Drowning.... almost....

captainhaggis

Greetings one and all. I've spent the past few hours reading over the stories from others who, like myself, are struggling with debts. I've laughed, I've cried and I've pondered deeply. Now, though, I thought I'd share my own story and give you an overview of the situation I find myself in.

Here is my SOA. You'll notice that some of the unsecured debts have (Arrangement) noted beside them. This indicated that I'm currently in payment arrangements with the creditors. This is why I haven't added APRs next to some of the debts - I'm not being charged interest.



Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1900
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 400
Total monthly income.................... 2300

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 706.27
Secured loan repayments................. 126.02
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold flat)...... 38.98
Council tax............................. 122
Electricity............................. 15
Gas..................................... 15
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 80
TV Licence.............................. 10
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 25
Groceries etc. ......................... 50
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 300
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 13
Life assurance ......................... 20
Other insurance......................... 10
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Second Mortgage on Rental Property...... 216.58
Total monthly expenses.................. 1777.85

Assets
Cash.................................... 2000
House value (Gross)..................... 290000
Shares and bonds........................ 200
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 292200

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 48746....(706.27)...5.29
Secured Debt.................. 11000....(126.02)...12.51
Second Mortgage................140630....-.........6.09
Total secured debts........... 200376....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Amex...........................446.28....12........17.9
Amex...........................941.92....24........17.9
Smile (Arrangement)............4654.21...50........0
Littlewoods....................723.65....35........0
M&S Money......................785.56....25........23.9
LTSB (Arrangement).............12938.9...117.......0
LTSB (Arrangement).............5988.17...50.15.....0
Virgin (Arrangement)...........5000.28...43........0
Egg (Arrangement)..............5800......60........0
Smile (Arrangement)............4555.36...50........0
Total unsecured debts..........41834.33..466.15....-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,300
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 1,777.85
Available for debt repayments........... 522.15
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 466.15
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ 56

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 292,200
Total Secured debt...................... -200,376
Total Unsecured debt.................... -41,834.33
Personal net worth...................... 49,989.67

Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission.


Now, I think some of the arrangements I have with creditors are about to come to an end. I've kept up my payments for over a year with all of them and they all seem happy. I've spoken to Lloyds recently and they're very helpful the majority of the time.

Is it worth me sticking to the current arrangements and just writing to them to ask that they are extended, or should I seek advice from CCCS and perhaps get something put in to place with them?

I can fairly regularly make over-payments to the debts but not all the time, so I don't want to increase my repayments greatly incase I have a bad month.

I had some investments on the go that I had hoped would clear these debts entirely, but those investments have gone awry and I won't get the return I had hoped for - if anything.

I have two properties - one I live in (but will rent out soon to make more money available for creditors) and another that's currently rented out and generating about £120.00 a month of profit (included in the above figures). I don't want to sell these and I cannot seem to get secured loans against them because of my bad credit file.

Any advice from anyone as to a next step?

Cheers

**Amy**

:hello:

Welcome to DFW and congrats on posting.

Im not very savvy with regards to SOAs, so will leave that to the experts.

floss2

Hello,

Just a couple of things to suggest:

Gas & electric of £15 a month? That seems quite low....have you had your meters read recently?
Mobile bill of £80 - change your tariff or cut down
No car expenses - I take it you don't have a car?
Travel expenses of £300 - can this be cut by buying a weekly or monthly ticket?
Rental property mortgage - is there any income from this property?

RedDino308

Hi CaptainHaggis,

Amy is right - there are a lot of very helpful people here so I'm sure that they can help.

One immediate thought - £80/month for a mobile phone is a lot of money. It is worth looking through the various boards about how you bring that down dramatically.

RedDino308

captainhaggis

floss2 wrote: »

Gas & electric of £15 a month? That seems quite low....have you had your meters read recently?

I spend very little time at home. Two, three days a week maybe.

floss2 wrote: »

Mobile bill of £80 - change your tariff or cut down

Absolutely sound advice. Just renewed my contract but should be able to change it soon. Will do so ASAP.

floss2 wrote: »

No car expenses - I take it you don't have a car?

I don't. Phew.

floss2 wrote: »

Travel expenses of £300 - can this be cut by buying a weekly or monthly ticket?

Nope. I wish. If anything, this cost may increase shortly. Not by much, though.

floss2 wrote: »

Rental property mortgage - is there any income from this property?

Yeah. I've included it in my "additional income" bit. It generates about £120.00 a month in 'profit' so I put that in to the debt payment pot.

- massive thanks for all of the replies so far. I really appreciate your words of wisdom and hope to be able to get out of this mess with your support!

RAS

Hi

What sort of sums do you need to keep the properties in a good state of repair?

And I would strongly advise throwing anything you can at the M&S card first as the APR is horrid and your minimum is unlikely to be touching the capital value. Then work on the AMEX cards.

Can you get a bit of monet together from a car boot, e-bay or amazon?

captainhaggis

RAS wrote: »

Hi

What sort of sums do you need to keep the properties in a good state of repair?

And I would strongly advise throwing anything you can at the M&S card first as the APR is horrid and your minimum is unlikely to be touching the capital value. Then work on the AMEX cards.

Can you get a bit of monet together from a car boot, e-bay or amazon?

Hi there. Nice idea. To be honest, I'll probably be able to clear off the M&S and Amex cards within the next two months. You're right - I should try and shift those.

I think what's been stopping me taking care of them so far is that I've been trying to get rid of the debts I have arrangements on because of the fear of one day the creditor coming to me saying "right, end of the arrangement - we want three hundred quid".

I could eBay some crap to raise some extra moolah, I guess. Nice idea there.

EDIT : as for keeping the properties in a good state of repair, to be honest, I don't need much. One of them is occupied by a friend who I give a good rate to in return for a cash-in-hand deal (no agent fees) and he takes care of the place completely.

The other is a new build and little is likely to go wrong with it anytime soon. If it does, I'll find a way of dealing with it.

thebillet

I looked at this and thought that there is a lot of risk being taken with such an approach; i.e. investments have gone awry and you still have two houses on which you are relying to pay debts. While making adjustments to outgoings you might make savings the issue that struck me was what happens if the assets that you have decrease in value? If such a thing were to happen this would be further compounded by lenders getting tougher. I am maybe being too pessimistic but I suppose if one is looking at all options you have to do just that and consider all options. Good luck with your efforts.

RAS

captainhaggis wrote: »

To be honest, I'll probably be able to clear off the M&S and Amex cards within the next two months.

I think what's been stopping me taking care of them so far is that I've been trying to get rid of the debts I have arrangements on because of the fear of one day the creditor coming to me saying "right, end of the arrangement - we want three hundred quid".

Have a play with the snowball on www.whatsthecost.com, because you will find that if you dispose f the cards with nasty APRs, you will have money to start dealing with the other stuff.

Debt147

Can you not use the £2000 cash you have to clear the debts (or at least some) you're paying high interest on such as the M&S one?

I agree with the others about the mobile, sure they'll let you change to a cheaper tariff, it's not like you're wanting to cancel the contract

Also - how come there's a £0 for buildings insurance???

Nala

Hi and welcome.

I know you say you don't want to sell either property but.......I'm not an expert and forgive me for saying this, I, personally, would consider selling one of the houses and clearing the debts outstanding.

You say you're hoping to rent out your current home. Where will you then live? Will you be renting? Sorry for being nosey

Edited to add....there are no water rates listed in your SOA - or entertainment, not even a little bit?