£62,000 in unsecured debt!

mpusssm

Merlot wrote: »

Don't take this the wrong way, but with £62,000 debt, you are going to have to do something and it will mess up your credit rating, but that shouldn't be a huge problem, you are not wanting any more credit, or you?

When does your fix rate on the mortgage end?

Merlot.x.

Very true - i do not want any more credit at the moment.

My fixed rate ends 2012.

PS - just found a way to call tunisia for 8p per minute!!!!! (mobile issue solved)

THANK YOU ALL!

sabs x

10past6

mpusssm wrote: »

Will that not start to panic the lenders? I don't want to mess up my credit record...

Merlots answered, but going by your SOA, you have very little cash to spare, so there’s going to come a time in the not to distant future when your credit rating is going to be affected, even if you miss a couple of monthly payments somewhere, your credit rating will be affected.

mpusssm

10past6 wrote: »

OK, go to this website here, register, they have a Tunisia forum, ask in there about any deals for calling Tunisia, someone will know the answer.

Just found a way to call tunisia for 8p per minute! thats fantastic. I think it costs about 90p per minute at the moment.

Thank you so much

Bayblue

mpusssm wrote: »

You make good sense. I do earn a decent salary (about £50k) and that is the only reason we haven;t been missing any payments, yet. My concern is that if you look at the history, everytime i get a promotion, is when i fact i start to splash out and borrow more money.

10past6 has just given me details of a forum that hopefully will get me info on cheaper calls to tunisia and that would obviously make a big difference...

The only other solution that i can see is to get a part time job... ?

Sabs

Yep, you're right you could get a part time job, but remember that in itself could bring extra expenses and will definately add extra stress, it's a possibility though I agree. Before you go down the route though I strongly suggest that you look at reducing your outgoings because as you said youself, when you earn more money you tend to spend more, and that's the behaviour and way of thinking that you need to start working on changing. You need to start changing the way you think about money. There are many ways that you can make good savings on your household and living expenses and in a lot of cases you won't even notice any differences. As I said there will be lots of advice in the next few days so I'd follow it all up if I were you and you could find that you don't need to get an extra job.

I agree also that if your bills and debts are not in arrears at all then perhaps it's best that you don't send off any letters to your creditors just yet, after all you wouldn't want to damage your credit rating.

Merlot

mpusssm wrote: »

Very true - i do not want any more credit at the moment.

My fixed rate ends 2012.

PS - just found a way to call tunisia for 8p per minute!!!!! (mobile issue solved)

THANK YOU ALL!

sabs x

I would call the CCCS or Payplan on Monday, (I'm not sure if they are open on Sunday).

When you need to remortgage your home you will more than likely need to speak to a independant Financial Advisor as your credit rating will be affected, there are mortgages out there for people with credit rating problems, I am just pleased to read you are not looking to remortgage this year with the current downturn in mortgage approvals in the subprime mortgage sector.

You have nothing to lose but a whole lot to gain by phoning one of the charities on Monday.

Do come back and let us know how you get on please.


Good news about mobile.

Merlot.x.

P.s I personally wouldn't send off the letter yet, speak to one of the charities first and stop spending unneccessarily, start a spending diary, note every pint of milk etc, it soon adds up.

mpusssm

Bayblue wrote: »

Yep, you're right you could get a part time job, but remember that in itself could bring extra expenses and will definately add extra stress, it's a possibility though I agree. Before you go down the route though I strongly suggest that you look at reducing your outgoings because as you said youself, when you earn more money you tend to spend more, and that's the behaviour and way of thinking that you need to start working on changing. You need to start changing the way you think about money. There are many ways that you can make good savings on your household and living expenses and in a lot of cases you won't even notice any differences. As I said there will be lots of advice in the next few days so I'd follow it all up if I were you and you could find that you don't need to get an extra job.

I agree also that if your bills and debts are not in arrears at all then perhaps it's best that you don't send off any letters to your creditors just yet, after all you wouldn't want to damage your credit rating.

Thank you again for your advice. I am starting to feel better already. I can see a glimer of light at the end of the debt tunnel.

TheKeyMaker

About Phone calls:
I travel a lot overseas and have many phone contacts. I use www.telediscount.co.uk for all my overseas calls. Just pick the country you want call to, choose if the destination is a landline or mobile phone and then dial. It works just like a phone card WITHOUT prepayment. One thing though: You have to call from a UK Landline; it doesn’t work from mobile phones.

Poosmate

Hi Sabs and welcome.

Regarding your Virgin Media, yesterday I was paying £42. I got a letter saying they were increasing this to £44.

I thought, NO! That's not right! So I looked on the Virgin Media website to see how much just the TV and BB would cost so I could get rid of the phone which I never use. Low and behold, there is an offer on there showing 2 for £25!! (But apparently that's not including line rental). Hmmm.. so it's not 2 for £25 then is it?!

So I called them (dial 150 from your virgin phone line it's free, thank heavens I was on for half an hour!) I told them I wanted their phoneline disconected and the 2 for £25 package. I was advised that for £30 I could keep the phone and change the number to my BT tele number (I've never been able to remember the virgin tele no and everyone has my BT number). So I said ok and was put through to someone else. I'd forgotten to ask what the phone package was (i.e. free w/e and eve calls), so I asked the next person I spoke to. There was no package - no free calls! I remebered then that's why I kept my BT line! So I told them not to change my phone number because the package was no good for me.

So the upshot is, I have the 3 for £30 package which includes TV (xl = all channels), BB (2mb) and a phoneline that will never be used!

My advice, get yourself online, have the virginmedia webpage open and call them and ask for what they are advertising on their own site! When they start adding on costs just say exactly what I said "Well it's not 2 for £25 then is it?" (not in a sarcastic or angry tone - just sound confused) then I said quietly as though thinking aloud "I wonder what Trading Standards would think" but make sure they hear the words TRADING STANDARDS.

Kerching! £67 to add to your pot!!!

Hope it works for you

Here's the link to the actual page

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/bundles/index.html

Hope that helps

Poo

MinBlack

Right I second what everyone has said regarding your TV package, mobile and phone calls, and food, these are huge and can be cut back dramatically. By spending some time concentrating on these it will be far more worthwhile than you getting a second job. You should be able to easily save over £300 a month here,

Your car and other travel costs though is your single largest expense, over £800 a month. This is more than you pay for your home! What is all this for and how is it broken down? What kind of car do you drive and what distances do you commute? Is there anywhere cheaper to park, I cut car parking costs in half by walking 5 minutes further each morning. Ask around where colleagues park and you may be able to find somewhere cheaper.

You do need to keep the spend diary and allocate where everything is going.

Can you sell any items on ebay/amazon in order to get a chunk to put towards one of your debts?

Good luck

hypno06

Hi there and welcome to the forum.

I am going to take a slightly different view - not necessarily the right one, but one to consider!

We had over £100k of unsecured debt on top of a substantial mortgage, with a combined income of less than you have.

We too, thought that there was nothing we could do, and enquired about IVAs and DMPs.

However, the thought of trashing my credit record completely really was not an option for me due to the nature of my job, so I made the choice to knuckle down and pay it come hell or high water.

This may not be "easy" but then nothing debt wise is......what it does take is commitment and effort.

Cutting things back, changing your lifestyle, re-educating yourself as to what is important to you when you are shopping, are all part of the journey.

If you acquaint yourself with these boards, you can get loads of ideas for making extra money that both you and OH can do - things like the free bingo have made lots of us useful cash, getting freebies, using quidco, etc etc.

For me, these are the things that have seen me through - my debt is scarily high still, but we don't miss payments, and we are not on a DMP, so when we come to move house etc, we still have options open to us regarding a mortgage, and with my job, I don't need to worry about my credit file being checked.

Speaking to CCCS or one of the others IS a good idea....no doubt about that...I have done it a couple of times, and they are non judgmental and very very helpful.

BUT, you can do this in another way, if you want to. Hard work, but it CAN be done.....I am proof of that!!!

Good luck, and keep posting - the support on these boards is fab!!