I need help, I’m in a mess and I can’t extricate myself

[hidinginabubble]

I’m in a complete and utter financial mess and have been for a long time. This is despite earning an excellent salary.

I know the usual advice is to contact stepchange etc but they can’t seem to help, I need someone who can.

I have acquired things like parking tickets which I’ve ignored and had a head in the sand approach to, easy as I’ve worked abroad for a while. So haven’t received letters etc.

Every month I am having hundreds taken off me by bailiffs. This isn’t step changes remit, that’s more cc/loan debt. Although I have those too.

My credit file is shocking or else I’d take a loan and sort it that way. Basically I owe a lot of people a lot of money.

I can’t seem to get advice anywhere. I was speaking to one company this morning but he couldn’t help as I earned too much. (So this isn’t a begging thread, I admit this is my fault but if I’m ever going to sort it I need help.)

Anyone legal about at all?

1. Contact the council borough for wherever the car was parked and ask about all historical parking fines and bailiffs, explain you want to pay them all but need the details. You can then potentially agree a payment plan.
2. You have £5000 in what kind of debt, are you paying this back monthly within the £1300?
3. Does the £1300 include your food and other costs?
4. Do you think you might have other debts for council tax, electricity, credit cards etc?

I was surprised as I hadn't come across this sort of individual before - educated, well-paid, well-spoken but in a cycle of debt and denial, but he was not the first or the last. You're not alone!

It's very common. Been there, done that myself and I know others who have done the same. All intelligent people in a panic during bad patches.

OP - if the bailiffs are collecting fines owed to courts, contact the court(s) that issued the fines and asked to have them looked at. A friend of mine ended up in a right mess with a fine for a driving issue she didn't deal with (£50 paid originally and it wouldn't even have gone to court, because it then did and she ignored it they fined her based on the average income, which was way above what she had coming in. Then bailiffs added costs on top of that and it spiralled). The courts usually have sessions where they look at fines and review payment plans - she contacted them, went along when requested and the magistrates not only agreed a much better payment plan direct to the court, they also reduced the original fine by over £500 as long as it was paid off as agreed.

It's worth a try, surely? Given this is the one place/organisation who actually has the power to take back the debt and even reduce it if you show you can't afford to pay without hardship.

Going bankrupt won’t remove the fines

Hundreds of pounds At a time purple

I showed cab the letter and they just said lock your door

I showed cab the letter and they just said lock your door

That’s very surprising. I’d go back and speak to another person there.

There is no debt issue that cannot be solved.

For bailiffs to be involved the dispute must have gone to court, did you receive any court papers etc ? Parking fines are civil not criminal, and follow the same process as any civil debt.

The only way you are going to solve this is to systematically go through every debt you have, note amount owed and speak again to Stepchange or National Debtline. I am struggling to understand why either of these companies say thay cannot assist. My OH had near on 20k of credit card debt when I met him, all now paid off with a DMP with Stepchange and his credit file is now better than mine. Whilst going through his various credit cards we realised he had loads of PPI, claimed back about 20k worth.... do it and do it today... we won't judge, just here to help you make the first step.

Maybe. They seemed pretty certain though. I mean the thing is it’s bihger than this one letter. I know that next month there will be more.
I don’t know how to find out or where to start ...

If CAB cannot help they will normally signpost you to an organisation who can. Why are you still not receiving these letters until too late, have you forwarded your post? Every letter, call or visit from a Bailiff adds £100s to the debt.

If you think you owe council tax you can always call the council where you lived to find out and seek to agree a repayment plan. But if they have taken you to court it will be on the CCJnljst I mentioned before.

Also- I think you will have to come to terms with dealing with more than one type of debt from more than one type of organization.

If your parking fines have gone to court- as the person above says, then you can go back to the court for that.

If you have council tax debt, phone their department.

If you have cc/loan debt, then phone StepChange and tell them you have other debts but try to get the companies to at least send you the details and stop the interest (not all will). You can then agree a very very modest payment plan.

Bit by bit, step by step.

I'm not surprised you feel overwhelmed, but this can be sorted, however you have to be completely honest, find out all the info on every single debt and make a start with each one.

There isn't going to be one solution here, but you can chip away at each part of the debt. If you agreed a council tax repayment today, then that would be one thing done and tomorrow you tackle the court/parking fines and so on.

Ok ok. I think I can actually help with this!!!
The historic debt department is a new department set up to reclaim council tax and fines. So they are chasing really old stuff that went to court and you didn’t know it went to court.
What you need to do when the letters land is go to the courts and make a statutory declaration that you were not aware of the court proceedings e.g you were abroad. They then reopen the case, they set a court date to rehear the case (this will be at the original court). You then go and plead guilty or not guilty depending what it was and your stance.
Mine was not guilty and I had some evidence to prove why, it got chucked out of court.
It was scary and it was crap. But it was sorted. There was one guy who was there with loads he was sorting out at the same time.

The stat Dec resets the whole case to prior to the initial hearing so it stops the bailiffs turning up and the charges that come with that.

Write letters and back up emails of every correspondence as they expect you to do things within x amount of time but getting hold of the courts and the debt department is hard within the time period - if that makes sense!!

You need to write a list of everything you owe, then write a budget of everything you earn and your absolutely essential outgoings (rent, utilities, transport, ongoing loan payments etc). Finally a list of assets eg savings, things you can sell

Then one by one pay off in full, get rid of any small ones immediately then write to the others offering £x a month. You are best to eliminate some sooner than equally paying. Do get a copy of your credit report to ensure there's none you have forgotten. As boring as it is, no take away, bottles of wine, coffees, lunch out - just get them paid off. Any actual loans are easier as you can agree longer terms. On a decent salary you'll be able to get them reduced quite quickly, even consider taking a second job on a weekend as it will keep you busy and bring in more income

OP, I'm sorry I can't help you legally - as I don't actually know what your question is - but I've been to the financial wire a couple of times in a former life and I know how it feels when you get to this stage and finally accept something has to be done.

I also earned really good money and I think I couldn't believe that my salary wouldn't sustain the life I was living - but I was completely ignoring the fact that I was paying off (in my case) various credit cards etc. so my actual disposable income was never what I kidded myself it was.

Have you got a trusted friend/family member who will bring wine and hold your hand while you open all those letters and organise them and work out exactly how much you owe and to whom.

I've done it a couple of times and it was horrible to do but the point was, I then knew exactly what I was up against and could start to move forward. You sound completely bogged down by it and can't seem to move in any direction at the moment.

I don't know how a solicitor can help but I think you do need to establish what your actual financial situation is before you do anything else.

Good luck

Use middle or call your local county court fines department, they can give you a break down of all court fines you owe. Priorities should be court fines, you definitely can get a payment.plan for these a lot of the services users I used to work with had them, you can fill in a form and negotiate yourself or get the full amount owed and the form and take it to CAB they can only help you if you have all the information. Also prioritise council tax arrears.as they will take this to court, then utilities, then credit cards etc. You need to stop panicking and actually deal with this. Even if you have £7000 debt with £700 a month spare you can clear it in under a year

I will explain why.

Because let’s say my income is £2000 and my outgoings total £2200 stepchange can help.

However on paper my income is £2000 and outgoings £1300 so they cannot.

It’s not quite the same but imagine it like this.

You owe money to a loan shark. If you don’t hand it over he will hurt you and your family.
So you have to pay it. But it wouldn’t appear on a credit report would it? So on paper you’re OK.

That’s similar.
My fines and the huge amount added by bailiffs is not in there. So they can’t help.

Interesting that every possible solution offered here is rejected in favour of mentions of the £400 find that needs paying.

I'm going to wade in once and that's it.

OP, you say you have 1300 expenses and 2000 income each month.

Can you please break down the list of expenses for us? (eg 800 mortgage, 150 petrol, 20 takeaway coffees or whatever.)

You will also need to write up a list (it might take you a while, and it will be incomplete to start with) of your current debts as far as you're aware.

eg so far we have Jacobs bailiffs asking for 400
Perhaps 2000 Mastercard
500 Visa
1200 X bailiff ... or whatever. You get the picture.

Before anyone, CAB or high street lawyer or whoever included, can give you any sensible advice, you will need to have these things written down.

Can you start with that?

Ok,

You earn £2000. You're outgoings are £1300. You've got £5000 of debt that you absolutely know about.

Consolidation loans aren't always the best option, but might be here. Can you get a consolidation loan for £5000 and pay off all your credit card and council tax debt? Try to keep he repayments around £300 a month?

Then that will leave you with all those known debts paid off, and £400 leftover in your budget.

Save that. Do not spend it. Then, when letters come in from bailiffs, you will have that money to use.

*Noddle not middle

@hidinginabubble
I think I can help. Please please look at my post above.

They can help once you can show them your court fines/debts, alongside your credit report, which you can do by contacting the county court fines department, tell them you've lived abroad and you need a statement of what's owed, or you can use Noddle.
You're not listening

StepChange is not irrelevant, yes, all your bailiffs and extra parking stuff won't be on the list, but they can still contact the organizations you do owe to, ask for a reduction/interest freeze and agree a very small payment to service the debt til you know what's going on.

If you don't tackle them one by one, this is not going to happen.

You have been given good advice on how to get info from the courts and prioritize those debts, and the council tax one.

I'd go with that and worry about StepChange another day.

You are stuck in the worry stage, not the action stage, and that's what needs to change.

I don’t know how to find out or where to start

Start going through the advice on this thread.

There's been loads of it.

Make a list. Income and outgoings.

Contact credit card companies and sort out a payment plan with the direct.

Contact the council and sort out a payment plan for owed council tax.

Contact the parking companies and ask them how much you owe.

Make a PPI claim.

Go back to CAB with all this information written down.

Are you sure this isn't just a begging thread? Because to say you don't know where to start after all this great advice seems more like a scam to me

I’m not asking or money hairy, I know people do, I know about reddit, I’m not.

Ok not being rude but I’ve saidnaboit six times now I’ve done an I and E for this morning and it should leave me with £700 but it doesn’t die to fines. Anyway I think I’ve sorted it thanks .

And do you know what I’m going to be uncharacteristicallt
Rude.

It hasn’t been great advice. It’s been repeat see a solicitor go to stepchange go to CAB do an I and E form.