Can't afford minimum payment -advice please?

[daysmustgetbetter]

I know I'm a idiot
When I moved into my house I had nothing
I got my appliances /sofa from littlewoods
I put them on buy now pay later but now I'm struggling.
I get £1,000 a month
£460 is rent £100 is gas /electric £90 council tax and I pay them £240
I'm left with £110 for food
It's killing me
I've asked if I can set up a payment plan they said no
I honestly don't know what to do
If I don't pay the full amount will they pass me to a debt collection agency ?

Advising someone in debt to get a 0% credit card and then pay that off is dangerous.

The reason the OP is in this debt is because she didn't pay her 0% Littlewoods Buy Now - Pay Later offer.

If she gets a credit card, she may not be able to pay that off (things crop up!) and then the situation will be worse!

And someone who only works 25 hours per week and earns £1000 per month is unlikely to get a credit card that has a £4500 limit.

Make your children work!!!!

Make an appointment with Citizen’s Advice. They can help you.

1. Go to stepchange
2. Ask your children to contribute. Even something as small as £20 a week. Put this into a separate pot in your account as a contingency fund whilst you are talking to step change. If you’re in a more stable position by the time they go travelling, give it back to them. They are adults and unless I have missed something only currently pay for their food?
3. change the mindset that put you in debt in the first place - buy your WANTS (NEW sofa etc) when you have the money to pay for them. You needed a sofa but the mistake here was buying new. Learning from this is key.
4. Definitely have a look on MSE - money saving expert. Lots of advice on there for now/the future. Even something as simple as switching banks could give you a potential cash boost right now.

good luck!

Surely the point of benefits isn't to enable two adults to save every penny they earn to go travelling, and the third adult to work part time, and reject jobs beneath her.

I'm sure eg a family of 4 with young children struggling at the moment, aren't wild that their taxes are being paid to fund a long holiday for 2 adults and the other to work 3 days.

That's exactly what I was thinking. Her kids want it all.

Sorry but if you're struggling that badly, you need to take a bit more off them each month. Just enough to get by and give yourself a bit of breathing space. You don't have to charge them full rent, but it's more than fair for them to pay towards energy bills.

Please call CCCS. They will help you.

Can only reiterate what others have said. Contact StepChange Debt Charity; they will contact Littlewoods on your behalf to arrange a payment plan i.e. for you to make smaller payments. You can start the process on your phone.

Your children should be contributing towards the household expenses, paying for food alone is not enough.

Good luck.

This!

Sorry not much help apart from I was in debt like this over a decade ago and it was bloody hard. Absolute vultures these companies setting up lower income people to fail, there should be a law against these loan shark tactics.

You'll get a load of people looking down their nose at you for getting in debt but most will have no concept of not being able to just buy a sofa or washer and those are hardly frivolous purchases.

Definitely contact citizens advice and also double check UC. I would also consider asking your kids for a little rent if they're earning. I know you probably don't want to do that but if you're on the bones of your arse, needs must (at least until you can find full time work). Xx Best of luck OP. X

If you can get a high street bank to refinance this for you, a £4,500 loan over 5 years, should cost you around 100 per month.

Can you start applying in the morning to see if you can get approval? Make sure to put in your application that it's to refinance more expensive debt so they don't include it.

I really think you are crazy not charging your children rent. £70 each a month plus your £100 covers the repayments.

Are they aware of your situation?

Do you know anyone who would lend you the money and you could pay them back?
If it was a sibling of mine, I would do provided they wouldn't borrow anything else until I was repaid

The problem with Littlewoods debt is the rate is too high to stop increasing the loan if you aren't paying the full amount. It will keep snowballing.

Ring them,even ask of you csn clear the £2500 within 30 days will they forgive the rest? Tell them you had a bereavement and lost track of the timing. Then find a loan to take out the amount.

if none of the above is doable talk to stepchange.

I am sorry you are finding things difficult at the moment. Please get intouch with stepchange who can help you as someone has mentioned already.

All you have to do is go on their website and register with them . They will then ask you declare all you debt,income and expenses( include everything you pay for) .

They will put you on a debt management plan and then they will send your expenses and income as a budget to the company and offer them whatever they think you can afford.

If your income goes high later on and you can afford to pay more you just let step change know. They will recalculate your budget and offer the company more. You don't have to deal with Littleworth anymore step change will. Even the payment will have a direct debit going to step change then step change will pay Littlewoods. If they get intouch with you can just tell them to speak to step change.

This

Could you get a zero percent credit card and be a card jumper( check out martin lewis) until its all paid?

Step change - contact them first thing in the morning.

You have a great credit score! Take out a no interest loan/credit card and pay it off in full then pay back the loan/credit card £100 per month until it’s gone. Most sensibly option… I just did the same. 2.5k on credit card incurring huge interest, took out a 0% interest loan for 2 years.

but the kids are over 18 therefore not children?

@daysmustgetbetter please sit down with your adult children and discuss how to tackle this issue. You are doing them no favours by not teaching them how to budget, how to contribute properly towards the household budget.

You do need to get another job and talk to step change too.

But please talk to your children today .

Do not get a debt consolidation loan. It will make your situation much worse. I would suggest that you contact stepchange but ultimately you can default and tell them you cannot afford any more than £100. These BNPL deals are awful. Your credit record will be shot but on your low income borrowing is not a good idea anyway.

I think this is your best bet too. That is an insane amount of interest and it’s spiralling. Borrow the money from your children’s savings to clear the debt and then pay them back £100 a month each.

@Cornishclio why would a debt consolidation/debt refinance loan at a lower rate if she can get it, make the situation worse?

It will save a fortune in interest, make the debt more manageable, be more favourable on credit rating and is a far better way to deal with a deal that she can only afford to repay £100 on monthly.

You still probably are entitled to uc. With the standard allowance and rent on there £1000 wages probably wouldn’t wipe that out.

Jeez, how utterly depressing if that’s true.
Benefits are supposed to help those who NEED them and have found themselves in a situation where they cannot help themselves
Surely it shouldn’t be for a collection of adults who’d rather keep their money for fun or who won’t top up their part time jobs as the roles on offer are ‘too demeaning’

My friend got into real difficulty with buy now pay later. I think it should be the next practice to be investigated. Yeah they do make it clear about the interest being payable if you don’t pay off in full but it’s a shock when you see the final figure

please do start charging your children rent and see if you are entitled to UC as per previous poster