Some advcie please ??

[nutcracker]

Ok this may be long so apologies now.

We are having big money probs at the mo repayments of things we have gotten behind with are just too much and although I have reaaranged a couple of things we are still really in a mess.

We have debt of around £2000 which is made up of rent arrears, c/tax arrears and a few outstanding debt things.

I also have a loan of £6000 which I have been paying £140 a month on for a year now.

I rung my bank this morning to see if there was anyway they could reduce the payments and they said no. The only thing they could do was change the payment date which is no good.

I asked about taking out a bigger loan to consolodate all the debt and they said I was quite welcome to apply but there wasn't any offers for me showing at the mo, so unless my circumstances had changed alot it may not be worth it.

The loan though is based on just my earnings and not dp's too. Barclays will only do the application based on my earnings.

Mine and dp's credit history is not good at all, so is it even worth trying to get a loan elsewhere ??

Any advice gratefully recieved as I just feel like jumping off a cliff at the mo.

Anyone

Can you go to the CAB or try a debt counselling service? Not sure how good they are, but it's a free call and a free service, so worth a shot?

I'd suggest you try CAB too. They may be able to negotiate something with your bank to help you reduce the payments.

Ok thanks

Nutcracker have you worked out on paper what you incomings and outgoings are over each month (a statement of affairs)? If you go to the CAB they will probably ask you to do this anyway, so it might be worth having a crack at it now. There is a good guide to doing this on the Fool website (statement of affairs calculator). Their discussion board "Dealing with debt" is also very very helpful.

Yep a lovely mner helped me do that last night. Thje result was that we have more going out than coming in with all the extra payments.

loan consolodation is not always good - you must check out the interest rates and compare then you could find your paying and extra 3 or 4 grand ovr a longer term period - even though your monthly repayments would be lower. i knwo when you in a situation like this - your probably thinking "f*ck the interest..we have no money" but it all mounts up and your just making rich people richer of your money.
CAB is a good bet as they will be able to advice you on priority debts
the way i understand it is this.
council tax
student loan
rent
all priority debt and everyone else can go whistle.

the cab will help yu fill in an income and expenditure form and if you do it very well - you will find that you are actually paying out more than comes in.

the CAB then have a standared letter format which these financial people will have seen many times and know the format is that of the cab. this letter tells them they can go whistle and you will pay off minimum repayment.

re rent:
you must must must pay your weekly rent plus at least £3.00. the council or HA will try to get you to pay £20. but after a visit to the CAB you will knwo you only by law have to pay a minimum amount....it used to be £2.80 but it will have changed am sure - but its not a lot.

it would maybe be immediatlye helpful if you made a list of all your ourgoings and incommings include haircuts and petrol, home insurance any thing and everythng and take this with you to the cab.

the act of doing this will make you feel like you are doing something immediatley. you will end up knowing where yu are up to. and you will be able to look at what you can reduce.
hth

Right thanks. Other prob is that dp hasn't a clue about the rent or council tax arrears, and i don't wanna tell him.

H/a are currently making us pay an extra £70 a month and council tax and extra £70 too.

so your paying your full rent PLUS £70? i think you can get this vastly reduced.

the thing is if your paying your full rent say plus a tenner a week or £40 per month they can evict you as a court would say " why do you want to make this family hoemless they are obviously trying"

is so very hard to evict people as anyone wh has suffered from ASB knows.

i would pohone up you HA and tell them your paying only a tenner a week extra.

i dont know about council tax - they are pretty immovable. i think your stuck with that one. i recently got a bill from 2002 which i had to pay at £100 per month becuase they wouldn't accept anything else, the cab legal helpline - which i got out of the phone book said i was screwed and the council said they were coming for my telly if i only paid £50!! so i think your screwed on that one as it is a priority debt.

any other debt? catalogues etc. they can whistle just pay them a couple of quid

the thing is if your paying your full rent say plus a tenner a week or £40 per month they *CAN;T *evict you as a court would say " why do you want to make this family hoemless they are obviously trying"

I agree w/custardo. See what you can work out re: your rent and council tax arrears first. These are the debts that can really get your in trouble the most.

Custardo
We, too, got a bill from 2002. For £752. And the first notice we received was a final demand. Despite their having our correct address. We ended up having to slap it on a Visa.

i did that expscot, i maxed out my credit card - becuase and listen to this its so rubbish i need to be shot...becuase i can't remember things and they wouldnt take a direct debit set up. so i am paying stupid amounts of interest.

but couldnt pay the full amount still had a couple of hundred quid - and recieved a notice yesterday that i forgot to pay junes £56 like i promised i would, am just a fuckwit!!

This time last year Barclays were throwing money at me saying i was pre approved for a loan of £12000. I borrowed £6000 and now they say I am not approved for anymore. So what heppened to the other £6000 i was approved for ??

If they let me increase the loan to 10000 over a longer period i could clear all debts and my monthly loan repayments would be less too, why can't they see that.

Our council wouldn't take direct debit, either. Cash, cheque or credit card only. So I got us one that's 6 months at 0% and we paid £200 the first month and are paying back at a little over £100 now. In addition to our present council tax payments of £131/month. .

Thing about personal loans is the high minimum payment, IMO. At least, w/a credit card, it the shit really hit the fan and you could always just make the low minimum each month till your financial situation somewhat stabilises.

nutcracker - now you have your income/expenditure list worked out, try to get a face-to-face interview at the bank.
In your current situation you are likely to be forced into default, with a new consolidation loan at the bank you would be on the right track to paying off your debts. They are more likely to consider that if you are there talking to them.

nutty - that would be becuase they analyse how likely it is to get a good return rather than any philanthropic benefit.

do you have a credit union near you? it would be worth finding out, this is a community banking scheme - i am a member of the brighton one and you can get loans with very very low interest.

Just rung tha bank back and got them to take dp's wages into account for a larger loan and it still got refused.

She said apparently they do a review of everyones accounts in the middle of July and so now was a bad time to apply. She said to maybe try again at the end of July.

She said the amount is probably too high, but thats the only way i can get it spread out over a loinger period.

Wish i was dead quite frankly.

ok so you cant get a loan - phone your HA then post back.

apart from council tax what other debt have you got?

www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/

www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/life/debt/help_with_debt.htm#Negotiatingwithcreditors

above is a link to the cab site. from which i got this

Negotiating with creditors can be difficult and may take a long time. The arguments you use when you are negotiating will depend on a number of factors, such as whether you have both priority and non-priority debts, whether you have any assets you can sell, whether you have any available income, and whether your situation is likely to improve or not. Creditors will also want details of the income of your spouse or partner.

You need to be clear about what you want the creditors to agree to. You must be realistic about what you can offer - for example, if there is no prospect of you getting as job in the near future, you may only be able to offer very small amounts such as £1.00 a week, called 'token offers', to each of your non-priority creditors.

How much to offer

Priority creditors will generally be less flexible in what they will agree to than non-priority creditors, because they know they can take stronger legal action against you. You must remember that, when paying off priority debts, such as council tax or income tax, you will have to pay off the amount you are currently liable for, as well as putting something towards the arrears.

When you are working out what to offer to your non-priority creditors, try to divide up the money that you have available, according to the size of the debt. The bigger the debt, the bigger your offer of repayment should be. However, you can only do this if you have a reasonable amount of money available in your budget. If you do not have much money left after essential expenditure, you will have to make token offers to your non-priority creditors.

If your creditor is using a debt collector to collect money, there is Office of Fair Trading (OFT) guidance that must be followed. If debt collectors fail to follow the guidance ? if they are intimidating or pretend to have more legal powers than they have, for example ? the OFT can take action. You can find out more about the OFT guidance at www.oft.gov.uk If you are being harassed by your creditor you should get advice - see under heading Getting advice.

Types of debt Priority debts
Priority debts are debts owed to creditors who can take the strongest legal actions against you if you do not pay. It is not the size of the debt that makes it a priority, but what the creditors can do to recover their money.

Priority debts are:-
mortgage arrears - the mortgage lender can take court action for possession of your home
rent arrears - the landlord can evict you if you have rent arrears
income tax and VAT - you can be made bankrupt or imprisoned for non-payment of income tax or VAT
fines, such as magistrates court fines for traffic offences. If these are not paid, the court can use bailiffs to repossess your goods. If, after this, you still have arrears unpaid, you can be sent to prison
maintenance, child support or, council tax or rates. If these are not paid, a court can use bailiffs to repossess your goods. If, after this, you still have arrears unpaid, you can be sent to prison
fuel debts - if these are not paid you can have your fuel supply disconnected
hire purchase (sometimes called 'conditional sale') will be a priority debt if it is for an essential item, for example, if you have bought a car on HP and need the car to go to work.

If you have any of these debts, you must deal with them before you offer to repay any of your non-priority debts.

Non-priority debts
examples of non-priority debts are:-
credit card and store card arrears
catalogue arrears
bank overdrafts and loans
benefits overpayments
hire purchase (sometimes called 'conditional sale') will be a non-priority debt if it is for goods which are not essential to you, for example, a television bought on HP
money borrowed from family or friends.

You cannot be imprisoned for not paying non-priority debts. You are unlikely to lose your home or your essential goods. However, if you make no offers to pay, without explaining why, the creditors will take you to court. If you still fail to pay when the court has ordered it, the creditors can take further action - for example, they can get another court order allowing them to send bailiffs in.

that last one was from cab too

Thanks for all the advice.

Am going to try and see someone at CAB next week.

Am also applying for a part time job which has perfect hours, ok money and would help us no end so keep your fingers crossed please