debt advice please

[mustlovedogs]

Hello there. First and foremost can I congratulate you on your excellent website and great advice provided!
Right here goes..... I have found myself in considerable debt as a result of this credit crunch. I had an extra income from other work which has dived in the past year and unfortunately I have borrowed considerably to fund this.
My list of debts are as follows;
my priority debts secured on my home consist of a mortgage of £103.000 with Halifax and £58.000 (£48.000 loan and £10.000 PPI) with First Plus.
Further to this, I have credit debts with 6 credit card companies amounting to a grand total of £30.000.
I have no arrears with any loan or credit debt so far but am finding it increasingly difficult to keep up and am paying only the minimal amount each month off each credit card.

I have managed to get decent deals with Skycard and Barclaycard for a decent interest rate for the lifetime of the balance and did have one with Citi, although this is coming to and end shortly. I have a 0% interest deal with Tesco which is also due to end and an not so good £15.000 (changed to loan) on Egg at 13.9% for 5 years .

With the help of your advice provided. I have initiated a claim for my PPI and have already had an offer from First Plus of monies paid over 30 months plus 8% interest. However, they were only offering £2.000 of the PPI which I have refused and this is now in the capable hands of FOS.

I have called the National Debtline and have completed an debt management plan and although the situation isn't great, they do not believe it is necessary at this point to apply for and IVA and have suggested writing to credit card companies asking to stop the interest.
Up until now I've always had an excellent credit rating and although I've got to the point where quite frankly I just want out! I am worried whether I'll even be able to rent from an agency if I have a bad rating.

I've put my home on the market but have lost as you can imagine, a lot of capital and even if I sell at the asking price, just manage to pay off the mortgage and the First Plus debt (which I suppose is something).

I would really appreciate your advice after burying my head in the sand for so long to try get out of this mess.
Thankyou, Amy

[Amethyst]

Re: debt advice please

Hi Amy

Welcome to the site and thank you for posting your situation so clearly and concisely.

You sound like you have done the reading and started making moves to get things sorted out before it over takes you. Control it before it controls you. So good on you.

If you are keeping up with the minimum payments, still have a decent rating and can access 0% deals, have your house on the market, and the claim in for PPI (doesnt sound like you have much in the way of charges to reclaim), you sound like you are on top of things. Any PPI on any of the credit cards?

However you are at that worrying point where its just starting to look like running away, incomes reducing and 0% deals coming to an end. Looking at making minumum repayments on the cards long term is depressing because you never seem to make a dent.

I would agree with national debtline, IVA isnt necessary as yet, and writing to ask compnies to freeze interest is a good idea too, whether they agree is anyones guess. And yes once you begin repayment plans etc you get onto the credit rating trashing.

So once all that starts you will want to know where you stand with all the cards/loans etc legally, so you can prepare things while you are coping and know what your options are if things get harder. A simple CCA request would be a good basis ( Legal Beagles ) of information. As you are with your original creditors and have kept payments up thus far and dont have charges I dont see the point in paying out £10 for Data Protection Act requests.

Ame
xx

[mustlovedogs]

Re: debt advice please

Thanks Ame for your reply and sound advice. I'll keep you posted with what's happening.
Thanks again Amy xxx

[consumerchicken]

Re: debt advice please

Amy, I'm in a very similar position to you, never missed a payment up until this month because I have recently lost job. I used to have loads of 0% deals and over the last year or two haven't been offered any by my CC companies. Therefore I haven't really paid any debt off in the last year - just thousands in interest! I'll be following your thread and starting my own - good luck with everything!