anyone else in a load of debt and afraid to face it??

[ProudMum]

I am drowning in it. I have ignored it for so long and been paying what I owe as though I just have money to burn- on average i'm paying £1000 in bills because of things like catalogues etc: I just cant seem to slow downon them.
I was managing just fine, well, I thought I was- but looking at the bigger picture you come to the realization that nobody in their right mind should be paying out that sort of money on a monthly basis.
I have a nice house and my son has everything he could ever wish for.
I have fallen behind on some payments, credit cards etc: and because it's been so long I have found myself ignoring them now.
I'm good wen it comes to repayments on catalogues etc: and I have never missed one since I have had them but when I actually sit back and think about what I'm paying out, it starts to feel like an utter nightmare...

I'm sure I'm not the first person to admit to things like this and I'd really love to hear from others who may be in similar situations...

 

[suzib76]

the worst thing you can do hun is not to face it - please please get some proper impartial advice - dont go down the route of debt companies (we took out a trust deed - like a bankruptcy/iva scottich equivelant) a few years back with our eyes closed and nearly lost our house last year had it not been for my gran steeping in and bailing us out to the tune of £15000

the best thing to do would be to contact citezens advice who will put you in touch with genuine, reputable people whoi will be able to help you cut your outgoings considerably

its so easy when you are in debt to agree to anything, in fact the people who (legally) ripped us off didnt have to sell me the thing at all - i just saw a way out and never considered whether it was actually a good deal or not

the best thing though is that you are ready to tackle it, please do, and dont let it drag the rest of your life down - it did to us for about 5 years and once we finally got the debts cleared - well that feeling is unreal hun x

 

[littleblonde]

Im not in debt now but i did get mysef into a simiar situation. It was hard to admit buit i contacted everyone and as i faced upto it they gave me good repayment deals and soe even knocked off interest. 2 years later i only owe about £200. You can also try a debt management company who contact them on your behalf and you pay them and they pay who you owe. It takes out the worry of contacting them. But look around and find a reputable one. You have admited you have a problem and thats a brave step well done

 

[littleblonde]

my parents have gone down a debt management company that have really helped. But before you agree get a 2nd opinion as the other poster has said it can make things worse. My parents never stood to lose there house so it may be a different situation

 

[Amanda]

We took out a DMP with a company in about July/August time. It is the best thing we ever did. We were paying over £600 a month to credit cards, and just couldn't do it. We were having to use them to live so they were getting bigger, not smaller.

We now pay £190 a month, and have no credit cards anymore. It's quite liberating to have to do Xmas in cash and not credit. Everyones got less, but still more than enough. And I've just started saving with Park hampers for next years Xmas.

You've done the hardest part already, admitting you have a problem. But you now need to do the second bit. Good luck hun, and remember that its nothing to be ashamed about, it happens to the best of us.

 

[dizzyisacow]

im so far under i dont think ill ever come up.

 

[ellismum]

There is light at the end of the tunnel once you have your lightbulb moment. I went the IVA route. I don't have a house to protect but I work in Finance so unless I wanted to lose my job which I love (can't be a Bankrupt, Would have been sacked which IMO is fair) I will be debtfree in 8 weeks time. It's been a hard 5 years but I am so glad I did it. Budgeting and cutting back on non essitials (Like SKY, etc....) has taught me a valuable lesson. Talk to the CCCS to talk about your options.

 

[mynnx]

i used to be in the same situation! i contacted cccs. they can set up a payment structure and they contact everyone you owe too. I ended up paying half of what i used to each month! Its really easy xx

 

[suzib76]

please remember you can also contact everyone you owe yourself, save the fees and get pretty much thesame arrangemet - i wish we had looked further into it when we took out our trust deed
it was only £100 a month we had to pay them, and the arrangemet was they would point us in the right direction t remortgage at the end to pay them the final balance, which was £7000, of course you dont think years ahead you just see the immediate release of not having huge debts to cover every week
we couldnt get a remortgage, despite these people saying they would hekp us, well tell a lie there was one 'company' prepared to remortgage us, but it would have finaciall crippled us to do so
i am so grateful to me gran, who when she found out we were going to court to lose our house in 3 days time, phoned and transferred money to clear us the same day

if i had known i would of written to every person who i had debt wit first and tried to make my own arrangements, of course i dont know the ins and outs of iva etc, all i know is a trust deed is similar

if you get put in touch wit someone through the cab or something the chansces are you will get good advice, i wish i had done it

oh and check out moneysavingexpert - the forums are full of everything you could ever want to know about money

 

[Vici]

Get help!! Please!! It will continue to eat away at you and it is never as bad as you think. Contact one of the charity organisations or CAB and they will really help you out xx

 

[coz]

Me and my partner have had to do a debt relief order this year as we just couldnt keep on top of our debts and they had been passed on the debt collecters and had fees added its like a slippery slope going down and we just couldnt get ourselfs back to normal it worked out we owed 10 thosand and know we have no car on the road as we cant afford to, my partner got made redundant twice in a row which really messed us around with bills etc, we are still trying to sort things now with a DRO non of the debt companys can contact you for a year and if our money hasnt changed alot when the year is up our debts get wiped wev had a bit of a problem though it didnt go thought properly and has took us 5 months to sort out and we are still waiting, my advice would be contact you CAB and get some advice asap theyb will give you advice that you can trust aswell, goodluck xx

 

[Marleysgirl]

Get yourself over to the MoneySavingExpert.com website for useful advice, and their forums if you want to talk to like-minded people about money problems. We don't bite over there!

 

[leelee]

Get yourself over to the MoneySavingExpert.com website for useful advice, and their forums if you want to talk to like-minded people about money problems. We don't bite over there!

That's the best advice you have been given so far. Please don't pay any of the debt management companies. There is CAB and other places that will give you free advice.

www.moneysavingexpert.com is a brilliant website and you will get great advice on there. There is also an Up Your Income forum and you can get great tips on how to make some money, like writing reviews on

www.dooyoo.co.uk

or filling out surveys.

 

[suzib76]

i also advised moneysavingexpert a few days ago

 

[leelee]

i also advised moneysavingexpert a few days ago

Do you did. It doesn't really matter who advises on it anyway, surely the important bit is that Dizzy gets the right advice????

 

[suzib76]

i also advised moneysavingexpert a few days ago

Do you did. It doesn't really matter who advises on it anyway, surely the important bit is that Dizzy gets the right advice????

omg i never ment it like that at all but hey

 

[leelee]

i also advised moneysavingexpert a few days ago

Do you did. It doesn't really matter who advises on it anyway, surely the important bit is that Dizzy gets the right advice????

omg i never ment it like that at all but hey

No sorry it's me, I am having a hormonal day and think some of the advice she was given wasn't necessarily the best for getting her out of debt, so I was getting a bit het up.

I find moneysavingexpert brilliant. It has really helped me get my finances in order. Do you use it yourself?

 

[suzib76]

i also advised moneysavingexpert a few days ago

Do you did. It doesn't really matter who advises on it anyway, surely the important bit is that Dizzy gets the right advice????

omg i never ment it like that at all but hey

No sorry it's me, I am having a hormonal day and think some of the advice she was given wasn't necessarily the best for getting her out of debt, so I was getting a bit het up.

I find moneysavingexpert brilliant. It has really helped me get my finances in order. Do you use it yourself?

yes for everything lol - i have been down the debt route, but never had the sensible head on - even now if i was offered i would likely take it but thankfully there is noone willing to lend to us any more pmsl

 

[leelee]

i also advised moneysavingexpert a few days ago

Do you did. It doesn't really matter who advises on it anyway, surely the important bit is that Dizzy gets the right advice????

omg i never ment it like that at all but hey

No sorry it's me, I am having a hormonal day and think some of the advice she was given wasn't necessarily the best for getting her out of debt, so I was getting a bit het up.

I find moneysavingexpert brilliant. It has really helped me get my finances in order. Do you use it yourself?

yes for everything lol - i have been down the debt route, but never had the sensible head on - even now if i was offered i would likely take it but thankfully there is noone willing to lend to us any more pmsl

Lol - I know how you feel! I am just over 1/2 way paying back my debts and the site has been amazing but I still get tempted by the nice things in life. Would have loved to be debt-free by the time the baby arrives but am hoping that this time next year I will be at that stage

 

[Boony]

me and my hubby have alot of debt we have a £10000 loan a £5000 loan almost £3000 owing on credit cards and a £750 overdraft fortunately we are able to pay it all back. By april/may we should have the credit cards gone then we are going to save what we would be paying to the credit cards (£500pm (our choice)) so we can pay off our loans early and then start saving for a house deposit.

All that debt is because a bank gave us a stupid credit card with a ridiculous amount on and we got into trouble fortunately i managed to sort it out ourselves without having to use other companies. I did have £1000 to pay to next aswell but i've now paid that off. Catalogues are the worst they charge ridiculous amounts of interest.

I remember some months we had to pick and choose which bills to pay.

Hope you manage to sort something out.