I am trying so hard

honeyblade

Hi
I don't know how to start.. deep breath..please can you help?

At the end of 2006 I found out I was very ill,I went into hospital for a long time and left my 19yr old daughter at home with the two boys.
To cut a long story short ,bills she was supposed to pay she didn't and I ended up owing money to barclays/barclaycard most of which was interest added.
I found out about it when I saw letters from hillesden securities and barclaycard just before christmas last year.
After a really awful time of threats I managed to get them to accept the payments I could afford and I paid off one debt that I still don't know what it was for and I owe £877 to HS on an original debt of £1777.
The BC one is different as they sent me a book to pay it at £20 a week but I still got letters from Moorcroft Debt despite paying it religiously.I got a letter saying that it is now calder financial.I have no idea how much I still owe on that debt as I keep asking for a statement and never get one.
When I got a copy of my credit score oh my goodness I could not believe it I never had any problems before or been in debt all my life and now it looks awful it shows defaults to both debts at HS and BC it shows the full amounts outstanding and looks as though I haven't paid a penny.
I dare not go near a bank to open a basic bank account which I desperately need for getting paid.
I am paying HS back as much a week as I can the minimum is £40 and I paid £80 last week.
I had a letter from a company saying that if i pay them £120 they can repair my credit rating do you think I should do that as it says that this can stay on my file for 6 years or should I use my (i am not that young)old age savings and pay it off ?
I did not want to do that but I will if it helps.
Please can you give me advice ?
thankyou

IWantToBeFree_2

£120 to repair your rating? I would stay well clear, I wouldn't have thought you could 'repair' your rating in any other way aside from not defaulting on payments & keeping upto date etc.

Adrasteia01

I think most of the ways that companies can 'repair' your credit rating are illegal. Best to steer clear.

Tiglet

Hi Honeyblade, and welcome to the forum.:hello:

I don't know what these people could do for £120. If it was worth doing, then the CCCS would be able to do it for nothing. I would think that the best thing you could do with your £120 would be to use it to reduce your debts.

One of the most productive things you can do is to produce a Statement of Affairs (SOA). If you post it on here, then we can all see if we can come up with ways to save money, make more money and get rid of your debts faster. If you have a look at what has happened when other people have done this, the results can be amazing.

oopalah

Hi honeyblade,
Well, you've come to the right place. There's loads of help and support on here. I would definitely do as Tiglet says and post your SOA.

honeyblade

thankyou very much for your kind replies
I earn about £250 a week
I pay BC £20
I pay HS £40
shopping/dinner money £50
tv license £4 per week
W/rates start april £33-37 per month
gas/elec £10 per week
BT £24.99 per month
anything left over I pay extra to HS
rent is£92.50 I pay to housing association.
I cannot think of anything else I walk everywhere so there are no fares,the boys walk to school and don't get pocket money .

MrsTinks

*cough* what did the 19 year old spend the money on she should have used to pay the bills? I would see if she can't contribute towards paying of the debts you have now got as a result.
Also start the reclaiming process! You will probably be able to reclaim some of all that money if as you say most of it is charges

Good luck!

honeyblade

she did not pay the bills and is not around at the moment to help pay.
do you think i should pay these debts off with my savings?
I assume that I have no chance of getting a basic bank account with my credit record as it is and I will not be able to carry on getting cash for wages for much longer.
please help I haven't slept for days with worry.

RAS

You should be able to get a basic bank account as it does not require a credit check.

will be back, just hit the refresh button in a few minutes.

These accounts will accept people who are BK, so you will not have a problem.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=474254

Tiglet

Hi Honeyblade,

I don't know a lot about basic bank accounts, but I did find this thread, which brings together a lot of information about them. From a quick read of the beginning, it looks as if you might have to shop around a bit, but you should be able to get one.

As a rule, if you're opening a new bank account it's a good idea to avoid a bank you already owe money to, so I would avoid Barclays but any of the other banks in that thread should be able to help.

I know it's easy to say, but please try not to worry about this. Get in touch with the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS). They are a charity, and it doesn't cost anything. Their phone no. is 0800 138 1111. They can help you plan how to deal with your creditors and they can protect you from the unpleasantness involved in dealing with collection agencies.

honeyblade

Thankyou all again

I had a letter from HS today saying that although one dbt is "satisfied" and the other they accept is well ahead of the scheduled repayments they see it as a default and it remains on my credit history for 6 years.
I was feeling so good about having paid £120 instead of £40 this week don't ask me how I saved this much this week..
now I feel like nothing again.
its so ard..
now I feel like nothing again..