£57k in credit card debt

marksandsparksgal

Oops, also forgot the Snowball calculator at https://www.whatsthecost.com ... this shows you how to prioritize paying things off, and which is the best way to do it.

Lissof476

Thank you all for being so kind and not judging us, I have our income and expenditure on MS excel will transfer onto this forum and maybe there may be an area were we can save a little more,

Thanks to everyone
Janet:T

marksandsparksgal

janet_jones828 wrote: »

Thank you all for being so kind and not judging us, I have our income and expenditure on MS excel will transfer onto this forum and maybe there may be an area were we can save a little more,

Thanks to everyone
Janet:T

You are extremely welcome! Just remember, you're not alone, and by wanting to tackle the problem, you're already halfway there.

poppyg_2

janet_jones828 wrote: »

Thank you all for being so kind and not judging us, I have our income and expenditure on MS excel will transfer onto this forum and maybe there may be an area were we can save a little more,

Thanks to everyone
Janet:T

You're very welcome Janet, look forward to seeing your SOA

Chin up, am sure everything will be fine

in2deep_2

Hiya janet... your situation is virtually the same as mine so your not as alone as you felt when you first posted.;)

HHH_2

I just wanted to say how impressed i am with what you have achieved. it sounds like you are doing a sort of self managed dmp.I would talk to CCCS who may be able to help further. please dont feel embarrased about phoning them after all you have been very brave speaking to your creditors ( I let CCCS do that for me!) they know everything there is to know about debt ( apart from martin of course!) and are totally non judgmental. another (professional) opinion cant do any harm.

scooterwife

Have to agree with HHH. CCCS are wonderful, and if you read the posts on here are non judgemental ( and even cope with crying!). They will not judge you.
we are on a dmp that finishes (currently) in 2019 (I think - see signature line) but my way of thinking is that we didn't get in this mess overnight, and we can't expect to get out of it overnight either (trying same approach with weight-loss actually:rotfl: - not always so successful!)

We are only in debt, we have not committed murder!

SO ... we deserve a reasonable life, without having to work every hour of the day and night to repay the debt. (I know there are those who disagree, but his is only MY opinion, for what it's worth)
My family time is important to me, and I intend to repay all of my debts as fast as I can, but not to the exclusion of everything else.

An SOA can help with your budget, to see if anyone else can find ways of easily reducing outgoings, but the CCCS budget is designed to allow for a manageable way of coping day to day and reducing debts.
Good Luck

JackyHappy

Hello

Poor luv. You've done the best thing coming on here, I joined yesterday and already I've been inundated with excellent advice. You're not alone, there's so much support and advice it's just too wonderful.:j

Best of luck

janet_jones828 wrote: »

Hello, half witted, head in the sand thats me !, have got myself into massive debt £57k across 7 credit cards - no big purchases just living beyond my means for 4 years and then using one card to pay off another etc etc.

Anyway 6 months ago I decided enough was enough cut all the cards up , got rid of all non essential outgoings - sky, mobile phones, eating out, & reduced weekly shopping bills etc.
I wrote to each credit card company giving full details of my income & expenditure and advised all of them I had £340 left each month after all essentials had been paid (mortgage, house/car insurance, food, heating council tax etc) I split this £340 between them all based on % of my total debt with them, they all accepted & agreed to stop all charges (sounds easy but it wasn't) some of the debts were transferred to debt collecting agencies - but I have never had a visit from any of them ! thank goodness.

My problem is this debt is going to take 14 years to clear ( I cannot afford to pay .01p more) are there any rules around how long a debt can be repaid over with hindsight I am not sure I have done the right thing ? maybe I should have tried to get the balances reduced by attempting to get late payment charges interest etc knocked off before I offered a monthly amount.

I look forward to your advice & would welcome any comments - and yes I have been very very foolish I totally agree,
Regards
Janet

WorkingHardDFW

Hi & welcome

You've taken the hardest step -facing up to your debts. You'll find loads of people on this site in a similar situation so they will know exactly how you are feeling.

I can't offer any help with the IVA/CCCS situation since we are lucky enough to be able to manage without but it was touch and go at one point.

Posting your SOA on here will give the very friendly experts on here the opportunity to assist with where you can cut back/reduce/save and of course the ways of upping your income. It can really be a case of every little penny helps.

I found having small goals to aim for has been a great help. Rather than constantly thinking we're £40K in debt :eek: we aim for clearing one target cc at a time. This seems to make it easier to focus from one month to the next.

Keeping a spending diary has also been fantastic. Our debt like yours came from general overspending over a number of years and the spending diary I started in Jan (when we were pretty MSE savvy already) is still showing up where the money goes.

Good luck on your journey...............:rolleyes: