Spent years dragging myself out of debt and now I’m going to need to do it again

[Pacificallythespecific]

I divorced around 7 years ago and have been paying joint debts off ever since. Ex took responsibility for a loan and I got left with everything else. Even as far as last year I was being chased for tax credit overpayments from when we were together.

I’ve bloody pulled myself up by my bootstraps, I work 2 jobs, have no credit at all and have finally got my total debt under £1000 (should be paid in total by March 2020).

And now my car is buggered. I physically cannot do without one. I drop DD at A, DD2 at B and then work is in direction C. Public transport would not work at all.

No spare money at all. I have £331 total to last until 26th of this month (bills all paid), that would usually cover food, school dinners, diesel and electricity. I have £50 cash hidden for dire straits. My lovely old banger has got me through thick and thin but has given up the ghost today and quote is £550.

Bank said no to an overdraft or loan or CC
I did a soft search for a loan and got rejected for all of them except ridiculous APR (borrow £500 pay back 2k type loans).

I have nobody to borrow any money off.

So my options are: don’t get the car fixed, take £100 out of the £331 and buy an old banger until I can save enough to fix the car in a few months.

Borrow £500 from stupid APR company and take on more debt (really do not want to do this!)

Sell car for spares/repairs, use money to buy old banger (false economy?). I’d rather not do that as I have a long MOT and the car runs lovely usually.

Im feeling so annoyed I got so close yet so bloody far! I said to the bank look you can see how much I have coming in, you can see I haven’t been overdrawn or had a DD bounce in 5 years what more can I do! They are like robots “computer says no”

I can’t sell anything of value as I do that periodically to help clear debts. Have been on MSE debt free wannabe boards for years and feel bloody gutted I need to take a loan out.

Is there any other option I am missing here? Which option would you go for?!

Any local garages give you a payment plan (pay them £150 now and the rest next month)?

Does all the work need doing at once?

Advance on your wages?

Kids piggy banks?

Is there absolutely no one who could lend you the money?

I don’t have any clever solutions but you must avoid taking on a crazy loan shark style loan.

Have you tried one of those exorbitant credit cards, like the aqua card? I wouldn't normally advise them but at least you'd be able to pay it off asap to reduce the interest.

As above - speak to a garage about a payment plan. If you explain some of them might be lovely about it and accept a down payment now.

I know how horrible it feels though. I have no avenues to borrow available to me, and I pray regularly that my car doesn’t give up as I would be completely up shit creek without it.

Good luck

I wouldn't normally condone this but do dc have any savings accounts? Its a family necessity to get the car back on the road and the dc can be repaid.

Payment plan I haven’t asked about. Do garages do that?! If so that would be a life saver

Kids piggy banks no although DD did offer me £20 out of her wages ❤️

The loan I looked at from ocean finance I can pay off as soon as I like but I imagine there are some fees involved. I’ll look at stupid APR credit cards, even if I got one with only £300 on it and pulled £200 out of the money I have and the £50 fund it could work.

Sorry I’m thinking out loud as I’ve been going over this all day in my head and can’t see the wood for the trees

No family to borrow off. DM is disabled. DF went out for cigarettes 10 years ago

Wouldn’t ask my friends they are all in the same situation as me. I work for the NHS and I don’t think they do pay advances. Credit union is another option but our local one requires you to save for 6 mths first

Credit Union? Could they help?

Sorry to hear that. I presume you can’t ask your ex to help? They are his children your taking to school

If the dc earn wages do they need dropping at places? How old are they? If you only had to worry about getting yourself to work, would that make public transport a viable option in the short term?

Could you get other quotes on the car? Garage prices do vary.

I asked one friend and his solution was to just write the car off for the insurance money 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

So there’s always insurance fraud if I can’t work anything else out ffs

@petitprince, I’ve asked for quotes on whocanfixmycar.com and had 5 today. All around the same money give or take £50. It’s a pretty standard repair (clutch)

My local garage is closed today but I’ll call them tomorrow and see what they say, they’ve done work for me before to keep me on the road

So my options are: don’t get the car fixed, take £100 out of the £331 and buy an old banger until I can save enough to fix the car in a few months.

What sort of car could you buy for £100???

There is something called the good garage scheme. Have a Google, they might let you pay by installments.
Some large organizations can let you have an advance on your wages - I'm not NHS, so I don't know (and it probably varies according to trust) but it might be worth asking.

OH GOD I think I’ve fixed it.

I just googled payment plans for vehicle repairs and Halfords offer a payment plan interest free with no credit check. There is a Halfords Autocentre just up the road from me.

Thank you so much to everyone who said payment plan!! I’m going to call them tomorrow and cross my fingers it works out.

Thank you everyone

That's great about the payment plan, I hope that works out. Just wanted to say the clutch went on DSs car last month. Local garage said it would cost about £450 to repair and it actually cost about £340 so it may end up being less than you think.

That’s great news! Hope you manage to keep your debts low and your car is healthy again for as long as can be

Yay! That'd be awesome

You might find your workplace does offer loans, but keeps quiet about it. I worked for a college and they gave loans as long as they were repaid within a year - they just split the amount owing into monthly sums. It depends whether you can pay the monthly sum, though.

I've just googled staff loans for NHS and this came up:

Here

Have a look at buying the part the car needs yourself (ebay or Euro car parts - DH always finds discount codes online for these) and ask garage how much they'd charge for labour to fit if you supply the part...?

DD has wages? What age are your DC? Do they need ferried everywhere?

Arnold Clark are a very expensive garage but you can pay the work off over 10 months interest free. You pay 10% of the work upfront.