It's making me so ill - please help!

padders_2

At the end of the holidays you have the £500 from childcare back. You can also cut Sky, Gym and broadband that gives you another £105.

Now on your first list you are paying £582 in debt payments. Are any of these going to end soon, ie what is the principal left on them? If you can get those all paid of, you would have £1,200 spare. That would take something like 2 years to pay of the rest of the debt, assuming you made no other cuts; or did some more work.

You can definitely get out of this; but only if you tell your husband, cut every bit of unneeded spending and start paying the debt back as quickly as possible. You also should get the debt off expensive credit cards as quickly as possible. Also, rip up every single credit card you have and never use them again.

bristolgymdude

hi keep going!!! what ever anyone says I went through a debt advice free agent in Bristol where I was told to go to default and then reach agreed settlement figures, which I did.2 years on I am still getting turned down for credit and being treated like a thief due to getting into debt. I would ask the question regarding myself should I had no paid off my debt I feel that I am being treated the same even though I do not owe a penny in debt any longer. Infact the Halifax are still saying I owe money when my credit file is there to prove that the debt was satisfied.
I have had enough of proving my innocence to owing money when I have paid it off. It will stay on your file for 6 yrs so I have also been told that I have to wait 6 yrs even though I have paid all the satisfied debts
Good luck dont sale your house like I did to pay of debts yet to feel that that has now gone and I am still being treated the same.

stressedoutmumof1

How do I go about approaching the companies I have hid from for a year. What should I say to them?

Also bear in mind that £400 will come out of hubbies wages on the overdraft before we even start next month!! And I also have to buy my daughter new school shoes and a new winter coat!!

padders_2

Talk to those organisations that are mentioned in all the threads, they will tell you how to talk to those companies, but I wouldn't worry about it - its exactly what they want. They want you to pay them the money, they are not going to be angry at you for wanting to start paying. I am sure you are a bit embarassed about the situation you are in, but you shouldn't. You made a mistake but are now doing the much harder thing which is fixing it. That takes lot of courage which you clearly have. Don't worry about the companies; all they want is their money and you are now going to be sorting that out - in the end everyone will be happy, you debt free without this horrible stress and they have their money. It will take effort and dedication but you can definitely do it. You definitely have quite a bit of debt, but if you are sensible you can definitely get it paid off as well.

padders_2

One thing that might be worth checking is if you can get a mortgage holiday for a month or two. Your mortgage is probably your lowest rate so if you can skip a month or two and put all that money to paying of the horrible CC debt you will immediatly put yourself in a better situation. This is the sort of advice phoning up an expert can properly advise you on - just reorganising your debt could save you thousands and thousands of pounds.

BWZN93

Id recommend phoning your local CAB to make an appointment, which usually takes a few weeks as there are lots of us needing them. Once you have done that, sit down with all the paperwork, and work everything out to take with you to see the CAB. I would imagine that you will need to arrange a payment plan with all of the creditors, which can easily be done by yourself with the guidance of CAB. You need to work out a realistic budget and must stick to it, get rid of the luxuries, and find ways of cutting the costs of the essentials, like utilities, phones, and food.

There is a budget planner at the top of this thread - thats a good place to start if you havent done so already.

At the CAB, they will advise you/give you a copy of a standard type letter to use to all your creditors to arrange payments, at a rate that is affordable - some may try and force you to pay more, but stick to your guns and they will accept.

Finally, I recommend getting a good filing system in order for all the bills etc, it makes life a lot easier to deal with when its all in one box, as opposed to all over the place. The fear is the unknown - dont worry, you'll be in good hands with the CAB, with the lovely people on here, and with your family - once things are getting sorted and are on track, you will feel so much better.

Jo xx

Good people to talk to: http://www.cccs.co.uk/ and please dont go to debt consolidator type companies - even where they advertise their services as free, as they are a company and make money for themselves - everything they can do, you can do for free, and CCCS is a good place to start for information.

Jo xx

stressedoutmumof1

Thanks for that!

One other question - will I have to give the credit companies by phone number - or can I do everything in writing. I don't think I have the courage to actually speak to someone!!! :A

jen_jen_2

you need to take immediate action regarding the wages, get a new bank account opened and pay the money in there this will ensure you are starting from £2702 and not less £400

also look at your bills this way:
Outgoings
Mortgage - £875
Council Tax - £115
Landline - £60 (until amount paid off - then reducing to £30)
Car Loan - £106
TV (HP) - £34
Car Insurance - £49
Home Insurance - £27
Life Insurance - £27
Mortgage Life Insurance - £12
Childcare - £500 (only because it's school holidays - after holidays I don't pay anything)
Food shopping - £320
Petrol - £50
Gym Membership - £39.50
Sky - £51
Loan to Dad - £100
BT Broadband - £15.99


Total Outgoings: - £2831

income less expenditure £2702 - £2831 = £321 to pay all of the below
Bank overdraft (you now have a new account that is not overdrawn)
Barclaycard - £88
Egg Card - £60
Egg Card - £10
Next Directory (Credit Collection Agency) - £50
Loan - £168
Citibank Credit Card - £4500
RBS Credit Card - £4000
Barclaycard - £2000
Morgan Stanley Card - £1500
Lloyds TSB Card - £2500
Accucard - £2500
Capital One Card - £1200
Empire Catalogue - £1500
Great Universal Catalogue - £1500
Studio Catalogue - £400
Argos Card - £800
Adams Card - £900
Dorothy Perkins - £800
Additions Direct - £900

what you do is share the £300 between them all, yes you will default and yes it will affect your credit rating but they will accept the offers. This will reduce the stress on you and leave you enough money to eat, live etc.

do not contact gregory pennington they will take a % of the £300 each month and it will take longer to clear the debt call national debtline or CAB and they will do the same for free. if you are embarressed about calling them and offering £5 a month these agencies will do it for you.

final note, i do think there are some savings to be made in your essential expenditure side eg sky etc and i dont think you can go through this process and keep it secret from other half, you will feel much better if you come clean about the lot, stress of him not knowing gone, stress of creditors gone.

you happy and healthy

Little_Miss_Winner

I think that ringing them will be a lot more quicker, then writing letters backwards and forwards. If you rang cccs, or have a look at their website as Jo suggests, maybe you will pluck up the courage to ring them. You have nothing to lose.
Put it on your list of things to do tomorrow. It will probably feel very nerveracking, but you will be at the end of a phoneline.......

regards, and stick with it :T

pot

BWZN93

stressedoutmumof1 wrote:

Thanks for that!

One other question - will I have to give the credit companies by phone number - or can I do everything in writing. I don't think I have the courage to actually speak to someone!!! :A

Yes - you can! If they hassle you by phone, the best thing to do is tell them there and then that you will only deal with them by mail, and write to all of them telling them so too - and CAB will probably tell you this too - its better as there is a written paper trail and is proveable - keep the recorded delivery slips in a safe place! If they call again, tell them by mail only again, and put the phone down.

CCCS are great to deal with by phone, not at all scary, they just want to help, and id recommend calling CAB/CCCS to get things moving, ideally, you want to get this set up as quickly as possible to prevent further credit rating damage, and the quicker it is done, the less likely debts will be transferred over to collection companies.

Jen_Jen's advice is good too, although depending on current credit ref info you may have difficulties opening a regular bank account, but there is always the basic bank accounts that give a cash card and no o/d facility, which are really useful for budgeting as you cant go overdrawn unless a dd is presented and cant be paid.

Do you have online banking? It might be a good idea to take a look at all your dd's and so's and see what the dates are, and try and renegotiate them to be paid on the 1st of the month, that way you know whats in the account for the rest of the month and none should bounce.

A final bit of advice that I can think of off the top of my head is to get hold of your credit reports, you can get them for £2 (statutory fee) from Equifax - online here and by mail here

and Experian - Online and by mail here - for print off and mail, click online and scroll down the page a bit and there is a link that says 'application form'. Its a good idea to get them as it will allow you to find out if any action has been taken already, if so, by who, when, and for how much; and if there is nothing on there then you might be able to protect that, although there may be some default marks which are better than CCJ's I suppose!

Take care, and good luck! If you need to know anything else then please shout up!

Jo xx