Quantcast
Channel: MoneySavingExpert.com Forums - Debt-Free Wannabe
Viewing all 21857 articles
Browse latest View live
↧

First Plus - unaware of deferred interest

February 20, 2017, 5:29 am
$
0
0
Hi, I wonder whether anyone could offer any advice on a problem we are having with Elderbridge chasing us for deferred interest allegedly charged First Plus?

We recently received a letter form Elderbridge advising that they had taken over from First Plus and that there was an outstanding balance of approx. £7K on our account. On settling this we rang Elderbridge to confirm that the account was clear only to be told that there was a further amount of £17K outstanding as the result of deferred interest.

This amount has never been shown in any correspondence or statements we have received. Elderbridge tell us that they or First Plus weren't required to tell us about the amount as the account wasn't covered by the Consumer Credit Act.

They are therefore charging us for a figure that can only be considered arbitrary as they are unable to provide any statement or calculations to justify it.

Are they allowed to pursue for this amount?

Many thanks for your help
↧
Search

CCJ and Defaults

February 20, 2017, 6:41 am
$
0
0
I just wanted to get some advice in regards to my credit file.

I have two defaults valued at £660. I am just in the process of organising having these both paid and removed from my file.

My real problem is the fact i have a CCJ at just under £5000. This has just over 18 months till this drops off and was from a private loan. since this has been on my file i cannot get any credit of any nature and I cant even open a bank account. And when i do they close it within a day of opening it. In regards to the CCJ, i am no longer in contact with the person i owed the amount to so organising a payment structure has been difficult.

With such a short time left should i just wait until the CCJ drops off? Will my ability to apply for credit improve once i clear the defaults? Any advice would be helpful.
↧
↧

Phoenix Debt Collection & Council Tax

February 20, 2017, 9:32 am
$
0
0
Hi everyone i'm new to the forum and thought this would be the best pace to seek some help!!!

In a nut shell I was evicted from a property in 2015 due to rent arrears the reason being is I was a self-employed plasterer at the time I broke my wrist was off work for 10 weeks and when I came back from my injury there was no work for a further 3 months I was on a short term tenancy agreement and was turfed out! I sofa surfed for quite some time then ended up in house shares and summer last year moved to manchester and turned my life around and I'm going back to university in September! When i couldn't pay rent I also fell behind with council tax but when I got kicked out and where my life was at at the time I didn't pay any mind to it!

I received a letter last october time from a company called phoenix, saying they had the debt for council tax and i owed them around £800 i spoke to my old local council and they told me i had lost the right to pay by instalments, i then contacted phoenix and they told me they expected full payment something which i told them was simply not feasible for me, they then wanted a break down of my outgoings etc which i didn't end up providing, since that contact i have moved property and again focused on sorting my life and putting other issues such as debt to the back of my mind, until today i received a text saying an enforcement agent had been to my property to collect £1200 thats an extra £400 on top of what they said i initially owed!!! Now i'm scared, worried and unsure of what action to take! I know i should of probably done something sooner but dealing with other issues in my life which will help me in the long run was more of a priority to me, so basically guys and help and advice on what i should do from here on out would mean the absolute world to me as I don't want to slip in to depression again due to money!!!

Thank you so much in advance.
↧

Full And Final Settlement question.

February 20, 2017, 10:23 am
$
0
0
Hi guys.

I recently offered a full and final settlement for an account. Today I received a reply that says:

Quote:
Further to your recent communication we write to confirm that upon receipt of your partial settlement of £300 the remaining balance of your account will be closed on our system. Neither we nor our client or any other third party will make further contact with you to recover the unpaid balance.

Upon receipt of your payment, we will inform our client of this settlement so they can update the various credit reference agencies and mark the account as satisfied by partial settlement.
I just wanted to double check with you knowledge people that this is ok to proceed with? It's just that they don't mention "full and final settlement" so I'm a bit 😐

Thanks guys.
↧

Should I be more worried than I am??

February 20, 2017, 10:25 am
$
0
0
Hi,

This is my first post.

My wife and I are both 39.we have 2 young children. About 12 months ago we found ourselves much better off due our childcare costs ending, my wife going back to work full time and me getting a promotion. We had also cleared the debts that we had accrued in our twenties of around 30k.

We decided that we needed to sort our ramshackle of a house out after 10 years of papering over the cracks (literally). We want it to be our forever house but it was in dire need of major work. After much discussion, we decided to use 0% cards to finance the renovations. We now have 40k 0% debt shared between us. We could have remortgaged but it would have actually cost quite a bit in terms of interest over the remaining 15 years of our current mortgage. I was also dubious about accruing secured debt.

My wife has suddenly started stressing about it and wants to remortgage! I am dead set against this for the following reasons-

  1. We earn 4500 tackle home combined
  2. My wife has recently inherited 15k that could be used to clear half of remaining debt if the 'shtf'
  3. We choose to pay 1000 per month off the debt meaning that it will be paid in 3.5 years, when the 41 months 0% expires
  4. We live well, pay the bills and have money left for fun stuff
  5. We are still able to save 400-500 per month

I know that no debt is good but I just can't feel to worried about our situation!

Should I be more worried and should we remortgage?
↧
↧

Defaulted on credit card, contacted by Moorcroft, need advice ASAP!

February 20, 2017, 10:45 am
$
0
0
Hi, posting on behalf of my partner, massive thanks in advance for any advice anyone can offer!

His hours have been cut recently (hourly paid minimum wage job) and money has been short, I knew he had been struggling to pay his credit card (Santander) but not the full extent, turns out he hasn't paid at all since about September of last year. He received a letter from Moorcroft debt recovery dated 13/02 saying he needed to get in contact with them to repay the full sum (£2200) within a week, which obviously ran out today. He hadn't contacted them, they called him this morning but he didn't answer and that's when he told me the full extent of things.

Obviously now we need to get a letter to them ASAP (from a bit of googling I have established that phone contact is not a good idea) but not sure what to say? Money is very very tight and he would not be able to afford to pay much a month, that's why he stopped paying his credit card! And definitely he wouldn't be able to pay the full sum now. I do have a little bit put aside and could probably scrape together £900-£1000 as a lump payment but I don't know how to go ahead offering that to them or whether they would accept it? We are both very worried about this and I am not really sure what to do or what we should write as I have no experience of this sort of situation.

Sorry for garbled post, I am a bit stressed out plus writing on a tiny phone screen doesn't help 😂 Thanks for reading this far to anyone who did and thanks in advance for any advice
↧

£27k debt - SC/DMP - moving (to EU)

February 20, 2017, 2:06 pm
$
0
0
Hi,

I have £27.5k debt with 3 DCAs:
£15.1k with PRA - formerly MBNA CC
£4.6k with Link - formerly Barclay CC, formerly Egg CC
£7.8k with ... - formerly Co-op CC (just got sold, can't recall name in this second)

Used Stepchange for 1 year, (a token payment plan to original CC companies), then debts got sold on and SC couldn't renew the token payment plan (August 2016), suggested I negotiate token payment plan myself. For various reasons (referendum, deteriorating mental health) it slipped through the net and I only got in touch with 1 DCA (PRA, December 2016), ran them through the budget, they agreed to put the account on hold until March 17. Need to do this with the other 2 DCAs and/or agree token payment plan.

No foreseeable change to income situation (self-employed/volunteering) and more over we are looking to move to continental Europe within the next 6 months.

Can continue to do token payments but would prefer to settle the debt with F&Fs within the next 12 months.

Haven't applied for PPI/bank charges and was hoping to apply (and be successful) and use that money plus savings to offer F&F payments on the three accounts.

Feel like I am running away from it, but as Dragon King pointed out I paid what I originally owed (before interest) when I was still able to meet their minimum payments...

Questions:
- Can I reclaim banking charges on the above accounts?
- PPI was on a HSBC loan which I later consolidated into MBNA CC.

Any thoughts or information much appreciated. :o
↧

Some guidance please

February 21, 2017, 2:53 am
$
0
0
Hello,
Firstly thank you in advance to all those who reply, I need some guidance as what to do long term and short term. Here are the facts, I work F/T and have been in the same job now for just over 23 years, my wife works part time and we have one grown up daughter who does not live at home, the company I work for is having a poor time and the expectation is that it will fold some time before the half year, I'd say that's about a 90% chance of that happening, here are the financial facts
Income £35,000 pa me + £7,000 d/w
House valued in November 16 £385,000
Mortgage arrears £135,000
HSBC credit card £9400
Lloyds credit card £7000
Santander o/d £1800
Savings £0
Pension £94,000


With the other household bills which are all as cheap as possible I'm not making any in roads on the debt and is getting a bit depressing as previously I paid off £81,000 of debt through my inheritance three years ago and wasn't able to pay it all off, we had a long week-end in Spain which cost approx. £500 in 2013 as a kind of reward, I felt I should do something with the money I received rather than just pay off the debt and also we hadn't had a holiday in about five years. Short term I want to clear the debt and start living again, we were never reckless with money the huge debt came about because of five unsuccessful attempts at IVF and the rest of the debt is just interest, at the end of the year be able to take the 25% tax free off the pension, not an ideal situation but at least I'll be able to rid myself of the debt and free up £600 worth of repayments each month and not wait until I'm 67 to start living, that would leave £76K in the pension with another 12 years to invest with it, longer term the threat of redundancy looms, would it make sense here to downsize the house, we have about £270K worth of equity in the house, all I'm looking for is just a little bit of clarity to say if I'm doing the right thing or not, as a back drop the constant repayments and the fact that I haven't done anything with my life for the past ten years is starting to get me down a bit, I don't want to wake up aged 67 and say all debts paid where is the beach, might be grumpy to enjoy it then, please advise
↧
Search

How can I cope with all this debt?

February 21, 2017, 3:29 am
$
0
0
Hi,

Within the past year my partner and I have gone from being perfectly comfortable to dire straights. I'm on the verge of a breakdown.

We have a 17 month old and I'm due a new baby in may. I am not working due to a dispute at work, this was finestablished as my partner was still earning ebough for us. He was let go in December and he can't for the life of him find another job. We have a loan, car finance, other little bits and bobs to pay out plus food and petrol. Currently getting my housing paid for, income supportax, tax credits and child benefit. He's getting job seekers. This makes our income around 700. Our outgoings are around 600 and that's without eating. I have an mot due next week. We cannot afford this, the following week I have to renew my car insurance, can I do this with no mot? The car obviously won't be driven. Now to make things worse I am in an informal overdraft with my bank which is charging £5 a day. I have no idea what I can do. The bank won't lower my loan repayments and my car finance have said I can have 1 month off but I'll be in arrears and if they aren't paid they will repossess. That's without all the other bills we have to pay too. We have nothing for our new baby in may. I can't cope. I feel like packing up and running away. If anybody has any support or advice I would be so grateful. Thank you.
↧
↧

Charging order/ resrtiction

February 21, 2017, 3:43 am
$
0
0
Does anyone have any idea how to see if a charging order / restriction has been removed?
↧

Repaying debt advice

February 21, 2017, 3:51 am
$
0
0
Just looking for advice on my current idea to start repaying my debt more Efficiently. I've previously posted up SOA and taken on advice from points made.

Current debt

Tesco loan settlement today £18988 - costing £434 a month for a further 47 months at 7%.

MBNA credit card - £2239.06 , paying £25 minimum payment 0% finished in April 2017

Fluid credit card - £925 balance - paying £25 a month 0% finishes in April 2017

Tesco credit card £2894 balance paying £30 a month 0% finishes Dec 2016.


I have a Barclaycard which has 0 balance and this months offers are
1.9% fee for a money transfer until Feb 18 or 2.9% fee for a balance transfer until Nov 18.


I can't get any other balance transfer cards but have been approved for a loan with nationwide - £14999 over 48 months at 4.1% or £20000 over 48 months at 5.1%. I could get Upto 25k if needed which would pay off everything and I could cancel all credit cards.

I am thinking of taking out the £14999 loan with nationwide doing a money transfer for £4K off my Barclaycard which would allow me to settle the Tesco loan.

Then I could transfer my MBNA and Fluid balance to Barclaycard and close these accounts ?

Hope it all makes sense just trying to pay as much as I can as quick as I can and get these debts under control and close
Unnecessary cards as I go
↧

Dmp when to action it?

February 21, 2017, 5:05 am
$
0
0
Hi guys,
thanks for your help so far, most invaluable, last question for now, I need to know when to send my completed DMP paperwork to Stepchange as I don't want to start paying it till July, allowing me time to build up an emergency fund, do I send it now with a note saying don't apply the DMP till July or wait till then? I am firing off all my letters to creditors and my bank today enclosing the Stepchange budget, will I need to redo the stepchange remedy tool again then? Thanks again for your continued help.
↧

Should I move loan to 0% card?

February 21, 2017, 2:48 pm
$
0
0
Hi all!

I've currently got a loan with outstanding balance of around £1760 at 11.9%Apr.

I'm on plan with overpaying to get this gone by February 2018 and should be earlier.

According to the eligibility checker the MBNA is 100%.

I have a Halifax clarity credit card which isn't 0% but is only used for online purchases and paid off straight away and I have my mortgage.

I am on 23,831 but take home 1480 a month after student loan and pension.
Should I try for the MBNA card to get my outstanding balance to 0%?

Thanks for all your assistance
↧
↧

Vodafone Debt Collection

February 21, 2017, 6:24 pm
$
0
0
Hey

Just asking for a little advice and help...

So I recently moved to Australia on a WHV and am no longer using my English Vodafone sim card, however did use it for a tiny bit of October, and not realising occured a few charges. I hadnt looked at my vodafone account as only thought £26 was going to be coming out each month, however in October they heavily overcharged me and because there was not enough in my english account to cover this i have been getting late payment charges for the past couple of months on top of this.

So my parents back home have been being contacted by debt collectors. Now, obviously my sim with the number in question is not in a phone so vodafone couldnt contact me through that, however they have an email address and a home number for me. I was not attempted to be contacted regarding the bill by either means and instead it was just passed straight to debt collectors and my parents have been being contacted at home. Also I went into a store and told them the sim would be out of action (i couldnt cancel it because I had too long left on the contract)

I just wanted to know where i stood on this. Should vodafone have tried to contact me via other means regarding the charges? Can i make a complaint that they didn't actually speak to me once before passing the issue to the debt collectors despite having alternative methods of contact?

Thanks for any help
Alice
↧

Student Loan ... real time balance?

February 22, 2017, 1:24 am
$
0
0
I'm one of the lucky ones that has managed to get close to clearing my student loan (taken out in 1998)! I've not made overpayments, just paid it through my salary, but approx. 6 months ago was contacted to switch to payment via Direct Debit which I did. I've been making payments this way but have since had a bonus so keen to just pay off the final balance as a lump sum (which should be around £700ish) to get rid of the thing!


Is the only way to get an up to date balance to call them? It gives the option to make a full payment by card on their website but directs me to the balance calculator to work out what's outstanding! Seems crazy that you can't view your balance in real time like any other loan! Anyone else have the same frustration?
↧
Search

Tight budget and debt free aim

February 22, 2017, 6:03 am
$
0
0
Hi everyone,

I have an aim to be debt free by end of 2018. I think I can do it, just about, but my budget is very very tight. I have literally nothing left after food, bills and debt repayments. I live quite a simple life and am very happy at home but I do sometimes have a tendency to splurge on buying stuff, and I'm trying to avoid that. I'm just worried that by having such a tight budget it's going to go pearshaped. I have no contingency at all... no savings...
However, I am paying over the minimum on all my CCs and my Next account. And if all else fails, I can get rid of the car, because actually I only use it twice a week. I do have a bike and if I got a bit fitter I could cycle the 7 miles into the nearest city.

I've just bought a YNAB subscription too, so I'm keeping a good track of my finances.

Is it worth struggling through this next 2 years to be debt free? Or maybe should I accept a little slack, put in some fun money/contingency money and be debt free from mid-2019?


***************************

(If you're interested I've put my outgoings at the end here - a large proportion is going on debt repayments mostly credit cards, CC1 and CC3 are 0%, CC2 is nearly paid off after balance transfer to CC3. Next account is high percentage so that's a focus for any extra money)

Rent (to partner) £238
Car Ins £31
C Tax £147
Next account £80
CC 1 £135
CC 2 £10
CC 3 £90
Tax credits overpay repayment £35
Electric £115
Car Tax £21
Specsavers £7
BT Phone and Internet £80
GiffGaff £12
Phoenix comic £10
iPhone payment £17
Food £90
Travel/petrol £50 (I work from home so this is low)
TOTAL: £1,168
INCOME: £1,169
↧

Sorry it's another YNAB thread but info needed please

February 22, 2017, 9:28 am
$
0
0
Evening all,

We are in the position where we fritter money away and it's getting on my nerves. At present, we use an app on our phones to update everything we spend and forecast bills.

Our problem is willy nilly spends. We have budgets for things but they are always exceeded. Half the problem is putting things on a card, thinking I will pay that, then forgetting about it until the bill comes in. The card gets paid every month in full, however we also have a small balance on and 0% percent card, that we previously used for home improvements, and we pay a few hundred pounds off this month.

Another issue is that I had to give up work due to illness and boredon and frustration/depression at being 'useless' plays a big part in spends as well. We are actually very lucky that we have a decent income and a decent disposable income and are able to enjoy things like meals out etc. But, as I say I want to be in a position where we can save and get on top of things and to stick within budgets.

So, how can YNAB help me? I tried it before but found it head busting and didn't seem to work with all of the online servings accounts that we have, which we use currently as an envelope system. Would it mean just using the one account? And if I was to spend something, would that have to be added manually as a transaction? What about credit card payments? Can they be added too?

Meant to say, reason for using card is because I get rewards, which means vouchers for Debenhams..I use these for clothes/presents etc, so handy.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.
↧
↧

consolidation

February 22, 2017, 10:41 am
$
0
0
Good Evening.....
I have been a little silly with money for the last couple of years:(
and had a sit down last night to go through what I have to pay out monthly.
Currently I have 2 x loans with around £2500 each on - couldnt tell you the APR rates but under 10% these have another 2 years left on them.
HSBC CC with £4427 at 18.9%apr (some of this at 0% balance tx)
6.5k limit

Halifax CC around £500 21.9% apr (limit of 3.5k)

i have other direct debits etc going out of my account but they are things like mortgage, gas, electic etc.
the

These "loans" are costing me £366 a month, so was thinking of getting a loan from HSBC at 3.3% for 10K over 5 years to reduce the monthly payments to £180 - with the possibility of paying overpayments to reduce the duration.

sounds simple.... but checked on MSE yesterday to do a soft check, and the elegibility came up low for a fair few of the credit providers, as low as 0% eligibility :(:( - but HSBC 90% eligible:)

so not sure if going through with the loan would be a good thing or not... or should i just struggle along paying the £366 a month:sad::eek:

any advice appreciated
↧

Do you have to 'tell the partner'?

February 22, 2017, 11:40 am
$
0
0
Title says it all really.

I have read lots of posts on here about people having debt that their partner knows nothing about. It was either debt from before they were together, or they have run it up in secret, or as in my situation, it has been run up together but without the partner really realising or paying attention.

I deal with all the finances and my husband just goes with the flow... he requests we buy things and I either say yes or no, or I get talked into it even if I'm not keen as I know deep down we can't really afford it. But I never really say this to him; I just end up agreeing.

I juggle all the bills and for quite a few years I managed, but over the last few years everything has gone belly-up! I have had a CCJ registered against me a few weeks ago and most of my debts are now with debt collection agencies. We also have debts chasing us that we are ignoring (head in sand works, right?) He doesn't know exactly how much we owe and neither do I if I'm honest, but I'm pretty sure if we both had a guess his would be way under the actual amount.

I don't want to tell him. I would rather just continue trying to sort it all out myself but I must admit I am finding it all rather stressful.

Has anyone ever managed to take it on and get debts paid off without telling their partner? How did you go about it?

I have managed to get a few of the debts under control and repayment plans set up, but as fast as I am doing that he is asking me if we can buy x,y or z...

Frustrated x
↧

Help

February 22, 2017, 11:58 am
$
0
0
Recently found partner passed away. Left with more outgoings than I get on Benefits. Can barely feed myself age 61 yrs. Am now suffering with mental health depression. Lost and need help.
↧
Viewing all 21857 articles
Browse latest View live
Search