Desperate, am I in the wrong place?

GeorgeUK

We've created a monster :eek:

Hope you're keeping hubby in the loop about what you're doing an what's left on the hitlist. Don't want you working at cross purposes.

Hope the new improved SOA makes better reading and that job can give you a bit of room to manouver.

Something you may want to consider if you can get a job, but it can be a bit of a longshot - you know the joys of having a 0% card and the virgin one is/was really good as the minimum monthly payment was £25. But if you can get an income and contact a company for a credit card (usually better doing it on the phone), you can sometimes ask if your husbands salary can be brought into consideration. I've not hear anyone mention this for quite a while, but if you could get a virgin CC - especially if any of the 0% cards are about to run out, it may be worth a try.

Have you both gotten copies of your credit reports? It's handy to see how many credit checks you've had so you don't overdo it in asking for credit. 3 in about 6 months is usually ok.

Forgetmenot68

Hi GeorgeUK - I think you have! Saving money is addictive it seems! Today and yesterday I would have gone shopping for several things I previously thought were "essential", but now I'm working out alternatives, or doing without. Even so, CCCS estimated we were over spending (before our debt repayments) by over £600, so I need to attack even more outgoings. I've cancelled swimming lessons (they can all swim now), and gritting my teeth over 13 yr old's ballet (she does 5 hours a week and loves it) and 9 year old's drum lessons (£25 a month), but I guess those will have to go in the short term too.

Not sure about the credit card. Our Virgin payments were over £200/m even before we lost the interest free status 2 months ago (we have it back now, only until November though). How come you were paying £25? Yes my husband is fully in the loop, but I'm the one who is making sure we don't miss payments to our priority creditors this month. I'm writing to our mortgage company this morning to see if they'll allow us to extend the term of our mortgage. £63,310 is over 16 years on repayment, £40,340 is interest only and that has 11 years to run. We'd like to extend it as long as possible to reduce our monthly payments but they've suggested they'll only do it for 20 years at the most.

A friend was talking about the Payplan solution. I have a feeling that we wouldn't be considered because of our equity, is that correct does anyone know?

Yes we have a monthly Equifax account - I'm going to print it off today then cancel it (£7.50/month).

Forgetmenot68 xx

Forgetmenot68

Can we sell our endowment policices does anyone know - they are attached to the interest only portion of our mortgage so I'm thinking no...?

Forgetmenot68 xx

pania

hi FG!! wow honey you are doing amazingly!! keep it up!

re those endowments, yes you can sell them....

However you would need to bear in mind that at some point you woiuld need to switch to full repayment to get shot of the interest only part of the mortgage. how many years do you have left to run on your mortgage? Are the endowments performing to target? there are plenty of people here that are on pure interest only until their debts are paid and then they can concentrate on repaying the mortgage. If you think that within a few years you will be able to switch to repayment then investigate selling those endowments.
Go to a good high street financial advisor, not someone national who will give you peanuts for them
Good luck!!! xxx

Paige

Great going FMN - if you can sell your endowments and get your accident claim money asap you will have a good sum to pay of the urgent debts. Keep going. I dont know what everyone else thinks here but all of us seem to follow a pattern. Disbelief first - when you have your LBM, then tears and a feeling of dispair, then all systems go trying to reduce your outgoings, then the sucess of feeling in control and proud of what you have acheived, then you work hard at reducing even more, and then you have a few moments of weakness, then you feel low for having the moment of weakness and thats where reading all these threads help keep you motivated.
OMG I am a bit deep this morning - I think my bad cold is getting me down.
Anyway, well done. I am reading your thread willing you to do well.
Paige X

robpw2

Im so sorry to hear about your problems but art the same time am glad that your facing them head on and are starting to make those savings.
I would suggest you think about having a house clearence and get rid of some of that clutter( WE ALL HAVE CLUTTER) it may be tough at first and im sure there is plenty of things you may deem important to keep etc but you need to be ruthless adevertise locally and on gumtree etc you will be suprised how much cash you can make, also the children could join in the fun as well and they could get a little bit of the money as a "thank you" if you wanted , bigger more expensive items you could sell on ebay

saving money can be a family affair and i belive can be really enjoyable.

This site will help so much , theres free cinema tickets to be had,competitions to enter( from cash to cars to holidays -we have all won some great stuff). also look at martins weekly newsletter you would be suprised what great offers etc that i have found.

also try doing some market research etc i use shop and scan and every 10 weeks have enough for another £10 voucher and you get to choose where you want to use it . so if you could use it for thorntons if you have presents to buy etc. There is also other campaings like bzzagent they are currently trialling a activia yogurts etc i received a years supply of hair gel off them last year - also try places like toluna and they always have products to try etc and vouchers to earn etc.

switch to shopping online then you will only buy what you need and not be tempted by smells or by bargains or reduced counters etc this will help to reduce food budgets etc

Just because your saving money does not mean the fun has to stop! if you like bingo you could register at itv.com/bingonightlive just sign in once a day to collect your cards and you will be automatically enetered for free for there new show in the evenings, you can have 3 entries per household (all entrants must be over 18) and with prizes ranging from £5.00 to 25000 you cant lose its completly free and they notfy you by email if you win.
try quiz nights etc down the pub a lot of them have decent prizez and you dont have to pay a hell of alot to enter


You would be suprised how much you can have fun and be a money saver these guys have helped me out a lot and got me out of a few scrapes too.

well done for making the biggest step and i look forward to hearing how things work out.

remember small steps = bigchanges

GeorgeUK

Me again

I thought the Virgin card may have been old because the current 0% offer is for 15 months but min payment is

If the balance shown on your statement is £25 or less, it will be the total amount of the statement balance; or if the balance shown on your statement is more than £25, it will be whichever is the least of 3% of the statement balance or the total of any Payment Protection Cover charges, interest, handling fees and default charges plus £5, provided that it will always be at least £25.

These are the current terms, so you may not have had that when you took the card out. That's why i wondered if you could take out a card, but have your husbands income used as a basis for the limit. Either that or you have spend on the 0% card - that's a big no no.

Not sure about payplan, but it may be an option once you get a job and have more income available.

pania

(brief thread hijack)

Rob where did you manage to join shop n scan? everytime i try i get told i have to be "invited!!! how on earth do i get invited??? Help!!

Forgetmenot68

Pania, hi and thanks. Endowments weren't performing well so we swapped the projected shortfall amount to repayment a few years ago. We owe £40,340 on interest only and it has 11 years left to run. I fired off a letter this morning though to ask whether we can extend the term of both portions (total £105,000) to 25 years (unlikely as I'll be 65 and my husband 70) but they suggested they might agree to 20 for both, which should reduce our monthly outgoings a bit. I know it's not ideal, but when we win the lottery (!!!), or even if we just have learned to squirrel away a bit each month, then we can pay it off earlier. In the meantime, I'm going to see if I can find a local financial advisor to work our what our endowment options are. Thank you for your ongoing support, it's really welcome! xx

GeorgeUK - Thanks for all that about the Virgin card - in any case I'm horribly nervous of the idea of a new card at this stage - even if we were to get one. Last month we had a pretty much unblemished credit record except for the accidental mortgage arrears - I think that may be about to change...

robpw2 - I'm going to work on all those ideas, thank you. I feel so strapped for time at the moment - not sure whether I should put all my energy into finding a job, reducing our outgoings, appeasing our creditors, or phoning estate agents for a house valuation and looking for a new one. Husband of course has to be at work so he can't help me too much.

I have at least paid our mortgage by debit card from our new bank account, plus the arrears which I didn't know about until this week (total £814) but it went through, and at least I don't have to worry about that for the moment. Oh! And I had a call from the solicitors, and the other party have agreed to my accident compensation! £1800, which should be with us in around 4 weeks...

Paige - that's great to hear. It sounds a lot like grief - I did wonder if that's why I reacted so extremely to our crisis. I suppose it is a type of loss.... There you've got me being deep too!

Forgetmenot68

robpw2

pania wrote: »

(brief thread hijack)

Rob where did you manage to join shop n scan? everytime i try i get told i have to be "invited!!! how on earth do i get invited??? Help!!

i emailed them months back