Pregnant with debt!!

[Cupcake11]

Anyone else?

I am 5+1 and have 15K worth of debt!

We can just live with payments with 2 incomes but I have no idea what happens when i go onto maternity!! I have also just started a new job so doubt il get paid any maternity either!!

I just don't really know what to do, the repayments are nearly £400 a month and my partners wages don't cover all bills!!

I'm trying not to worry as it all happens for a reason and i hope things will work out! Positive thinking!!


xxxx

 

[hellypops]

I know what you're going through,we are in debt too we were paying our bills then having nothing to live on.
i don't know how bad your situation is but we've set up a debt management plan with cccs and they have been fantastic.they give free advice without you having to commit to any kind of plan so its worth giving them a call to see if they can help.
i've been preparing for baby coming too buying nappies and wipes with the monthly shop and picking up little bits a pieces he'll need when i see them on special offer.
I know its hard hun,but try not to worry too much and get help now so its sorted in time for your baby coming,the last thing you need is to be stressing about money.

 

[Laucu]

Don't worry - you are not alone!

I have recently not been able to manage my monstrous monthly repayments so set up a debt management plan with the CCCS. They have been great and I have not even had any phone calls from my creditors (yet)!

However, when baby Jack is born I am going to have to reduce my monthly repayments even more as I will not be going back to work.... I am dreading it really but need to be realistic - eating and having a roof over our heads is more important!

 

[Laucu]

Also wanted to add that you may still be able to get Maternity Allowance if you don't qualify for SMP

 

[Cupcake11]

oh thank you! You've made me feel so much better!

We were thinking of trying to pay as much as possible off (which is mainly min payments) for next few months as still early then looking into cccs maybe to help. Guess we can't pay what we dont have!!

Thank you all tho! and hope things are going well with you all.xx

 

[suzib76]

dont wait months hun i would go and get help now, they will be able to sort out a reduction for you and could save you struggling paying min payments for months and still end up owing the same when you do go for help

 

[Dinah93]

Go get help asap, you can get the interest frozen which means all your payments will be reducing the balance. CCCS are a good company, CAP (Christians Against Poverty) are another - both are free and you don't have to be Christian to use CAP - they do a lot of counselling about the more emotional side of debt, and how to help your family etc. Don't ever use a fee paying company to get debt advice - CCCS and CAP can do the same thing for free.

I'd recommend going over to moneysavingexpert.com website if you're in the UK, the debt free wannabe forum there is amazing. The advice and support people give there is second to none, and they've all been in your shoes so there is no judgement. They can advise on areas you may not have considered, for example I had no idea I was paying over the odds for my gas and electricity bills until I went on there. I now get cashback through Quidco when I buy all my insurances or online purchases, I shop around, I'm selling all my old clutter on ebay, and my £34,000 debt is coming down at around £2000-£2800 a month (at least 75% of what we pay off the debt is extra income moneysavingexpert has taught us how to make through ebay, DH does a lot of mystery shopping and auditing, as well as the cashback etc, it's not from our main wages).

A debt management plan is certainly one way to go, but its not the only way. Call CCCS, CAP or go on the moneysavingexpert forums to get advice on what is right for you. Potentially you could have a large proportion of your debt paid off before the baby is born, and much smaller repayments to make as a result. If however you can't afford your bills on maternity even without the debt repayments you need to start planning for that now, and working out if that means less maternity leave, or making some savings now, as the longer you have to plan for the situation the better.

Best of luck.

 

[naitken]

Join the club.. I'll be going down to 20% of my former income when LO is born and we have $50,000 in credit line, $15,000 credit card and $340,000 mortgage. It's going to be hard. Just hoping that we can sell the home that we don't have a mortgage on to lessen some stress.

 

[kaths101]

yes youve had good advice - Im also heavily in debt and have a DMP with CCCs, do it now - dont wait and pay minimum payments as the interest outweighs the payments.

If you start now you can pay some decent payments before LO comes along, I did this and then once I went on maternity pay my payments have reduced to the minimim (£5 per creditor) so its really helped and the CCCs has been fabulous. If your struggling you only have to ring them. They also let me reduce my payments 2 months before LO so I could buy pushchair etc.

Dont delay hun xx

 

[HLC2109]

I have been working as a debt collector for a major bank for a few years now so I have insight into debt management plans, one bit of advice - be very careful with CCCS or other debt management companies.

They can be very helpful with budgeting and giving advice but you need to check on any accounts they are dealing with very carefully. as arrangements that they set can be broken very easily as they do not monitor accounts, only pay into them.
This is how it works;

You go through your budget with CCCS or similar company and they help you set out payments to each of your creditors, after they do that they send out proposals by letter to each credtior.

***it can be a few weeks before they even check if the proposals have been accepted and meanwhile you can be incurring huge crarges making your situation worse, accounts can often be passed to a recoveries agent before the CCCS get in contact to check if anything has been accepted. also they DO NOT check what impact any arrangement made will have on your credit file.***

if you have chosen to make payments directly to CCCS and for them to distribute payments this is where you need to check what payments they are making regularly as they are sometimes processed too late and break any arrangement that is in place thus affecting your credit file further.

Don't get me wrong, we recommend CCCS to people who are really struggling and feel they need help budgeting as they can really help a lot but sometimes it is better to go to them for help budgeting and then go directly to each creditor yourself so that you are fully aware of what is happening on the account and you understand any agreement put in place.
I understand that it can be intimidating and you may think these companies are out to get you but that is really not the case with most companies. You will be asked a lot of questions and some can be personal but it is absolutely essential so that they can get something in place for you that best suits your needs, it is not the person on the other end of the phone being nosey.
You may be asked to increase your offer of payment but again this is not to get money out of you that you may not have but sometimes even an extra couple of £'s can make all the difference in the type of arrangement offered and how long it will take to clear your debt.

If you do feel that going through the CCCS is best for you and your circumstances you MUST as as many questions as possible and make sure they explain to you the arrangements that are in place with each creditor and how each arrangement works. The more you know, the less likely it is that arrangements will break and the debt will increase.

If anyone has any questions please feel free to PM me