Ostrich syndrome

scaredandsad

I have had my head in the sand for the past three years when I swapped from full-time to part-time work.
I am really looking for any help/support any forum members can give me.
Today I noticed I haven't been getting any child benefit. We moved home in 05 and the child benefit letters were not forwarded and I forgot to change my address with them. Anyway, I have not had any since April 07 and today they have just told me I am only eligible for the past three months.
Anyway it gave me a bit of a wake-up call, as I realised what scant attention I have been paying to my finances.
In stupidity I have been loading stuff onto credit cards, as well as having two personal loans. My husband has no idea and I can't tell him. I really can't.
I am now wondering whether to take out a giant loan to cover all the cards over something like 20 years.
I feel so stupid. I am a highly-trained professional but it seems I have just been wearing blinkers when it comes to my finances.
I would be grateful for any advice and list below ALL my debts. Listing them out has actually physically shocked me.

Loans
One £3604.80 £150.22 a month til 2010
Two £4952.88 £137.58 a month till 2011
Total: £8558

Cards (2-5 are 0% interest)
One 6305.75
Two 2563.22
Three 2177.10
Four 1816
Five 69.26
Total £12,934

Grand total £21492
Plus £2600 overdraft
Total £24092

Penny2myName

Hi and welcome.
Ok so the blinkers have come off and your neck got sick of its creak being stuck in that sand.
Can you stick a full SOA (statement of affairs) up including all your apr%. Your not the first nor last professional person to find themselves in this position. Others will come along in a bit and advise in ways to try and sort/ease the situation.

headoutthesand

As others will tell you - list your SOA on here and we'lls ee where you can cut back.

Also - are the CC and Loans all in your name or joint names? Who is the main card holder on them if they are joint?

the reason i ask this is because i was in the same situation as you but i got a shock when i came home one day to fine my angry - but understandably so - OH asking my why Capital 1 and Egg had been on the phone telling him that both of them were maxed out.

He asked what i had spent them on and after a few tears and explaining we worked out how to clear them together.

Good luck and remember - read some of the other stories on here and yours won't seem so bad.

Scarlett.1974

Hi scaredandsad,

Firstly well done for posting and admitting there is a problem, that's often the hardest (or one of them) step and it takes a lot of guts, so well done

The first thing you need to do is post a full and detailed Statement of Affairs, listing all your incomings and outgoings (all your bills, mortgage payments etc.....) and then prepare to be amazed as the advice comes rolling in

monkey22_2

Hi scaredandsad,

Well done for facing up to your debts, its pretty awful seeing them all down in black and white for the first time, I know.

There'll be loads of advice pouring for you soon so don't panic.

I would'nt go down the consolidation route though (trust me, I did three times!)

monkey22

always_amazed

Hey there; well done for facing up to all this. don't beat yourself up any more (you will to a certain extent but you can't help that) and start turing that energy into debtbusting!! Post up a State of Affairs (SOA), there are instructions in a link found on the 'advice for first time posters' post, which can be found at the top of the board.
xxxx

scaredandsad

Thanks for the swift replies.
All the cards are my own as are the loans, nothing is joint so it's a secret debt. Which I think is probably half the problem as I feel so guilty about it, especially now it seems unmanageable.

Here's my SOA.
Pay (I work 10 days a month) £1,240
Child benefit £116
Total

compulsivespender79

Hi Scaredandsad,

Firstly, well done for coming here and admitting to yourself that you have problems. That is the hardest step, and believe me, now you've done it you'll feel a million times better. I had my LMB about two weeks ago, and since then I've actually started to feel postive about my debt, wanting to be in control of it and not the other way around.
Keep posting - this forum is a lifeline: I can honestly say it has changed my life. Because of what's been said on here I'm quitting smoking, have started a DMP, cut the crap out of my diet, and have fianlly been to see the doctor about all those niggling ailments that have bugged me for months. Sorting out your finances isn't the only by-product of seeking help from this forum.

I never feel qualified to give advice when people come asking for help, but I will say this: DON'T CONSOLIDATE - that's just adding interest on top of interest, believe me, I've done it.

Have a look at some of the debt counselling charities, there's a link for one of them at the bottom of my signature.

Last of all welcome, the first steps are the most painful, but at least you're moving in the right direction now,

CS x

Tiglet

Hi. It's good that you've got 0% deals on 4 out of 5 cards. That means you can target most of your repayments to the other one. What I would do is find out how much of your debt on card one you can move across to the others, as that will reduce your interest payments.

There's a lot of very helpful stuff on the site. This page lists the best cards for balance transfers (you seem to have found a few anyway), and this one goes through some of the options for reducing the interest you pay, even if you can't get new cards.

scaredandsad

Thanks for the swift replies.
All the cards are my own as are the loans, nothing is joint so it's a secret debt. Which I think is probably half the problem as I feel so guilty about it, especially now it seems unmanageable. My husband pays the mortgage and utility bills.

Here's my SOA.

INCOME
Take home pay (I work 10 days a month) £1,240
Child benefit £116
Total £1,356
(I pay £100 at sources for child care)


Regular outgoings

Alliance and Leicester loan £150.22 until 5/1/2010
HSBC loan £137.58 until 2011
MBNA minimum payment £80
Tesco minimum payment £80
Marbles panic payment! £200
Joint life assurance £33.75
Gym £41
Home insurance £26.52
Mobile £44.64
Broadband/phone £34.87
Personal life insurance £23.04
Camelot £18
Travel to work: £240 a month
Lunch at work: £40 a month
Petrol £50 a month
Food and odd-bits shopping £200 a month
Social stuff: £30 a month
Total: £1430

What that doesn’t take into account is Christmas/birthdays/car maintenance/tax/unexpected physio/dentist etc which I have just been putting on my cards.

Here are the details of the cards
Marbles £6305.75 14.9%
Tesco £2563.22 0% until 21/04/08
Barclaycard £2177.10 0% until Nov 2008
MBNA £1816 0% until Feb 2008 then 17.9%
Next £69.26 APR26.49%
Total £12,934

dipsy

scaredandsad wrote: »

Thanks for the swift replies.
All the cards are my own as are the loans, nothing is joint so it's a secret debt. Which I think is probably half the problem as I feel so guilty about it, especially now it seems unmanageable. My husband pays the mortgage and utility bills.

Here's my SOA.

INCOME
Take home pay (I work 10 days a month) £1,240
Child benefit £116
Total £1,356
(I pay £100 at sources for child care)


Regular outgoings

Alliance and Leicester loan £150.22 until 5/1/2010
HSBC loan £137.58 until 2011
MBNA minimum payment £80
Tesco minimum payment £80
Marbles panic payment! £200
Joint life assurance £33.75
Gym £41 do you go lots, could you use council run one and payg would that be cheaper?
Home insurance £26.52
Mobile £44.64 how long left on contract
Broadband/phone £34.87
Personal life insurance £23.04
Camelot £18 you could cut this out
Travel to work: £240 a month £24 for each day.. how far and how are you travelling
Lunch at work: £40 a month £4.00 a day thats alot take a pack up?
Petrol £50 a month
Food and odd-bits shopping £200 a month is that for all of you?
Social stuff: £30 a month could you not cut this down?
Total: £1430

What that doesn’t take into account is Christmas/birthdays/car maintenance/tax/unexpected physio/dentist etc which I have just been putting on my cards.

Here are the details of the cards
Marbles £6305.75 14.9%
Tesco £2563.22 0% until 21/04/08
Barclaycard £2177.10 0% until Nov 2008
MBNA £1816 0% until Feb 2008 then 17.9%
Next £69.26 APR26.49%
Total £12,934

I am sure that others will offer better ways to cut back your budget

well done for posting here x