Drowning in debt? Don't know how to get out? You are not alone. Come and share and find a way through ....

[Talkinpeece]

This thread is loosely linked to several previous ones on the same topic.

We live in a society that makes it horribly easy to get into debt but makes it incredibly hard to admit you have a problem and even harder to get out of debt.
Everybody is welcome to share problems, ideas, solutions, but not be judgemental please

I am not in debt, any more.
Here is a link to some spreadsheets that might help explain how
SPREADSHEETS-for-Debt-Control-Budgeting-Mortgages-etc

and lots of people use this
YouNeedABudget

The important things to remember are

• yesterday is as past as the Crimean War

( we will not judge how you got into debt, but we will support you on the way out )

• this is an anonymous forum

( we will not tell your employer, family or friends of the reality of your numbers and we are here day and night )

• this thread is about supporting people through the huge mindset changes needed to come out of debt

( feel free to offload all of the feelings that drive you to want to spend, that make it hard to save and that generally make life crap at times, including getting those closest to you to recognise the changes needed )

Join in, bare your soul and come out the other end.
Its worth it.
You are worth it
The long term results for you, your partner, your children, and your friends and family are worth it.

Ok so I’ve been in touch with step change. I’ve done the debt remedy tool with them and they are saying as it would take me 13 years to pay off my debts that they recommend an IVA.

I have several debts that are under £1k and a joint loan (ex partner - and he is paying it back in a payment plan as ive paid my half). My other debts are credit cards. They’ve all been sold onto other companies and I noticed a fault on my credit file today. They’d listed the debt twice, so I’ve sorted that.

An IVA sounds attractive but I’m concerned about an inflexible budget for 60-77 months. They’re saying it would be £150 a month and then £250 when I’ve paid my overpaid tax credits and uc advance payment back. As I only earn £700, uc, child benefit and maintenance which takes me to £1500 I’m concerned that it’s a far whack! On the plus side it wipes a lot clean and allows me to restart after 5/6 years.

I’m mortgaged so get no help with housing costs. I have considered selling up and renting but with such a poor credit history I’m worried that I would struggle to privately rent and possibly would be viewed as intentionally homeless by the council.

So what would you do? I’m thinking of retraining but that would only get me into a career with a start wage of £22k and I’d need to do a year in uni. So in real terms I’d only be about £300 a month better off after qualifying, plus I’d have a 9k student loan.

The other option they discussed is bankruptcy. I have an 11 year old car that i need for work. And I have approx 6k in equity in the house (12 overall but it’s still a joint mortgage with my ex although he hasn’t paid a penny in 5 years).

And that would depend on whether it sold at the top of the market valuation and with all the unrest with brexit I doubt it would!

Onescared
I am SO pleased that you managed to have a good natter with your DH.
Its funny that a 5 minute chat can turn into an hour without stress
but a "we must discuss" session will always end in conflict.
Aim for 5 minutes a day and you will start to think along similar lines.
Keep up the good work.

Zoflora
Hmmm, bankruptcy does NOT sound a good option because of the mortgage.
Have the IVA folks taken into account the snowballing capacity of the standing order trick? I have to assume they have.
77 months = six years of tight budgeting = less scary than you'd think.

Retraining - I admit I do not think that tuition fees are worth it for low paid jobs. Would you be able to get a job and get the employer to pay and then give you the pay rise on qualification?

My concern is the mortgage also. Although it is a relatively small asset they may well decide to liquidise it.

They didn’t look at snowballing, they based it on minimum payments only. I don’t really know what to do for the best. The retraining would be a pgce so that is a start salary but honestly I’ve dealt with so much in the last 12 months I’m not mentally in a place where I can look at doing that next sept. I need to have some space to sort my life out before I flip it in its head again! So it would be probably happen until sept 2020.

They didn’t look at snowballing, they based it on minimum payments only
Muppets.
If you standing order every one of the cards then they will be gone surprisingly fast.

OK, PGCE .... which subject? Any chance of one of the ones with bursaries ?
But otherwise, yup I'd wait till Brexit and austerity settle down a bit before committing yourself to that.

Spend a year whumping the debt and then see where you are :-)

Omg UC haven’t paid me today. They have put that I earned £2300 last month! I earned £930. This is not good. I’m going to ring them ASAP today but I’m really worried they will stand by their figures and not pay me again until jan. That will mean I have £40 a week after paying my essential bills not including food and petrol.

Contacted them and I have to have an appointment at the job centre and take in my bank statement. I can’t get an appointment until Thursday that fits in with my working hours. Then it takes 48 hrs to process. So I won’t get any money until Tuesday if they uphold my appeal. And I don’t get paid until Friday.
So I have a couple of quid to my name to last until Friday. This is shit! Going to have to get up early and walk dd to school and then get myself to work. I should have enough for a pint of milk and there is fortunately enough stuff in the cupboards and freezer to feed us.

((((( Zoflora )))))
That is horrible. UC is so badly thought out.
Hang on in there - let DDs school know as they may be able to point you to a hardship fund ....
Actually, PM me the first four letters of your postcode and I'll see what I can find
(I did the same for Fairylea a year or three back )

It’s LL13 thank you talk I burst into tears in work first thing this morning!

You have mail ;-)

I love these threads. I’m nearly brave enough to look in to my debt. It scares the life out of me.
I have an overpaid tax credit debt which I have to find out how much it is.
Student debt, again I don’t know how much it comes directly from my wage so I’ve never missed it.
£1000 overdraft which I seem to be living in.

I can easily cut back to get out of the overdraft. I can do a few overtime shifts and I will look to see how much debts are.

I feel a little less scared reading these threads.

Hi there Santa
Student debt is a 9% tax on your earnings over the limit. ignore the total amount. Its irrelevant

Tax credits - worth getting sorted

Overdraft - do a budget, make your life more relaxed

Thank you Talkin.

I’ll give tax credits a call in the new year.

I’ve downloaded the fudge app after reading about it on here.
I have entered January’s outgoings and depending on how much this months wage it I should (fingers crossed) have £300 left minimum after bills, food and diesel.
I’ve kept lists before but I think this will be easier to use.

I’m not actually in terrible debt but any debt worries me as I anticipate it increasing over the next few months

Current have
CC 1: £275
CC2: £1860

Will need to be taking out a £10k loan in Feb/March

The only loans I can get atm have a horrible interest rate and I’ll be paying an additional £3.5k in interest and loan arrangement fee on it over 5 years

I’m currently working on hammering down my current debts to try to be eligible for a better interest rate

@Llioed
Credit card - switch it to standing order and it will vanish within three years.

@Bishalisha
Have you got the cards on standing order?
Could you afford to ramp up the standing order ....
look at the maths on my spreadsheet - they could be gone within a year
what do you need the loan for?

@talkinpeece they are on standing order and i'm making much much more than the minimum repayments!

CC1: Min was around £5 due by 01/12, i've paid £117.72 since beginning of Nov

CC2: Min was £25 bye by 01/12, i've paid £235 since beginning of November

I need the loan for legal fees for family court. I've looked at your spreadsheet it's very helpful

I also did a money supermarket check earlier and i'm 95% likely to be accepted for a Halifax loan with much much better rates!

Oh yes, sorry, I forgot. EXCELLENT stuff.

Well done so far, Bish. 🙂

Thanks @cozietoesie I know it’s manageable but the amount of debt I am comfortable with is £0!

Hi everyone. I havent joined one of these threads before but I have about £5500 worth of debt on three different credit cards with high interest rates. I am a student, so although I pay monthly, I get my payments every 4 months so it's a bit frustrating! I have used the spreadsheet at the top for each separate card and am paying £100, £100 and £200 on each card (£200 being the highest interest card) which is about double the minimum payments but it's all I can afford. I want to be debt free by the end of 2019, but I think realistically I can at least have one of my cards cancelled and the others halved and be clear by the end of 2020. I budget very carefully now, but my debt is from when I was out of work due to bad health and impulsive spending due to mental health, which I am now getting help for. I have family support. I wanted to get a consolidation loan but unfortunately they were either higher interest than my cards or required a guarantor, which I don't have. Just wanted to join and put it down somewhere as it is a weight on my shoulders which I am trying to manage. Haven't RTFT yet but going to tonight to see if there's any tips/further help. Thanks all :)

Hi there CSJH
You need to triage the cards to use the "snowballing" technique.
Move the two lower interest cards to standing order £5 above the minimum.
Then throw every penny you have at the highest interest card.
If you are paying over double minimum, it should go in about 10 months.
Once it is paid off, throw all of that money at the next highest
and then the third
you have a good chance of being debt free by mid 2020

))))))) Consolidation loans ((((((((
Nasty smelly things best avoided.

With family support and CBT and mindfulness you should be able to stick to your budget
and then life will get better
and clearing cards is a REAL buzz