Help!!!!!!

tasha999

Hi everyone, I've been trailing through these threads and would like any advice on my own circumstances.

We currently owe £48970 on unsecured loans/credit cards to different creditors, we've just hit rock bottom. Since having my two children we have basically been living on credit! We recently wanted to consolodate with First Plus (which would have solved our problems) but we are apparantly in negative equity, We've spoken to all our creditors by phone and explained our predicament, most can't help till we are in arrears by 3 months. Northern rocks advice is to cancel our direct debits!!!!
AA have been great, they have offered us a payment holiday this month (which does help short term) and given us an expenditure form.
We're living on about £50 a week at the minute (for food, petrol, dinner money etc!)

Heres our SOA

Total income £2,360

Expenditure:
Mortgage £676
Water rates £27
Council tax £101
Gas £40
Electricity £40
Building and contents insurance £18
Telephone, mobile & internet £40
TV licence £12
Satellite £18
Childcare £40
Life insurance/pensions £22
Road tax £15
Motor insurance £26
Fuel & parking £90
Driving Lessons £80

Loans etc...

AA Personal Loan £233
Blackhorse loan £160
M and S Personal Loan £196
Northern Rock Personal Loan £170
Studio Catalogue £20
Kays Catalogue £30
look again Catalogue £60
TSB Personal loan £39
TSB credit card £40 (£1500 balance)
TSB credit card £50 (£2000 balance)

tsb Overdraft £1,000
tsb Credit Card £1,500

We also owe money to my parents :embarasse (about £500)

We are up to date with most, except the northern rock loan, we missed this months payment. and the catalogues! I'm behind by a months paymemt. (i'm yet to speak to them)

I went to the cccs site this morning, they advised am IVA but I'm a bit concerned about this.


We can't borrow any more money and need to deal with this now, any advice would be greatly appreciated.
(Apologisies if this seems like info overload)

Tesco_points_addict

Hi Tasha
I just wanted to say you are making the right moves, realising you have a problem and posting on here for advice is a great start to solving your problems. ~Someone who knows far more than me will be along soon to give you great advice.
Have you spoken to C.A.B?
Anyone goog luck i'm sire you can do this, many others have got out of similar debt with help from the lovely people on here
Good Luck
TPA x
P.S it is a bit quiet on here at this time of day but hang in there someone will be along soon x

rayday2

You could ring the CCCS and say that the internet remedy came out as IVA but you are concerned about it and could you talk about a DMP instead.

A DMP means you pay everyone back but they negoitate and stop or lower interest for you. You pay them what you can afford rather than the minimum payments. The benefits of this are that you keep your house and you are able to afford all your bills etc, the downside is that you could be paying a number of years but at a rate you can afford so don't get scared!

Lucky escape with First Plus wish I had had one instead of taking the loan out with them!

looby-loo_2

Hello, As #2 says, someone will be along soon. You haven't put food on the list. Have you looked on the Old Style board? They are amazing at cutting weekly food costs down to virtually nothing!
There's still time to grow some fruit and veg - and it's a great cheap hobby too and cheaper than the gym. It could save you quite a bit come autumn.

WorkingHardDFW

Hi tasha999 and welcome - the hardest part is facing up to your debt as I am sure anyone on here will tell you.

I'm not sure I can offer any advice ref the DMP/IVA situation but I am sure lots of the friendly experts on here can.

From what you've posted up on your SOA your outgoings are more or less equal to your income which is a positive. However my comment would be that you appear to have missed off quite a bit from your SOA which I am sure you spend things like birthdays, christmas, holidays, haircuts, clothes etc. Based on my experiences (my debt is now similar to yours but was much higher as you can see from my signature) money gets spent on these things and if you don't budget for them then it's spent on CC - again based on my experience.

Ref your debts on your post you might want to show the total owing and the interest rate plus on the loans the term of the loan.

I totally understand how having children can affect your financial balance. Since I went part-time we've struggled and on reflection our financial issues started back then - not that there is anyone to blame but myself and OH.

You may be at rock bottom now but to coin an often used phrase the only way is up - good luck

10past6

Hi Tash

Welcome to the forum, what I suggest you do now, send this letter off to all your creditors, including a token payment of £1.00.

Then contact one of the debt free charities and take their advice, click here for details.

This is the letter for your creditors, just one thing, no point in phoning any of them re your current situation, most people you speak to are in a call centre, they do have have the authority to reduce your payments, save yourslef the time and hassel, it's will be easier to send the letter:

Your Address


Date


Creditor / DCA address

Dear Sir/Madam

Re Account No/Reference No:− XXXXXXXXXXXX

Since making that above agreement with you, our circumstances have changed.

We cannot now afford to agreed monthly payments because ... [your paragraph added here]

We enclose a Personal Budget sheet which shows our total income from all sources, and the total outgoings of our household. As you can see we have no money left to make offers of payment to my creditors.

In view of our circumstances, would you please accept no payment at present to be reviewed in six months. If interest or other charges are being added to the account, we would be grateful if you would freeze these so our debt does not increase.

Should my circumstances improve we will contact you again.

Thank you for your assistance. We look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

Yours faithfully

moxie_2

Try Payplan for a DMP - I've been with them for some years now. The relief of just having one payment to make per month (you pay them and then they divide it up amongst your creditiors) that you can afford and not having creditors hassle is immense. Also have a look at your expenditure. Do you really need Sky?? Get Freeview instead. Also £80 per month on driving lessons is a lot, are they really necessary?

tasha999

Thanks looby-loo, our weekly foods cost are practically nothing at the minute! I have just a tin of peaches in my cupboard!!! I'm quite good at cooking cheap meals. Aldi is also the best shop near us.

WorkingHardDFW

Plus food of course as looby-loo says

tasha999

moxie wrote: »

Try Payplan for a DMP - I've been with them for some years now. The relief of just having one payment to make per month (you pay them and then they divide it up amongst your creditiors) that you can afford and not having creditors hassle is immense. Also have a look at your expenditure. Do you really need Sky?? Get Freeview instead. Also £80 per month on driving lessons is a lot, are they really necessary?

I've just got off the phone with payplan, (they got back really quick ~ i'm impressed!) I've got a phone meeting for tommorrow morning to look at my situation.

I'm on the lowest package for sky and thats for the kids, they don't get much else!
The driving lessons are essential, I really need to drive for my job, if I ever want to earn more that is!!!

When I looked at CCCS debt remedy, my surplus income was £603, all of which would be used to pay for a DMP each month. I thought this seemed pretty steep, since this would take a minimum of 7 years to pay off, Some of my loans/catalogues would be off in a year anyway.

klane

Welcome! :hello:

Didn't want to read and run, so some of my thoughts (others will post who are wiser than me!)...

Can you post a full Statement Of Affairs? There's a link in one of the stickies at the top of the board - fill in as much as you can. Also include the APRs on your loans & credit cards and the balance outstanding on each (not just monthly payment).

Have you seen the Quidco site yet? https://www.quidco.com - it' a cash back site - good for when you switch insurance, and all sorts of things! Well worth half an hour of browsing to see where you can use it. It's made me £250 back in the last 6 weeks!

Also - have you checked if you are on the best deal for gas/elec? Check out some of the comparison sites (Martin has links in the main MSE site).

Can you shop around for driving lessons and get cheaper? Are they essential?

Where do you grocery shop at? eg, Tesco club card vouchers I'm sure have an offer for driving lessons, might be worth looking at if you shop there?

Ditch satellite TV and have freeview? Or is there a cheaper deal you could do by doing a multi-packge for TV, internet, and landline? (eg, we have Virgin for all 3 for £30 a month, and they have cheaper options than that as well I think)

Is the mobile(s) pre-pay or contract? If contract, can you reduce the usage/tariff?