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Hi folks.
Thought it was time I introduced myself.
I've been browsing your forum for a few weeks now and catching up on the UE threads (very good reading).
Myself and hubby have found ourselves in considerable debt (was £56,000 in April) due to credit cards, we have until around April never missed any payments on them even though we were having to find over £1,500 every month just for the minimum payments, but things caught up with us and we got to the point that there just wasn't enough money to cover the credit card bills.
We have been depending on credit for a few years now and constantly thinking, hoping, that we could find a way out of this mess but unfortunately miracles are in short supply at the moment.
I joined another well known forum for financial advice and decided that the only way forward was a DMP with stepchange and at first it seemed the right thing to do, I had filled out their debt remedy forms changed bank account, stopped direct debits and written to our creditors explaining that we were about to go on a DMP with stepchange, and was (I thought ) ready to go. But, the more I read up on topics from other posters, the more I started to doubt if the DMP was really going to be any benefit to us. I then decided to manage my own DMP. Again, Reading other people's stories, there was still a nagging doubt. No guarantees of interest being stopped, letters and phone calls from DCA's etc. Also we would have been just about managing for around the next 7 years, probably a lot more with the interest and charges that they seem to have pleasure in slapping on us every month
I had a PM from another member telling me to come on here, I've been hooked since!
I doubt we have got many, if any, debts which will be unenforceable as they seem to mostly be post 2007, originally I thought they were older but hubby said that over the years we have used the other cards to balance transfer on to newer ones.
We have not made any payments to any of our creditors since April, we have had a lot of letters and phone calls since then, all of which I have ignored.
The letters seem to have stopped over the last fortnight which has worried me a little but no doubt I will come home to another mountain of post any day now.
These last three months have been strange, we have had money to buy essential things which we were desperate for but unable to afford due to everything going towards out debts.
I have started to put money away now as I am aware that there will soon come a point where we have to start responding to and paying back the debts, all I need is some breathing space to try and get some cash together to be able to do this.
Im not at all worried about our credit records now as they are completely trashed anyway, I was worried about CCJ's or having the house repossessed at first but have gone beyond that now, also reading this forum I gather there will be a little way to go before anything like that can happen.
I did used to say that I am not going to run away from our debts - we borrowed, we will pay it all back. Actually I think they have had that and a lot more besides, so am beginning to change my mind a little bit (a lot).
I realise it is going to be a long uphill struggle, but in the end up this was the only option left for us, apart from rolling over and letting the banks completely screw us over.
I hope I can pop in and pick your brains when things start to get scary. As I said I have been reading the UE diaries and they are so inspiring, I have also spent the last two days in the other place reading Mouseannes diary and was really touched by all the support that was there for her.
I will post more, but think that's enough for an intro. Sorry if it all seems garbled and confused but basically that's what I am.
I look forward to reading a lot more over the following weeks/months
Thought it was time I introduced myself.
I've been browsing your forum for a few weeks now and catching up on the UE threads (very good reading).
Myself and hubby have found ourselves in considerable debt (was £56,000 in April) due to credit cards, we have until around April never missed any payments on them even though we were having to find over £1,500 every month just for the minimum payments, but things caught up with us and we got to the point that there just wasn't enough money to cover the credit card bills.
We have been depending on credit for a few years now and constantly thinking, hoping, that we could find a way out of this mess but unfortunately miracles are in short supply at the moment.
I joined another well known forum for financial advice and decided that the only way forward was a DMP with stepchange and at first it seemed the right thing to do, I had filled out their debt remedy forms changed bank account, stopped direct debits and written to our creditors explaining that we were about to go on a DMP with stepchange, and was (I thought ) ready to go. But, the more I read up on topics from other posters, the more I started to doubt if the DMP was really going to be any benefit to us. I then decided to manage my own DMP. Again, Reading other people's stories, there was still a nagging doubt. No guarantees of interest being stopped, letters and phone calls from DCA's etc. Also we would have been just about managing for around the next 7 years, probably a lot more with the interest and charges that they seem to have pleasure in slapping on us every month
I had a PM from another member telling me to come on here, I've been hooked since!
I doubt we have got many, if any, debts which will be unenforceable as they seem to mostly be post 2007, originally I thought they were older but hubby said that over the years we have used the other cards to balance transfer on to newer ones.
We have not made any payments to any of our creditors since April, we have had a lot of letters and phone calls since then, all of which I have ignored.
The letters seem to have stopped over the last fortnight which has worried me a little but no doubt I will come home to another mountain of post any day now.
These last three months have been strange, we have had money to buy essential things which we were desperate for but unable to afford due to everything going towards out debts.
I have started to put money away now as I am aware that there will soon come a point where we have to start responding to and paying back the debts, all I need is some breathing space to try and get some cash together to be able to do this.
Im not at all worried about our credit records now as they are completely trashed anyway, I was worried about CCJ's or having the house repossessed at first but have gone beyond that now, also reading this forum I gather there will be a little way to go before anything like that can happen.
I did used to say that I am not going to run away from our debts - we borrowed, we will pay it all back. Actually I think they have had that and a lot more besides, so am beginning to change my mind a little bit (a lot).
I realise it is going to be a long uphill struggle, but in the end up this was the only option left for us, apart from rolling over and letting the banks completely screw us over.
I hope I can pop in and pick your brains when things start to get scary. As I said I have been reading the UE diaries and they are so inspiring, I have also spent the last two days in the other place reading Mouseannes diary and was really touched by all the support that was there for her.
I will post more, but think that's enough for an intro. Sorry if it all seems garbled and confused but basically that's what I am.
I look forward to reading a lot more over the following weeks/months
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