£32000 in debt and rising. My story of woe....

Seaxwyn

Hi subflow. I'm on a fixed rate mortgage and switched to interest only, it was no hassle, took one phone call and a one-off £75 fee - worth asking.

Selling the freehold sounds like a great idea - good luck with that.

HSBC are evil, they had my OH over a barrel, treated him really badly, he managed to open an account at Nationwide despite having a dire credit rating, and he is really happy with that.

affordmylife

What sort of phone contract is £80 per month?

Good luck and you will get loads of support here.

I hope all goes well for you and your wife with your new baby coming soon.

boredofbeingathome

Could you open another account and transfer your wages in there for now? then if you manage to sell the freehold pay off hsbc loan and overdraft with that. lodge a charges letter pending test case, use cccs to sort out credit cards and other oustanding debts. shop around for best deals possible as per advice above. If you need some things for baby have you tried freecycle for bigger items. Also on old style board there are plenty of tips and suggestions for bill food cutting ideas, without compromising on taste and quality- in fact you'll prabably eat better that before. The other thing is that we were in a similar situation when my first was born, you will get through it and be the stronger and wiser because of it. Good luck

RAS

hi

A few links

www.freecycle.org - like e-bay but you get it all for free.
www.entitledto.com - check what you might be eligible for now you have a family and one income.
www.quidco.com if you change anything in your life, check wheter you can get cashback.

Go to the Money Saving Old style forum here for cheap cheap eats and household goods.

I will hunt out chevalier's excellent lists of pay for click, mystery shopping and survey sites. If your missus is not earning, she might be able to get another £50 a month through that.

firesidemaid

hi there - hugs to all 3 of you and i hope this site can really help you.....

selling the freehold would pay off 10% of your debt off already - perhaps pay off o/draft (to stop charges) and highest c/card debt.

by going interest only on your mortgage (again my bank rbos said no probs when i asked during fixed rate - the bank doesn't lose, only gain long term) would maybe save you enough a month after the above to meet your credit card payments.

your life cover should be able to be reduced unless you have health probs - plus do you already have work pension scheme that includes life insurance?

water rates should be £30 or less - there are 2 of us in large 3 bed detached house, washing, dishwasher and baths every day for that.

plus, ring the mobile phone co and say ' we cannot afford this and we are just about to have a child - please can you reduce it' it has worked for others.

will your OH be getting maternity pay or benefits?

cut money off coupons out of mags (at work even and swipe from customer service desks) you can use these in asda and tescos even if you don't buy the product - as long as they sell it.

also, just done quick reccy on entitled.to for you check it out - i made it 18.10 a week CB and 20.86 CTC, which would mean almost £170 a month. but please check it out for yourself in case i am wrong.

good luck with cccs meanwhile

subflow

Again, some great ideas in there. Thanks everyone.
To address some of the points:

I definitely think switching the mortgage to interest only could certainly free up a few quid. I'll get onto that one straight away.

I've also now setup a new bank account with Nationwide (UK only call-centres, brilliant! No more rude Indian call centres ringing me up at 8am on a Saturday shouting misinformed unintelligible garbage at me!!)
I will have my wages paid into this, and move my direct debits.

"Spare room? Lodger?"
Not an option really. 2 bedroom place. 1 room for us, 1 for baby. Don't know of many parents who'd want a lodger when they have a newborn baby and are 1st time parents, nor a lodger who'd want to pay rent and have to put up with a newborn baby!

"Water = £45 This seems very high could you get a water meter ... I £8.00 and am in credit"

True, I spoke with them, turns out there is a meter and I'm going to get a reading tonight and pay on that basis. Should bring this down to £30 or so tops.

"Life Cover = £61 Can you shop arround for a better price try Quidco"
Possibly correct, however I did a lot of shopping around with my IFA and this is a very good policy, and covers us for a lot of eventualities, which is important now we have a baby.

"What sort of phone contract is £80 per month?"
This is for both of us. 2 mobile phones £40 each, unlimited calls and texts, so the bill rarely ever deviates from that amount. In the past I've had cheaper tarrifs, used up the allocated texts/call minutes and ended up with a much higher bill. Additionally, I'm on an 18 month contract with these with an incentive of £700 cashback at the end for not changing the tarifff. Would be better off seeing through the remaining 10 months I reckon.

"Could you open another account and transfer your wages in there for now?"
Done!

"If your lovely wife knows of all the issues, she must be worried too. perhaps she could do somehting child friendly when your nipper has settle down a little. Avon? Puch the pram around whilst doing the rounds? Child minding? Once you get used to one, more make no differnce really. "
My lovely wife is indeed aware of the situation. That was one of the toughests things, admitting to her how things had spiralled. She's a little worried, but knows that being upset and stressed will do neither her nor the baby any good, so remains positive, and trusts me to get things back under control again. As long as the house is warm and there's food on the table, we'll be happy. She does intend to look into some form of home working or other incomes whilst off work.

Anyother ways to boost your income? better job, promotion?
I take home over £2000 a month, and that's after paying into a saving scheme, pension fund, all taxes, the lot, so I get paid quite well. If I study and get more qualifications, my money will go up accordingly. So I'm studying hard and doing lots of overtime already. I would expect my income to rise this year.

if you manage to sell the freehold pay off hsbc loan and overdraft with that. lodge a charges letter pending test case, use cccs to sort out credit cards and other oustanding debts
Making arrangements to sell that freehold now. That will certainly make a difference in the short term. Good ideas on clearing thoes 2 items.
Letter already lodged re charges.
CCCS calling Tuesday to discuss situation.

www.freecycle.org - like e-bay but you get it all for free.
www.entitledto.com - check what you might be eligible for now you have a family and one income.
www.quidco.com if you change anything in your life, check wheter you can get cashback.
Excellent, thank you, will check them out.

I will hunt out chevalier's excellent lists of pay for click, mystery shopping and survey sites. If your missus is not earning, she might be able to get another £50 a month through that.
Sounds great, wife is very computer litterate and could do that from home.

will your OH be getting maternity pay or benefits
We came back from our travels in May. You have to have worked x amount of time when baby is born to be entitled to SMP. Long story short, she starte work 10 days too late, so we'll be on benefits for her being out of work (for the first time in our lives!!)

Once again, thank you to everyone who has taken time to contribute and offer some great, practical solutions. Even the feeling that things might just be alright is one I haven't had for a while, so we're on the right track.

stebiz

How long have you and the wife had ceridi cards with HSBC please??

Stebiz

subflow

"How long have you and the wife had ceridi cards with HSBC please??"

Since September 2006. They gave me a £7k limit on mine before we went travelling. I asked for an additional card on the account for my wife, however they gave her an entirely new card with it's own £7k limit on it as well, which we didn't want, but as it was only 2 days before we left the country, it was too late to sort out. Before we knew it, we'd travelled the world and gone through them....

newlywed

Just wanted to add - CCCS are really great. Very helpful and not judgemental. The best thing I ever did was find this website which pointed me in their direction. I'd never really known what a Debt Management Plan was before that and everyone here answered my questions about it.

I have been on it since May and get very few phone calls (in fact only had one in months asking for up to date income and expenditure etc). I have to budget so it isn't easy but at least food, gas, electric, petrol etc is all put in the budget and then what's left goes to the debts. All but one have stopped interest - and the one that hasn't immediately reduced interest down to 6% instead of 19%.

And I owe more in my sole name than you and your wife

It's a huge relief when CCCS give advice and let you know the best way they think they can help you.

RoxieW

hi there - i'd recommend the tax credits website 'do i qualify' section . put in your situation as it will be when baby is born and it will tell you exactly how much you'll get in tax credits. as you get extra when a baby is under a year old, that plus child benefit should help a little each month.
good luck