I want to be able to eat & sleep at night!

bzelizzy1

Hi Alan,

Thanks for advice. These are steps I've taken so far, hopefully they will start to help to improve my situation and not make it worse. I've successfully applied to have my account set up with the Alliance & Leicester instead of HSBC. As yet I have not informed HSBC of my intent to move my business. When should I do this? In regard to my DDs what should I do? Do I advise A&L not to pay my DDs at this time? When should I contact the company's concerned about my change of details? I'm awaiting confirmation paperwork from A&L on how to manage my new account, although I've received an email telling me that my application is successful. As for my car it is a conditional sale agreement, runs out March this year. I've also been in touch with CAB in the hope that they could suggest anything including the possibility that I might be able to claim some help even if short term. Answer came back "No" your earnings take you over the threshold albeit only slightly. It is so grossly unfair. Is there more I should or could be doing?

bzelizzy

bzelizzy1

Hi guys,

I realise from your replies that it might be helpful for you to be able to help me if I post my SOA. So here goes. It's almost like I'm getting prepped for a serious operation. Nerve Wracking!

Monthly Incomings

Salary - £1144.79

Total = £1144.79

Monthly Outgoings

Mortgage - £520.66

Council Tax - £134 (due to rise again this year)

Gas - £35

Gas Service - £30.42 (got dodgy CH / Boiler system)

Electric - £27

Water - £15

Tv Licence - £11.61

Sky - £55 (tv & computer)

Phone - £45

BT Line Rental - £10.30

Food - £200

Car Insurance - £16.40

Car Payment - £159

Petrol - £30

Union Fees - £11.20

Gym - £42

Dental plan - £18.84


Debt on C/C -£10,200 APR 16.9%

Overdraft - £2500

HSBC Flexi Loan - £4000 (£160p.m)



So there you have it guys!

Welcome to my Nightmare!


bzeLizzy :sad:

IWantToBeFree_2

From looking at that, your phone & Sky seem high, can you cancel these or at least reduce to a lower amount?

And also I would suggest that the gym goes & the dental plan too.

How many mouths are you feeding for £200?

theunknownstuntman

Well done for posting the SoA, the clever folk will be along shortly .

But to my untrained eye, the sky and internet look high, maybe get rid of the gym too? and cut back on the food?

Shelley84

How many people live in your house? If just you, you can get council tax reduction. If its another adult then surely they should pay towards mortgage, food etc...

beanielou

YOur main problem is that your mortgage is nearly half of your income.
Is there any way you could get a wee part time job in the meantime?
Have you got bits n bobs you could ebay?

CCCS_Alan

Hi Bzelizzy1

You do not need to inform the bank you intend to move bank accounts. Once you have your new account set up you make your arrangements to transfer all your income into A&L account, and contact your priority payers (mortgage, counc tax, utilities etc), and give them your new bank details for the DD. You may have to possibly make alternative arrangements to pay by for 1 month dependant on how long they need to change your DD info.
Do not provide you’re A&L details to your creditors and make the payments over the counter with payment slips or by SO. Ideally you should be taking that action now to get in control of your payments and stop paying creds by DD.
Once you have made the changes make sure the HSBC account has no DD or any thing else set up on to avoid further charges and you can then treat the OD like any normal creditor debt.

Hope this is ok

CCCS_Alan

bzelizzy1

Hi guys,

Thanks for all the useful tips. I have looked into claiming Council Tax Benefit. I've been told that I should fill the form in when I receive the new figure for my Council tax this year, is this right or should I do it sooner?

I've also been looking into getting a part time job but have hit 2 major problems. Would appreciate any tips to help get round this? Firstly, my full time job is shift work : either start 6am finish 1pm or start 12:30 finish 20:30. This includes weekends too so my options are limited. Secondly, been avidly scouring the local papers but nothing available, which is frustrating. On the job front have also been looking for another fulltime job but nothing going there either. Most of the time I'm feeling so despondent.

Point taken on food bill I made a concerted effort at start of 2008 to try to lower this. I now shop fortnightly instead of monthly as a start & my total bill for Jan (food & household) = £120. I've also started paying for it by cash instead of using my card, also I now use the "Mysupermarket.com" site to do price comparison when compiling my list.

One thing that concerned me today was the threat of a default notice against me from the c/c company. I discovered this when I went to the bank to get my statements & to ensure my pay had gone in today. When I spoke to the c/c company quite recently I told them they would get a payment today towards my balance.In trying to make a payment I was put through to an advisor who informed me of this. I challenged this & said "Why would I get this when I've explained to you what my situation is?" Reply was "Well it's because it will be generated automatically if we do not receive back the assessment form we sent you within 14days." Even though I'd explained that I'd not received any such form it didn't seem to matter. Are they deaf or just plain stupid or lemmings that have to follow a script when dealing with the public. My customer service training has been to treat customers on an individual basis which I was led to believe was rule of thumb in customer focused occupations. So why then are banks - HSBC - in my case immune from this?

Can they do this? What should I do now? I did honour my word & made a payment to them today.

bzelizzy

MissKJ

bzelizzy, welcome. Have you got a spare room? You could rent a room and generate up to £370 per month tax free. Not for the faint hearted I know, but you really need to up you income along with stringent budgets. I found it really hard at first to cancel SKy ad mobile contacts, but you know they really are not as important as eating and sleeping at night (by the way eating at night is not good for you LOL)!

bzelizzy1

Hi guys,

What should I do now? I've attempted to apply for a citibank citi Platinum Mastercard with 5.8%interest on balance transfers for life of the balance. My reason so that I could attempt to pay off my c/c debt. I had problem doing this on line, I contacted them they then sent me the wrong form, so I contacted them again was advised to fill form in and send in application with a covering letter explaining the problem I was having applying on line. This was on 31/01/08. I asked them to give me a full response within 7 days of that date. As yet I have heard absolutely nothing. I don't know as to whether I've been accepted or rejected, & all the time I'm waiting my current interest is remaining at 16.9%. I'm also looking for a c/c for spending I want to switch but am finding the whole thing confusing & not know what would be a good deal. I have only ever had 1 c/c - my current HSBC Mastercard.

Can anybody please give me some advice?

bzelizzy