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 ?

Terrible advice. She already owns 2
£2500 interest. This would just add more.

@daysmustgetbetter

Are you sure about these calculations? I have never seen a ‘buy now, pay later’ plan double the original amount once it moves onto a payment plan. That would mean
the APR is extremely high. Either your figures are wrong or they have made an error. I just cannot wrap my head around £2000 worth of goods rising to £4500 after the end of a
BNPL. Additionally, I doubt they will involve a debt agency because even a debt agency will do a financial assessment. In fact, when you speak to them again, tell them this exactly. I would not stop paying but would change the direct debit amount.

Of course, they will insist on you paying the maximum. But you need to PERSIST and INSIST that you cannot. As for your children - if they are getting use out of the items, they should pay a little towards it. You are their mother and suffering and if they cannot help you out a little during this hard time, what is the point of having children and bringing them up? They are young and have all the time in the world to travel. I imagine if both of your children put 2 months salary towards the repayment, you would be fine. Surely they can work an extra 2 months for their travelling plans?

I hope it all works out.

First of all because OP will not get one at a decent rate because of the low income.

Secondly because even if they were able to get a loan over a longer period it would be more expensive as it will take longer to pay off. She has already doubled the cost of the sofa/white goods by not paying within the prescribed period.

Thirdly because people who are unable to budget trick themselves into thinking they have dealt with the debt by consolidating and then tend to build it back up again so before long a £5k debt is £10k.

The MSE DFW forum has good advice.

The choices now given that the extra interest has gone on are that OP either earns more/takes board money off her Adult Kids or defaults and sets an affordable monthly repayment either through stepchange or self managed DMP.
The downside of that is a ruined credit record which may be a problem given she rents so if she needed to move and they credit score her she may not be approved. It is still possible to rent on a DMP though but they may ask for 6 months rent upfront.

I have been in a similar situation with Very years ago. Everything was great paying a small amount then they hit you with all of the interest. Back then I just didn’t pay it, got a CCJ and pay £20 a month. It messed me up for 6 years obviously and stopped me getting the best mortgage rates but I couldn’t have paid what they were asking. Lesson learned and I would never use a company like that again.

However, these days I think the FCA take a much dimmer view of this sort of action from companies. Did they do an affordability check? I think I would be tempted to put it all in an email, tell them you are struggling financially, offer what you can afford but be reasonable (perhaps take it to £100 a month). If they refuse, I would raise it with the financial ombudsman.

Can you get a lodger into help with bills ?

Do people really do that?

I just looked at the pay in McDonalds. The hourly rate is £8.40 an hour. How can people say they are good employers?

A friend of mine does this. She has a three bedroom house and lives on her own. Where she lives has a vibrant rental market and the money earned from renting out a room in her house almost covers her mortgage repayment!

Christians Against Poverty CAP will speak to your creditors and will get them to freeze the interest and to agree to amount that is affordable for you in monthly payments. Martin Lewis thinks highly of CAP because they go above and beyond to take the emotional pressure off people in debt

You & your adult kids all need to get more work to up your income.

Bringtheweatheryou

Thats not minimum wage. Are you sure thats the wage for adults not eg 16 year olds or apprentices?

I think you are being foolish OP teaching your children they don’t have to pay their way - paying just food is not equipping them to support themselves .
Your children need to pay board , travelling a privilege not a right.
After all They benefited from the things you bought

Try childcare sector. They are desperate for staff in most nurseries and often will offer training.

are saving to go travelling in summer and I won't dip in to their savings.

Sorry but you can't afford to do this for them. Charge them rent and bills and use it for your debt.

I'm sticking to admin /office as that's what I know and can comfortably do.

You can't afford to be picky. You need to do anything. Offer babysitting locally, look for cleaning work, childcare, shifts in a pub. Untrained teens can manage these jobs, you'll be fine and you don't need to do it forever to shift the debt. If you can do 10 hours a week extra work you could be sorted in a year.

You say you have qualifications and experience but I'm sorry to say that doesn't tally with earning £1000 a month from 25 hours work a week in your current job, its minimum wage. You can probably earn more cleaning or as a TA.

Sorry not rtft but I think your DC should chip
in. Surely they could delay by a year?

BNPL is unregulated sadly so is not compelled to do affordability checks. Awful system for buying stuff.

No but you are being given advice to go take up scarce valuable resources such as food banks and CAB advice - taking from other people who really need those services. You don't need or deserve them because you can simply tell your 2 adult working children to financially contribute fully to your household which would give you several hundreds extra per month - more than enough to pay your debt with plenty left over. You refuse to do this - you've told us that your kids "travel" dreams are more important than the needs of starving families. You are beyond selfish.

Its the rate quoted on their website. They haven't specified its for students etc and presumably they would?

I know you don't want to take the money off your DC, but could you at least borrow it from them and repay them instead? It might help reduce the interest you owe (caveat, don't know how it works so don't know if it's a set interest amount regardless of paying off early).

Can you link the page?

I'm so sorry you've found yourself in this situation. You're not an idiot at all - this is just life getting in the way of these greedy corporations. I totally applaud you for supporting your kids and its obvious that you would have been working if you could. I'm also so sorry for your loss - it must be so raw still and you really don't need this extra pressure. I would definitely say go to CAB and get some advice about how to approach the company - I'm sure they'll be able to offer you a solution. I really hope you can get this resolved and just know that you totally deserve a break. Take care.

Please contact stepchange debt management,they will help you and will arrange a payment plan for u x

The job advert range if for those under 18, everyone is paid above minimum wage, says so on the website. The average at mine was about 10.60