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Hitting the Gutter
Pwaggo
Posts: 1 Newbie
Well I have floated around this forum for a little bit now but never posted but now feel its time for me to share my story. Sorry if its in the wrong section I wasn't sure
It started back in may 2004 when my partner, her four year old daughter and myself moved in together into a council flat. At the time I had three credit cards totaling around £6000 owed and was on my way to being debt free. The reason I had three was that I had started the credit card shuffle and the two new cards hadn't given me a large enough credit limit to dump on to one card. The state of the council flat was appalling the previous tenant had been an elderly gentleman that hadn't maintain the property for the past 15 years and the council had thoughtfully trashed the decor that had been repainted with at least 50 coats since 1950 lets just say half inch of paint on 1950's blown vyenl (sp?) isn't nice.
My partner was in receipt of income support and I was working at the time but was also a member of the Territorial Army we started by taking it slowly and and when the wages didn't cover the cost of the bare essentials of making the property livable I put a bit on the credit card not much as I was trying to go credit card dept free. After a month of work we got the place livable with most of the walls stripped and the place carpeted so we finally moved in.
By this point I had ordered a new car to replace my old car and had arranged the financing as things were looking up. As I already had a car the laundrette runs weren't a problem and we were still eating around my partners parents house in the evenings whilst we got ourselves sorted to get the cooker, fridge, kitchen utensils and so on we had a tiny fridge for the milk for the morning breakfast. Two weeks later to my horror the MOD saw fit to compulsory call me up to go to Iraq, I was the first to be called up in my unit since the Second World War.
I had one month to prepare and go. We no longer had any time to save up for the major stuff so out the window went the idea of becoming debt free that year and getting the place habitable for my partner who was by now pregnant and her daughter (now mine through a residency order) so that they wouldn't have any problems whilst I was away. All three credit cards got hit as they had also seen fit to increase my limit on my two new cards as becoming debt free was the least of my worries. Whilst away my partner miscarried due to the stress and worry but luckily I had had a safe tour and came back in one piece but to a mounting dept as I had set the credit cards to minimum payment whilst away and the 0% balance transfer deals had run out and I hadn't had the time or means to arrange a shuffle.
Whilst out with a friend one night the discussion turned to what rents we paid and and Council Tax comparisons at this point I realised I hadn't had a council tax bill so the next day whilst at work my partner phoned our local housing office and was told not to worry as it was included in the rent.
My debt by this point had ballooned to around £25000 including the the car financing and I was starting to find things difficult getting ends to meet so I arranged a consolidation loan with Cahoot which eased some of the pressure but mostly kept things ticking over and in 4 years time when the loan ran out the car financing would have been finished I would have been in a much better situation.
After a year and a half back at work my employer saw fit to sack me mostly because I hadn't left the TA and he didn't agree with me going to Iraq all of it unprovable in a court of law but he had used the most stupid of excuses.
I now had an £30000 debt and £97 a week income through Jobseekers with my partner losing her income support because of my claim. It was at this point that the Council contacted me to inform me that I owed them 3 years Council Tax after several arguments and discussions on the phone and in the Council Tax office that the Council Tax had not been included in the rent and that my local housing office had mis informed me I agreed to pay it at a rate of £5 per week which was deducted automatically from my Jobseekers.
As I hadn't managed to find re-employment as quickly as I had planned (my god its hard out there) and the credit card companies and loan company had passed my debts on to credit collection agencies. So I went to the CAB for advice and they advised me to go bankrupt which I did in July 2007 clearing my now £35,000 increased due bank charges and the council tax. I was finally debt free.
In August 2007 the council then started to bill my partner for her share of the council tax . Now my partner had been on income support since 2000 and had been in receipt of council tax benefit but when she changed address to our present address the council managed to lose her Council Tax Benefit application and it never got processed so I am now back to square one dealing with credit collection agencies and stressing about appeals and debt.
Sorry if this post is long winded but I needed to tell some one my story and no one close seems to understand. I remember reading a story about five years ago about a man who commit suicide after amounting a £70,000 debt and saw no way out. At the time I thought he was crazy didn't understand what he must have been going through. I do now, now that I understand just how much the system tries to kick you when you hit the gutter.
Pwaggo
PS. lol whilst typing this I opened a letter its from a collection agency in regards to my cahoot bank loan. this is the third collection agency sent by Cahoot I have had to inform that I am now bankrupt you would have thought that they had gotten the message by now.
It started back in may 2004 when my partner, her four year old daughter and myself moved in together into a council flat. At the time I had three credit cards totaling around £6000 owed and was on my way to being debt free. The reason I had three was that I had started the credit card shuffle and the two new cards hadn't given me a large enough credit limit to dump on to one card. The state of the council flat was appalling the previous tenant had been an elderly gentleman that hadn't maintain the property for the past 15 years and the council had thoughtfully trashed the decor that had been repainted with at least 50 coats since 1950 lets just say half inch of paint on 1950's blown vyenl (sp?) isn't nice.
My partner was in receipt of income support and I was working at the time but was also a member of the Territorial Army we started by taking it slowly and and when the wages didn't cover the cost of the bare essentials of making the property livable I put a bit on the credit card not much as I was trying to go credit card dept free. After a month of work we got the place livable with most of the walls stripped and the place carpeted so we finally moved in.
By this point I had ordered a new car to replace my old car and had arranged the financing as things were looking up. As I already had a car the laundrette runs weren't a problem and we were still eating around my partners parents house in the evenings whilst we got ourselves sorted to get the cooker, fridge, kitchen utensils and so on we had a tiny fridge for the milk for the morning breakfast. Two weeks later to my horror the MOD saw fit to compulsory call me up to go to Iraq, I was the first to be called up in my unit since the Second World War.
I had one month to prepare and go. We no longer had any time to save up for the major stuff so out the window went the idea of becoming debt free that year and getting the place habitable for my partner who was by now pregnant and her daughter (now mine through a residency order) so that they wouldn't have any problems whilst I was away. All three credit cards got hit as they had also seen fit to increase my limit on my two new cards as becoming debt free was the least of my worries. Whilst away my partner miscarried due to the stress and worry but luckily I had had a safe tour and came back in one piece but to a mounting dept as I had set the credit cards to minimum payment whilst away and the 0% balance transfer deals had run out and I hadn't had the time or means to arrange a shuffle.
Whilst out with a friend one night the discussion turned to what rents we paid and and Council Tax comparisons at this point I realised I hadn't had a council tax bill so the next day whilst at work my partner phoned our local housing office and was told not to worry as it was included in the rent.
My debt by this point had ballooned to around £25000 including the the car financing and I was starting to find things difficult getting ends to meet so I arranged a consolidation loan with Cahoot which eased some of the pressure but mostly kept things ticking over and in 4 years time when the loan ran out the car financing would have been finished I would have been in a much better situation.
After a year and a half back at work my employer saw fit to sack me mostly because I hadn't left the TA and he didn't agree with me going to Iraq all of it unprovable in a court of law but he had used the most stupid of excuses.
I now had an £30000 debt and £97 a week income through Jobseekers with my partner losing her income support because of my claim. It was at this point that the Council contacted me to inform me that I owed them 3 years Council Tax after several arguments and discussions on the phone and in the Council Tax office that the Council Tax had not been included in the rent and that my local housing office had mis informed me I agreed to pay it at a rate of £5 per week which was deducted automatically from my Jobseekers.
As I hadn't managed to find re-employment as quickly as I had planned (my god its hard out there) and the credit card companies and loan company had passed my debts on to credit collection agencies. So I went to the CAB for advice and they advised me to go bankrupt which I did in July 2007 clearing my now £35,000 increased due bank charges and the council tax. I was finally debt free.
In August 2007 the council then started to bill my partner for her share of the council tax . Now my partner had been on income support since 2000 and had been in receipt of council tax benefit but when she changed address to our present address the council managed to lose her Council Tax Benefit application and it never got processed so I am now back to square one dealing with credit collection agencies and stressing about appeals and debt.
Sorry if this post is long winded but I needed to tell some one my story and no one close seems to understand. I remember reading a story about five years ago about a man who commit suicide after amounting a £70,000 debt and saw no way out. At the time I thought he was crazy didn't understand what he must have been going through. I do now, now that I understand just how much the system tries to kick you when you hit the gutter.
Pwaggo
PS. lol whilst typing this I opened a letter its from a collection agency in regards to my cahoot bank loan. this is the third collection agency sent by Cahoot I have had to inform that I am now bankrupt you would have thought that they had gotten the message by now.
0
Comments
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There will be someone along to offer you advice in a minute but if you pop a SOA it will give people more of an idea what is happening and be able to advise you better.
Any post you get that deal with debts pre bankruptcy send to your OR it is their job to sort it out and they won't be happy with Cahoot.
Oh! and welcome to the board. If you have any bankruptcy queries they can be answered on the Bankruptcy and living with it sub board.BSCno.87The only stupid question is an unasked oneLoving life as a Kernow Hippy0 -
Welcome
Can you go here http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=107280 and list the incoming and outgoings and we may be able to help you.
It would help if you can separate ours, yours and hers as far as debts go, even if in practice you manage things jointly.
Also have you considered contacting SSAFA for help at all?
and as for cahoot - it does seem to take a time for them to understand.If you've have not made a mistake, you've made nothing0
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