Hi,

I require some advice please. I am currently in around £10000 worth of debt spread across 3 credit cards. I can make the monthly payments but the interest is wiping out any payment I make each month, subsequently I am unlikely to ever pay these off fully.

Is there anything anyone can suggest to get me out of this hole? I have tried loans but where my credit rating is not that good I have been unsuccesful.

I'd appreciate any advice.

Cheers.

Can you give a little more info please?

Are the debts with the Original Creditor or are they with DCA's and names if possible.

Hi,

The debts are with Egg, Virgin(MBNA) and Halifax.

If you haven’t already done so, write to them all with your I&E and offer the payment you can afford, even if its £1.00pm and ask them to freeze the interest.

They will, at the end of the day have to accept this. They know, that if it gets to court they have to show that all that is possible has been done.

Don’t telephone these companies and insist on contact by correspondence only.

If you consider the balances are include charges then claim those back to reduce the debt

ok, cheers for the help. I'm sure I can claim back quite a few charges.

One more thing though - Do I have to prove that the amount I offer them per month is all I can afford? Could I offer them £1 even though I can afford more?

Send these companies what is called an SAR, a template for this is in the library.

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/

Also, write to them explaining that you disagree with the outstanding balance, this in effect places the account in dispute and will be put on hold for at least 28 days. When an account is in dispute, you are entitled to withhold payment until corrected.

Be honest with your I&E, as it might backfire, although I do realise circumstances can change for the better.

Other letter templates are here

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/debt-bailiffs-advice/20758-creditors-dcas-letter-templates.html

Cheers for that. Is there also a template for the Personal Budget sheet?

Also, how can I determine what is a reasonable standard of living amount? I could obviously work out how much I have to pay to my creditors, but I could never account for all my earnings. I still have to live.

I basically earn £950 a month - £275 for rent + at the minute there is about £60 to Halifax, £90 to Virgin and £90 to Egg + a Loan from Smile, which stands at £88 per month. That leaves me with £347, so in theory I could still manage the payments to each of my creditors. My main conxern is that I can not afford the interest payments.

How could I deminstrate that I need £347 or more to live on?

Cheers.

I&E’s are always a person thing, however saying that the government has set minimum allowances/amounts for individuals, couples and families to live on.

If you contact CCCS or National Debt Line they will be able to give you the up to date figures, which by the way are excepted by the courts.

Below is an example I used recently for a working couple with no children. If you have children other allowances are allowed.

Expenditure Monthly

Rent 275.00

Council Tax 81.00

Water Rate 32.67

Fuel 53.00

House Keeping 232.00

Telephone 39.00

TV Licence 10.00

Travel Expenses 82.40

House Insurance 62.00

Emergencies 20.00

B/day Xmas 12.00

Other 12.00

Total £911.07

Income £950.00 - £911.07

Disposable Income £38.93

You then pay your creditors from the disposable income on a pro-rata basis.

What Turnaround has told you is exactly correcxt. Your I&E includes what you need to live on and the cresitors get the balance. Your budget must be workable and realistic as you will have to stick to it for a long time to clear your debt. have you any items you could sell to pay off some the debt - car boots - e-bay etc can bring in a fair amount.

At the moment it will take you 21 years to pay off what you owe, which is not realistic. You do not have enough suprplus to consider an IVA.

Do a persaonl budget sheet and come back and we will see how we can help. Do you have an estimate of how much you wil lbe reclaiming in charges>