Please help

wasntgoodenough

Hi there,

I'm hoping for some advice, I posted here a month ago but didn't set out all my debts then. My mind is on meltdown and I almost can't add numbers up... but I will list below my financial position and maybe someone could tell me a way out that I havent thought about...or maybe I really am trapped.

I have to admit that all this debt came out of irresponsibility and inability to hold down a job for years. Now the irony is that I have been working continuously for 6 months (which is the longest I have been able to hold down a job in my life), and seem to be doing ok and hope to keep improving etc. I started attending an evening class in psychology once a week, which has helped me to deal with depression. Now I can say I am not at all depressed, just extremely anxious and going mad over money problems. I come home from work tired and satisfied with the newfound productivity but still really anxious about money.

I work as a receptionist and take home around £850 per month, which should be enough for living but not enough for paying money towards loans. With loan repayments my monthly outgoing is probably about £1300. I have been borrowing from my credit card to pay my loans. I was closing my eyes and relying on prospects that I wasn't able to make happen in the end. I am trying to work as a portrait painter but amidst all these problems I couldn't relax and just paint.

My debts:
£ 17,500 HSBC Graduate Personal Loan, towards which I pay £270 p/m - never missed a payment. (it started at around £25,000)
£ 6,700 HSBC Mastercard. I have £1,300 credit left.
£ 1,500 HSBC overdrawn current account. (maxed up)

£650 overdrawn Abbey National account (total allowed overdraft £1,500)

£7000 owed to a loan shark (this is the worst of all) which is the stupidest thing I have ever done in my life. I tried to pay it off but after paying around £800 in the first 5 months she told me that that was just interest. She has done all the terrorizing I should have expected (constant public humiliation etc.) I have had to move to a new place because of it.

My expenses per month:

450 Rent and Bills
120 Food
120 Travelcard
100 Miscellaneous.
========
790 per month.

What I am planning to do now is:

Put all the remaining HSBC Mastercard credit of £1300 into my Abbey Account so that at least that account becomes normal.
Cancel the direct debit from my Abbey account towards my HSBC Graduate Personal Loan and Mastercard.
Then try to get into a written agreement with HSBC? to pay a token amount for 2 years say? (would they agree to that?) or just pay token amounts for now.

Then what? I don't know. How long can I keep paying token amounts without getting sued by HSBC?

I hope to someday be able to heal my credit rating and get a loan to pay the loan shark.

Or I hope that in two years time I would have improved job-wise /have a good track record etc and get a better job....

I've got no answers, all I want is to get my Abbey account out of the red and then make it just pay for normal expenses plus a £40 token amount to HSBC. That would give me 'savings' of £20 - which is a pathetic amount but would really help my self esteem....

Please tell me a better way to deal with this.
Thank you.

Triker

Hello and welcome hun, and try to let go of some of that worry. It's not doing you any good you know?;)

Ok, firstly the good news is that you have your job and a regular income.

It appears that you have a grip of the facts if not the whole answers (yet) on the best way to tackle your debts.

I have to say I'm intrigued with the loan shark business....unfortunately don't know enough re this area but do you have any paperwork at all re this. Maybe have Citizens advice take a look. I would have thought that these people (loan sharks) want the least 'official' people scrutinizing their stuff as possible.

100 Miscellaneous. Now you know us better than that surely ......come on, details sweetie, so we can have a proper looksy for you and the finaincial wizards can come up with some suggestions.

Other than that at the mo I can't think straight either but thats down to inebriation and tiredness.....sorry;) .

Mollymop5

I've no constructive advice to give, but I'm sure someone will be along soon.Just wanted to let you know that someone was reading should bump it up too.

tealady

Hi. I would suggest that you contact the police re the loan shark, they are illegal money lenders and will use all kinds of threats to keep you in debt. Also
contact these people at Birmingham City Council
Telephone: 0121 693 1122
E mail: [EMAIL="stoploansharks@birmingham.gov.uk"]stoploansharks@birmingham.gov.uk[/EMAIL]
or Text: loan (space) sharks (space) your message to 60003.
The web site address is www.birmingham.gov.uk if you want further info.
Hope this helps

StressedSteph

Morning hun,
If you can please post up a full SOA, so the great people who saved my life on this forum can sort you out too.

Things can be sorted, just make sure you keep that job going :-)))

Onthe loan shark issue - I am abit naive about these sorts of things, but have you tried to applied for a regular safe loan to pay these guys off. Anyway possible to just get rid of them??? I would certainly get some advice quickly on this matter as it sounds abit scary and VERY illegal.

Take care, anything financial situation can be sorted somehow, just hang in there xxx

natlie

Hi
I would immediately reduce all you credit limits to stop you getting any more in debt, call up your lenders and put it down to the minimum. You can't rely on that as it is not your money.

Don't pay off you overdraft with your credit card unless its a 0% balance transfer, otherwise it is going to cost you more. call CAB about the loan shark.

Nat

Luckystepho

Hi

Keep up the painting- this could be a profitable side line for you, and help you pay the debts even quicker!

wasntgoodenough

:mad: The truth is there are other things I am dealing with now that even though they are not really problems will have to take up a lot of my time so the things I can make a decision about today (by tonight) I want to decide on now.

This is because I have put off a lot of things and didn't foresee that they would all come together by end of February - if they came one by one say two months apart I would have been alright. But I guess that is what they did last year, and I ignored them all.

My contract at my current houseshare ends this month and I have been househunting. I already decided on a flat that isnt really that ideal but I just decided it is necesary that I make a decision today, so that is what I have done. My rent at current flat is paid up till end of Feb but decided to move by tomorrow in spite of losing 2 weeks because end of Feb will pose more problems, so I better have been unpacked and reasonably settled in by the time I have to deal with them. I dont get my wages till 1st of March so this means I need £650 straight up to pay rent and deposit to my new room tomorrow night.

Since my Abbey and HSBC accounts are both overdrawn and Abbey have been warning me about my income being lower than what is actually eligible for a £1500 overdraft facility I try to keep my Abbey overdraft unused. So I thought I would take £650 from my HSBC Mastercard to clear the Abbey overdraft, and another £650 to pay the rent and deposit tomorrow evening. That would leave my HSBC Mastercard maxed out, but I need to make this decision tonight, otherwise I can't move out.

Then tomorrow I plan to instruct Abbey to stop my direct debits to HSBC. I plan to deal with HSBC end of March. You see I have had as much as I can take already (have an immigration application pending pls see below). What I need advice about is the repercussions of this and will Abbey actually be able to stop the direct debits before 1st March? (which is when they are due to come out.)

Between March and May I might actually get some income that would allow me to partly pay my arrears with HSBC. I spoke with them 2 weeks ago and they absolutely refused to consolidate the credit card and graduate loan. They said I could go into a managed loan agreement which I have looked at and is like an IVA only a much shorter term one. Instead of doing anything like this with HSBC I plan to call the National Debt Helpline but I will call them mid April not now because now,

I have 2 big things to face, the biggest is my immigration status (sorry to mention this), which is all okay except in the application I submitted last January I was required to show some earnings/savings - that I wont be a burden on the welfare system etc) I only had my monthly earnings to show...which is pretty low, so I might get asked for more documents and go through an appeal process from end of Feb to end of March.

The other thing is I have coursework due for my Psychology evening classes, by end of March, that would require a lot of reading and writing for the next 6 weeks. It is the thing everyone tells me I should just give up first but the truth is these classes were the only thing that made me feel human the last few months, and probably also the months to come, so I really want to do well on it. I don't think I could deal with just cutting this off / not completing the course since I kind of invested a lot of emotion on these classes...I mean they really really helped me to take stock of my life so far etc...and the essay required would be like a summary of things learned etc...which I really want to do....

About the loan shark I guess I just have to keep out of her radar for now. I know I have to pay what I owe, since I really do owe it. There is no paperwork at all actually. I can tell the whole story I guess in a separate post but the above things...I just really need to decide on by tonight so really really need advice...
.
The main thing I want to know is (assuming cancelling the direct debits would take effect before 1st March when the next payment is due) can you see any short and long term repercussions of this that I am not seeing now. For instance would HSBC at some point have the right to monitor my earnings and take from it in case it goes over the usual amount (eg like in an IVA?) Will they be able to get access to my Abbey account in the end? I think that in about 3 or 4 months I can start paying arrears to them...but I am not sure.

I wont qualify for 0% BT because I am not a UK resident yet...though I have lived here 10 years...I wont be one till next year...if the current application goes alright.

My contract at my job ends March 31st (I started in Oct) and I am not sure if they will renew me. I will know by 1st week of March what their decision is. My performance was really bad at first but now it is okay...so I don't know what's gonna happen. I really hope I get another 6 months with them because I have settled into the job now and can prove myself to be more efficient now (I am receptionist and secretary to 3 bosses so it turned out to be not as simple as answering phones as I thought).

I havent been able to paint but plan to go back to it when my Psychology course finishes in mid March.

I should have sorted all of this out a long time ago...and left just my coursework to contend with...but here it is now. I just want to know what you think about cancelling the direct debits...I have no access to 0% credit. My only lifeline seems to be the HSBC Mastercard at the moment.

wow so sorry about all this! thanks for reading up to here. I want to post an SOA and will be working towards it. I have to admit I have many unopened bills. I will be sorting this out as soon as I move to the new place. I wanted to postpone moving butI have a really stupid and unnecessary problem at this flat. One of my flatmates who had been having fits at 5am each morning - throwing furniture etc (it is just her thing when for instance she finds the sink hasnt been wiped down till totally dry. If it has there is always something else that she hates). Now she is doing it in the day as well. I should have moved out the day after I moved in 6 months ago. I regret not having done that. She recently told me the latest Brad Pitt film about "family murder" is a warning to her by someone who wants to murder her, and we have to fetch her at the bus stop every night because she is afraid of walking home alone. I was concerned about her at first but now she hates me because I dropped some coffee on the cooker top and didnt notice it/didnt wipe it. Her tantrums have been getting really unpredictable, occuring throughout the evening instead of just 5am like before. I just think there are many reasons I should move out of this place now.