Please tell me something cheerful about.....

[TooTicky]

....somebody who was dangling precariously at the wrong end of an overdraft, rent unpaid, not able to make the minimum payment on her only poxy credit card, waiting for all the regular direct debits/standing orders to be refused.....
......and then something really nice could happen...

oh dear TT, that is depressing and I have been in the same situation - difficult to feel cheerful in those circs isn't it?

have you taken advice from CAB/CCCS or similar?

well that was us last August - we were 4 months behind we our mortgage, and had just about every other utility company chasing us. I was feeding a family of 4 (including nonfood items like nappies) for £15-20 a week.

We're still in debt (lots of it) but we're in real control of it all now and it's slowly creeping down.

Sounds just like me tooticky! Only I dont have an overdraft but I do owe rent and council tax arrears from before xp left.So £10 a week of my benifits goes on them.
Hope someone says something cheerful I need cheering up

What is CCCS? I always get the impression the CAB are too busy and difficult to get hold of.

Ive been trying the CAB all day but always engaged.

it's a debt counselling charity TT here

i was in the same sort of situation and i was advised to keep paying something each week off my debts to each company even if it was alot less than they were askinh.i was told to contact each company and explain circumstances and offer a reduced amount.some agree and some dont but i was told that if it got taken to court then they would have to accept a reduced amount and the court would favour me because id not stopped paying, id just paid what i could actually afford.dont know if i was told right but worth a try.at the end of the day whats the worst that could happen? courts know that you need to eat and clothe your family etc.they cant take money that you havent got! they always get you to fill in a financial questionnaire! good luck

Thanks Reginald.
Mumandlovingit, that's good advice. I think what worries me most is the £30 charge for each failed payment. It's so unfair - how can people get back to normal?

TooTicky
I found that catalogue companies were better at sorting out arrangements.they charged a fee for setting up the arrangement to pay less and as long as the payments were made on time each month then they didnt charge any extra.It was only if a payment was missed or another arrangmment had to be made that they added on extra charges.the citizens advice bureau is excellent for this type of thing.they have financial people who you can make an appointment with who will go over it all with you and even give you draft letters to send out to companies!
the credit card companies i dealt with were more willing to negotiate wen i wrote that i'd seeked financial advice and that the cab were involved.good luck.