would be my preference but would only pay off perhaps 1/3 of current debts and would lose the cashflow that it provides. But if I default on my unsecured debts that'll release some cashflow.

ManyWays

Cashflow isn't really helping if it is coming in from rent and going out in higher mortgage and tax. Think hard now about whether you want to carry on, as you don't want to sign up to a new mortgage and then decide to sell up.

Yes a charging order after a CCJ can be put on a BTL property