Need advice, answers or guidance, thanks for looking

[jason1]

Hi - pls bear with post as I have included everything financial and personal that I believe to be relevant, there'll
Be quite a lot

My name Jason I'm 35 yrs old and am going to just say it all straight as I don't know what else to do, some will not approve of me but I understand that, I just would limestone factual advice

I separated from wife nearly 5 yrs ago with around 4-5 grand of credit card debt, all mine not hers

I have been in recovery now from my drug addiction since April 20th this yr

The reason I am saying this is this is how I messed up, I abused prescription medicines for 6+ yrs resulting in a huge benzo ( diazepam addiction) these were not prescribed, I chose to buy them towards the end of an unhappy marriage.
In my teens early 20s I had been a recreational drug user, I started again during my marriage and started buying prescription medication through the Internet from abroad. I used daily and developed a strong addiction which would costs £100 - £300 per month which I in my insane state payed for with credit cards

The products I bought were all benzo which has to be prescribed in the UK, from abroad I could use my barcleycard / hsbc and many more to buy and run up huge drug debts which I owed to all my credit card companies - hsbc, barcleycard, about 8 cards in total

I fell into the usual trap of jumping balances from company to company to try and gain intrest free periods, whilst in my state I also admit to spending unnecessarily as I wasn't well / with it.

( I'm sorry it's all my fault and really appreciate any body reading and replying, I don't ask or expect people to understand)

My marriage ended in Jan 2010, this is where debts started to spiraled up to the region of about 22k including hsbc overdraft

Come Jan 2013 I had already met and moved in with new partner, I was a mess, I one day walked out of my job (retail manager) which I still hold now somehow!!

I went to doctors and blurted out my life…
Without too much detail I was taking a elephants sized amount of diazepam, I was now buying from UK company who ships the next day 1000 x 10mg tablets for just under £200 ( the reason I say this is I want u to understand how bad this was)

Local Gp cannot deal with or allowed to manage this size of dependency, was even more shocked when I showed him on his Internet how I could order and pay for class c drugs using UK credit cards for such high volumes of illegal drugs

(it's probably not relevant but the company's I used still exist now which I can show, they no longer take cc only bank transfer which was an ongoing battle with cc, barcleycard worked everytime )

Come my breakdown it was 2 fold I had to get rid of debt payment far beyond my salary ( obviously always payed my rent and had no debt with councils only with banks and cc)

On Jan 25th 2013 I cut up every card I owed and destroyed so I could never use again, plus nobody would give me further credit so I knew I was stopping this access, for personal side I started a rehabilitation programme. I was off of work but still employed for 2 months, my company believed it to be depression

I destroyed every bill, threatening letter as they terrified me, this is all my wrong doing but it's done now. I had people come to the door but I hid, at least 2-3 debt collection letters daily and constant phone calls and harassment that I mentally couldn't deal with.

April 20th this yr I finally finished my program and am still in recovery now, I worked hard to ensure I never fell behind on any bills, child maintenance and omehow held my job, in 2014 towards the end I had one last melt down where ccjs appeared (which I stupidly ignored)

I am currently paying £40 per month to hsbc for one of said mentioned cards which I negotiated to avoid attachment of earnings which they applied for at £70 per month.

Next came barcleycard £8500 and I again just hid from, when I got the ccj I defaulted as where I hadn't followed any procedures they obviously ruled in favour and demanded £350 per month which of course I can't pay

I have now been issued a Notice of warrant of control from the people who bought my debt many times over.

I am now trying to make things right but can't afford the £434.58 warrant plus the now £8436.75 balance

I have until the 20th before bailiffs visit and may remove my goods for sale.

Now I'm trying to do right and support my recovery I want this to go away, I have a couple of questions and then any advice that may be offered would be greatly reviewed, I need my car to support my maintenance of my 8 yr old son for access, school runs and my own work, this is all I have of value except for what is classed as luxuries - tv, games system, my lads got all his stuff in his room.

THANKYOU FOR LISTENING, IM SORRY ITS LONG BUT I WANT TO TELL EVERYTHING

Q1 - my debts are 70% roughly drug debt, is there any morale high ground I can use to protect my family? I only ask as it was the usual situation that my limits kept getting raised for me to buy illegal substance, do the lenders have any responsibility over where I used my cards?

Q2 - if it wasn't for balance transfers and increased credit limits on cards and overdraft I would of melted sooner but my spending was supported by the lenders, my salary took home £1500 roughly on a fully overdrawn hsbc account each month to its limit of £2250, again is that not classed as unreliable lending?

Q3 - Any advice on anything I have mentioned would he amazing

Thankyou for listening

Ps - just another fact incase it helps is my divorce went through in Oct 2010 for which I claimed nothing of the house I Owned, I signed everything to my wife and son so mot to cause upheaval on my son's life. I invested but took nothing as it was the right thing to do, I was the issue.

[stevemLS]

Re: Need advice, answers or guidance, thanks for looking

Hi Jason.

You are in a bit of a pickle, mate, but well done on getting out and best wishes for your recovery.

This is a case where I don't think you need an internet forum, I think you need professional debt advice. I am afraid I don't think your sad tale will cut any ice with your creditors at this stage.

My suggestion would be that you speak to National Debtline or StepChange as soon as you possible can. There are steps you can take to avoid enforcement of the warrant(s) but those people are the ones to help. I have had no dealings with them myself but have read nothing but good about the way they help people.

Good luck.

[Wombats]

Re: Need advice, answers or guidance, thanks for looking

Hi Jason,

Firstly I want to say well done on what you've achieved so far. By far the most important thing here is you, and you have taken massive strides to start to get things right again. Nobody here will judge you - my own stepson has a drug and alcohol addiction which he is fighting successfully at the moment pretty much simultaneously with you time wise. There's plenty on here who've been down that road, or have family members or friends who have, so don't worry about that side. Your achievement thus far is something you should really be proud of, so don't be too hard on yourself. Life can be a really b1tch at times.

You can get the warrant suspended. Before you do though, you should do an honest budget plan so you can work out whether or not you have any spare income to pay towards this and other debts. If you have no income, then realistically you need to be looking at other options - you'd need to go to someone like CAB etc.... DO NOT PAY ANYONE for advice - the free advice is just as good, often better, than the paid.

If you do have spare income, you're still best going to one of the big free debt advice places - Payplan, CAB, National Debtline, StepChange who will advise you on the way forward. They basically take your disposable income and distribute it on a pro rata basis to your creditors. Form N245 allows you to apply for a variation to payments.

THIS LINK should be helpful to you. Tell the bailiff firm you are completing the N245 and need a little time to complete and send it in. You should also contact the court enforcing the warrant. It's all explained in the link (or should be!)

Simultaneously get in touch with one of the major debt advice organisations and see what their advice is. If you income is low and you level of debt high, it might be worth considering one of the insolvency options which would give you the release from the stress of the debt burden you are clearly craving. The reasons WHY the debt accrued are irrelevant. What is relevant is what you do from now on.

You've made a brilliant start - keep it up, it's hard but worth it. Follow the advice above and it should get you quite a lot further along the line with things.

As an aside, if Payplan, StepChange or whoever do look at putting you onto some sort of debt management plan (DMP), post back up so we can guide you through the steps they should, but often don't follow in terms of ensuring the debt is actually payable etc.... Cross that bridge wehn / if you get to it.

Good luck! :beagle: