Dear Brent100 I just wondered how you were getting on with this and what your experiences had been since your last post? I am also considering - as a last resort I might add - voluntary repossession and then bankruptcy. I have been in a debt management plan now for a year and a half but during this time my relationship with my partner has broken down. Our house has now been on the market for 10months but with very little interest due to the current state of the housing market. We have now dropped the house price to the lowest that we possibly can to be able to pay the mortgage off and cover the solicitors fees but have still had no joy. We are going to hold on for another 2 months and pray for a buyer but will then need to take drastic action. The situation with my ex has turned very difficult and we can't just sit out the crisis on the housing market. However given my current debts if we "hand back the keys" and then there is a shortfall I just can't manage this on top and would consider my only option to be bankruptcy. As i said this is a last resort but we have done all we can to try and sell the house and renting it out or sitting it out is just not an option. Would be interested to hear how you were getting on and anyone else's experiences of similar.

Stick in there Hannah - it will work out. I've been at a point where I've really thought there's no way out but I am slowly coming through it. I won't kid you that it's easy but if you do things step by step you will get there eventually. I, like you have said, felt ashamed of the situation I got myself into. And yet buried my head in the sand until things got desperate. While I thought for a long time my bank were helping me as they consolidated debt after debt you get to a point where you realise they have been anything but helpful in letting you get to that level of debt. Clearly at one point I had a relatively extravagant lifestyle but in the end - my entire salary was going on my debts and I was using whatever credit I could find to pay for petrol to get me to work and buy groceries. Plus I was trying to hide it from my partner and family so also using credit to pretend I had a normal lifestyle. In November last year things came to a head and our joint account was overdrawn as I was borrowing from that to bring my personal account within the overdraft limit. Charges were racking up month on month and I was at a point where I was so over my limit that when my salary went in it just slipped into a black hole with no money left to pay my debts or bills. The bank rang my partner to tell him our joint account was overdrawn and my world fell in. I have been lucky - my partner and family stood by me. I spoke to some amazing people at both Citizen's Advice and National Debt Helpline. They didn't judge me but were people who had been through it themselves and came out the other side. I started looking at options - worst case scenario bankruptcy and worked back from that through the option of an IVA and finally decided that a Debt Management Plan was the best way forward. 8 months on things are getting better. Clearly they're not perfect - I have a very tight budget to live to (and will have to for the next 6 years) and I have had to make some dramatic changes to my life. I hit rock bottom and am building myself back up. But it does feel good not to constantly be worrying about how to pay my creditors. The only creditor who is still causing a problem is HSBC - they agreed to the amount I offered to pay them but only if it was as a managed loan with a huge APR on top (like you Becci). I refused this (on the advice of my debt management co.) and am now waiting to see what happens next. They might pass it on to debt collectors but I am advised that they will often agree to the amount offered and to be honest I'd do anything to get away from HSBC now! Don't get me wrong - I'm not laying all the blame with them, I have played more than my part in getting myself into this situation but I also rang them in tears and all I got was rudeness and judgements. Just be open and honest with the people who are trying to help you. They will not judge you. I really hope the situation improves for you and your daughter very soon. I am thinking of you and hope that I might have said something about my experience that will give you faith that you can get through this.