tell me not to panic

facingthefuture

been dealing with debts, its hard juggling when it makes you feel sick. I have made big strides in this since the end of January when I had my lightbulb moment but it's scary as hell.
Just called Sainsburys (one of my ccs)and realised my payments have barely covered the interest (18.9%) on a 6500kdebt). I am stretched to breaking point, they won't reduce my interest rate.
I don't want to go down iva bankruptcy routes, just gotta pay. My own stupid fault anyway.

Cleosmum

Have you managed to shave anything off the SOA you did in Jan? Maybe tweaking even a tiny bit would make things feel a bit easier? Have you put all the debts etc into the snowball calc? http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx see which you should be concentrating on etc. Looking at your SOA you have at least an extra £80 pm that you could throw at it. And dont panic!

busy_today_mate

I did that with Barclays they only reduced it when I said I was going to go elsewhere. I had to say that I was going to transfer my balance before they put me through to another department. I will give the boy his due he almost made me say it, then said that is what he wanted to hear. Try calling them again and telling them you are not happy etc and are going to transfer if they don't reduce the interest. Worth a phone call anyway.

Karmacat

Could you post your soa on here again? Or the updated soa, if you managed to work on it? We'll help if we can.

newlywed

If you are really stretched to breaking point, have you considered a DMP?

I am on one with CCCS - they don't charge anything as they are a charity so all my payments do go to my debts and a few months after it was negotiated, the interest and charges stopped too.

facingthefuture

Ok it was worth a go....called Sainsburys back.No luck . We have to get a mortgage late on in the year so I really need to sort these debts now and can't risk credit rating. The house we are getting will be worth over 200k but we will be able to have it for 60k (family thing), I'm hoping the tightening mortgage conditions will allow us the full 60k mortgage because the house will be worth so much more. I will work now on an updated soa, thats a good idea.
I HAD to pay son's £400 rent and 100 living last week...hes a student and he was literally hungry (spent a week eating noodles) worse he hasn't the money for next months rent due on the 17th(i am the guarentor). His last exam is on Tuesday then he says he is starting a job! Minimum wage but crikey, I can't cope much more.

I see these DMP things mentioned, I am not very sure what they are. Do they effect your credit rating?

facingthefuture

I have told son I need the dosh back from his next student loan/grant start of April.

Cleosmum

Doesnt he get help with rent and council tax etc? Is he getting all the help he is entitled to? What course is he doing, and would it come with a bursary? Can he apply for the top up, sorry cant think what its called! Each college/uni has a fund for people in dire need, might be called learner support fund? Check out if he can make an application.

newlywed

facingthefuture wrote: »

I see these DMP things mentioned, I am not very sure what they are. Do they effect your credit rating?

Yes they do affect credit rating, but not as badly as an IVA and to be honest, if you miss a payment because you can't pay all your minimums then that will affect your credit rating too

What happens is you contact Payplan or CCCS (the free charity ones) and you tell them your income and all your living expenses - eg rent, food, petrol, car tax, gas, electric, haircut, clothes etc etc. So all these things are budgeted for each month.

Then they work out how much is left to pay your debts and that is your monthly payment to contribute to ALL your debts. They then divide up that contribution so each debt gets a fair % based on how much you owe to each one.

Although if you do this, you have to agree not to take any more credit out and most creditors will cancel your credit cards etc.