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 ?

I pay them £240
I'm left with £110 for food
It's killing me
Right now pay them the £240 and end the pressure from Littlewoods.
Explain it's pasta month again and talk to the kids about RL finances.

Look into CAP (first if I were you as I think you're going to have an issue over no single person CT discount AND no rent from kids with Stepchange)

Keep looking for work.

Why might they accept an offer from a charity negotiating on your behalf, when they've turned you down? Because they know the charity has been through ALL the ways that your income could be maximized, and that they agree there are genuinely none. Organizations know when individuals say they can't raise any more than '$' amount towards their debt payments, it usually means 'because I didn't know about X, or 'I'm not prepared to do Y.'

I've just had a phone call from the complaints team after I complained about no response to emails
Thankfully he has just set me up a payment plan
£128.12 a month
He was lovely and so helpful
God that is such a weight of my mind

Great news , but do try to take on board advice from this thread. It won't get easier once dc go travelling.

There you go! I thought speaking to a real human would help you no end, I can't imagine the relief you're feeling. Good luck!

Finally some good news for you. Hope you get back on your feet soon

A ccj and debt collectors are very unlikely for a debt like this. Hopefully Stepchange will be able to help.

MooseOnTour wow. How nasty. Why respond at all if all you can add is something mean and judgemental? What did you hope to achieve? Did you just want to make the OP feel bad? Why? What’s wrong with you that you feel the need to shame a total stranger asking for support on an anonymous forum?

That’s great. Hope you have smoother times to come.

That's great news. I hope things start getting better for you op. Good luck!

Very glad for you that you have the immediate panic sorted out and some breathing room.
I know things have been really difficult and you've had your mind elsewhere, but might be an idea to see this a as a bit of a wake up call, going forward. Best of luck with getting to where you want to be.

There is also no reason why they shouldn´t contribute to the household expenses is there? They earn, they contribute. They use the heating, the electricity, the water, tv etc etc? Board? Living outside the home would be much much more expensive. So win-win.

@MooseOnTour refusing to work more hours ?
Why are you making things up as you go along?
The only reason I was working less hours was because my mum was dying of cancer
We didn't want her in a hospice so looked after her at home
My mum died 3 months ago and I've been devastated
I've started looking for full time roles now my head is getting clearer
I shouldn't have to explain myself to anyone
You try looking after your mum and watch her suffer every day ,going through chemo,radio therapy ,watching her then be told it's spread to every organ -on your own then try and jump back into a full time job straight away
You have no idea about any of it

@MooseOnTour unfortunately there's no timescale for grief
And it's taken me 3 months to finally be able to mentally cope with everything
That's how it is

Back off FFS. She only buried her mum three months ago. Do you think she should have been out shilling with her CV the morning after lost her mum following a long period of being the primary carer? Or do you think there might be a bereavement process?

What are you looking for from the thread now then? None of the options are acceptable to you and the one thing you want (a reduced payment) isn’t going to happen.

@Mummame222 read again. The payment reduction has happened.

Oh good!

I responded with StepChange - they are not the same as LW, they are an independent debt charity who will contact LW on your behalf with the offer of a reduced monthly payment (regardless that LW have so far refused a lesser amount). StepChange are a government recognised organisation. Just contact them, you can do this very easily on your phone.

You're still ignoring any questions about your children working so few hours when it seems that they aren't studying either.

Untrue. My mum had an unpaid parking ticket literally last week that snowballed up until £1000. They came out and tried to take her car. Luckily it was as on Motability so they couldn’t. Ignoring debts make them build and you can absolutely end up with bailiffs at the door.

Luckily OP has a payment plan now.

Hi OP,
I'm glad you feel you have a bit of breathing space. I wanted to show you the following screen shots of a loan calculator just so you are aware the effects of reducing your loan payment in the longer term. (Of course it doesn't have to be long term and hopefully won't be for long).

I couldn't calculate the number of months taken to pay off a 49% loan at £128 as the calculator would only go up to 300 months (or 25 years) and it is longer than this!

If I have the interest rate wrong you can use a loan calculator with the actual interest rate to see what that looks like.

It is still important to tackle this either by:
Upping your income (by work or kids contributing) so you can up your payment,
by moving the money owed to a more high Street rate of interest e.g. 9% in my example,
or working with a debt charity such as stepchange.

If your credit is good a loan or money transfer credit card would be a good way to get that interest right down. Your current low income might prevent you getting one, as might your reduced payments. Do you already have a credit card? If you do see if they can offer a money transfer (at a low interest rate) to pay off the catalogue. If you can only get a balance transfer I don't know if that can pay off a catalogue but you could find out.

If you work with stepchange if they after looking at your finances suggest £10 a week (for example) the catalogue are more likely to accept it because they know a court would only make a similar award to them so no point pursuing through the courts. (If you can afford payments Stepchange will tell you that) Stepchange will ask for your interest to be Frozen so that the debt doesn't spiral.