Help Needed

kiora

Hi I am new to this board so hoping for some advice, to cut a long story short I became a widow 10 months ago and since my late hubby did not believe in insurance of any kind, ie..life I have tried to struggle on as best I can, he cancelled both our endowments,(cashed them in) without my knowledge I now have to repay the mortgage myself. I have ove £13k in debts that I am struggling to pay so have applied to remortgage, I was on a DMp but they increased my payments from £150 to £563 so could not afford, whilst I wont be applying for credit for next xxx years not too bothered about credit file my only concern is getting rid of these debts, is it a good idea to remortgage just now or should I go back on a DMP and struggle. I have 2 teenage children still at school so dont want to let them suffer.

I dont know if this is wrong board but thanks in advance for any advice given.

Kiora

beanielou

Why dont you pop up your SOA & we will see if we can help?

kiora

Hi thanks

Here is my SOA
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 875
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 239
Other income............................ 76
Total monthly income.................... 1190

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 246
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 133
Electricity............................. 120
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 40
Mobile phone............................ 35
TV Licence.............................. 11
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 16
Internet Services....................... 16
Groceries etc. ......................... 120
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 50
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 38
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 825

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 160000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 7000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 167000

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 20960....(246)......6.75
Total secured debts........... 20960.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Credit Cards...................10000.....250.......19.9
overdraft......................3000......45........0
Total unsecured debts..........13000.....295.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,190
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 825
Available for debt repayments........... 365
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 295
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ 70

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 167,000
Total Secured debt...................... -20,960
Total Unsecured debt.................... -13,000
Net Assets.............................. 133,040

GeorgeUK

Hi Kiora - sorry for your loss.

Can i ask who you had the DMP with before? as this is a huge and totally unrealistic increase. Have you paid anything to your creditors while not in the DMP? You should be paying each of them £1 until you can sort out repayments again. The free debt charities will be able to help with that and possibly also stop the interest on the accounts.

Council tax............................. 133
If you are paying this over 10 months, can you ask to pay it over 12?

Electricity............................. 120
check moneysupermarket and uswitch to see if you can get a better offer

Mobile phone............................ 35
Switch to PAYG?

Telephone (land line)................... 40
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 16
Internet Services....................... 16
Can you get a package deal for this?

Groceries etc. ......................... 120
Take a look at the old style board - meal plans and other ideas may help a little

Clothing................................ 0
You need something for clothing - do the kids buy their own?

Road tax................................ 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Need something in here

Have a look at https://www.entitledto.co.uk and see you are claiming everything you should be.

Did you have an endowment mortgage that may have been missold?
Can you claim back bank charges and credit card charges?

fatbelly

Two quick comments

Please don't transfer unsecured debt to secured. Or even think about it!

A dmp by definition must be affordable. Who was yours with? Suggest you contact CCCS or Payplan. Are your dmp debts the 10k credit cards or do they not appear in your soa?

GeorgeUK

If any of your debts are with a debt collection agency (DCA) i would advise requesting a copy of your credit agreement (CCA) and statement of account.

kiora

My DMP was with CCCS and because itook a better paid job to help myself get out of the mess I've been left they changed my payments, I even wrote to them several times but received no reply, it will be cheaper in the long run to change the debt to secured as I am lucky nough to have equity in the house, also once the kids have left school (2+3 Years) we plan to sell up and move abroad so will be able to repay loan early also there are no penalty for repaying early. All the debts are joint even thoug he took them out so that is reason I have to pay them off. My kids have taken part time jobs and buy their own stuff which is a big help.

Deep_In_Debt

You don't seem to have any thing for water rates?

Turning unsecured loans into secured loans is not a good idea. I looked into it when I realised the mess I was in. I have a bit of equity in my property but I was worried about not being able to keep up repayments. My mortgage is affordable and I've never had a problem with it and didn't want to put my house at risk. At lot can happen in a few years - I'm glad I didn't go for secured as I'm now being made redundant and wouldn't be able to keep up the repayments on a secured loan. So I'm glad I didn't do it! You never know what's round the corner.

kiora

Hi
Thanks all for your support and advice, today I spoke to my actual mortgage lender who are able to offer me a further loan on mrtgage and as its not a remortgage will work out cheaper and will not run as remortgage, should have money within next 7-10 days and my mortgage will only go up by 176 per month rather than 255 with remortgage. Although alot of you will say not to do there is no other way out of it.

Merlot

You are quite correct, we do not like to see people turn unsecured debt into secured debt, however you have got to do what you think is best for your circumstances, and your current mortgage is very low and personally speaking I think you have possible made the right decision for you, HOWEVER, do not under any circumstances use any form of credit or your overdraft again as you will probably not be able to gain another mortgage on your income and therefore, your home is at risk.

I am pleased you have come to a decision.

I wish you the best, it cannot be easy being a widower with two children.

P.s. my only other advice to you is get life insurance/assurance, enough to repay your mortgage incase of your death and a wee bit extra to cover the childrens expenses until they are 18 or finished further education.

Merlot.x.

SuzySu

Kiora - just wanted to offer my support to you too. I can't imagine what you went through and then to find out the financial difficulty you were left in must have been too much.

Please stick around here - you will receive so much good advice and make some fab friends.

Take care