The Consumer Action Group...

Ok, I’ve not updated for a while as I’ve been up to my eyeballs in stress with trying to find somewhere to live that isn’t going to make me bankrupt, at the moment I'm waiting to hear about a little 1 bed flat so I will keep you updated...

But in the meantime I'm going to talk about a site called the Consumer Action Group, which is totally amazing, Since joining the site I have started to claim back approx £1700 in unfair Bank charges, see here, Shoe Junkie V's Natwest, money that I never in a million years thought I'd see again. They have so much info on credit laws and everyone is so helpful, I also posted about a problem me and my ex flatmate are having with Wescot, see here, 'Very Difficult' . I've also picked up some advice on how to deal with my Landlady when she tries to swindle me out of my deposit, which I'm sure she will.

Most importantly though, I urge anyone thinking of reclaiming their unfair bank charges to look at this site, starting with the FAQ's, the link is on the right hand side of this page, good luck and stick with it!

Anyway thats about all I've got time for, have a good weekend everyone!x

Worst News Ever...

Yesterday after running about like a headless chicken trying to get my rent ready for lunchtime, after paying the landlady she handed my boyfriend a letter giving us 2 and a half months eviction notice!! I cried as soon as he told me, I have to move out of my dream flat by 2 weeks after Christmas. You may wonder what this has to do with debt, as the reason I'm being evicted has nothing to do with not paying my rent as this is the ONLY thing i've always paid ontime as I love my flat too much to jeopardise that. After everything I've done to try and sort myself out I just think why does this have to happen now?? I'm going to have to call all of my creditors again to give them my new address, I've just had gas and electricity pre-payemnt meters fitted that will have to be removed and all the money its going to cost me to move out and find somewhere else is really going to mess things up, and all this over Christmas?? I just wanted to curl up and cry! I can't handle this right now!

Take action now...

I'm feeling a bit flat today, having taken the day off yesterday, unpaid, I waited for someone to come and fit a pre-payment metre for my gas and electricity supply, at 10.30 the gas man came, did his bit and left. At 12.30 the electricity man came took one look and said he's not going to have time to do it today, didn't realise I had economy 7, blah blah, will have to arrange another date!! Ok, do these people not realise that the money I lost from not working yesterday could have paid for a months worth of electricity!!

Anyway I had a couple of vouchers for free coffee so I met my mum for lunch and we got to dicussing money, and it got me thinking about what a mess I've got myself in, I'm basically looking at not having a clear credit record till I'm 35 (thats 12 years) and then I'll have to build up a decent credit score before I can even look at buying a house.

I know this is supposed to be inspiring people, but you should know its not as simple as I've probably made out, so anyone that is reading this, TAKE ACTION NOW, the longer you leave it the worse it gets. I do still feel like I'm doing well, and feel much better for not having my head burried in the sand but I just feel so silly for getting into this mess.

On a lighter note, I've now set-up standing orders for Money Shop, Natwest CC, and Mint accepted my offer of £50 per month, but I have to pay with this stupid little book I have to take to the post office and pay for the service. Can't they take Direct Debits like everyone else?

Links...

I've added some links to sites I've found helpful and a few mini money makers - every penny counts.

Weekly budget...

To keep all this in order I've had to make a weekly budget which looks something like this...

20th Oct MBNA (£50) Natwest (£50) Natwest c/c (£50) Broadband (£18) £168
27th Oct Rent (£30) Powergen (£60) CT (£80) NTL (£20) TV (£11) £201
3rd Nov College (£85) Water (£25) Insurance (£13) O2 (£22) £145
10th Nov Moneyshop (£100) O2 (£100) £200
17th Nov MBNA (£50) Natwest (£50) Natwest c/c (£50) Broadband (£18) £168
24th Nov Rent (£30) Powergen (£60) CT (£80) NTL (£20) TV (£11) £201

...except its all in an excel spreadsheet and goes on until March and I need to add Mint now too, and if your wondering why I only pay £30 Rent, I pay all the bills and a little bit of rent and my boyfriend and Flatmate pay the rest of the rent. Also I get paid weekly, which makes it very difficult for monthly direct debits *sigh*

I've also got a little note book, to keep track of all my correspondance with creditors, phone, fax or letter, just for back up really. I record the date, time, name of person and any actions I need to make. x

This weekend...

Well I had some good news and some bad news this weekend moneywise...

Bad News - I finally recieved a letter from Mint telling me how much I owe (I thought they'd forgotten about me) and threatening court action, I called them and offered £50 a month, they weren't too pleased about that, they suggested £75, then £60, so I said I would send them my financial statement and then they could get back to me (I'm standing my ground), but I paid them £51.50 with my boyfriends debit card (don't worry I asked him first).

Good News - I called Moneyshop and set-up a £100 a month re-payment plan and paid them £125 initial payment. Also called MBNA and Moorcroft and paid them both £50 as the direct debits aren't set-up yet (takes a month). I didn't get round to calling Wescott as I didn't have any money left by this point so I'll have to wait till next week and cross my fingers that I don't hear from them in the meantime.

Bad News - I recieved a bill from NTL saying I owe them £78!!!!! Which will come out of my account after 1st November, don't know where I'm going to get that from yet, boyfriend still owes me £300 so I guess I'll have to ask him again.

Good News - I've paid both the library and Specsavers, so I can cross both of those debts off!! Yay! So all in all quite an eventful weekend debt busting wise. x

Introduction...What I've done so far...

Unfortunately after racking up a large amount of debt with Natwest and being unable to make re-payments my bank account has now been closed, making it impossible to make payments to creditors via debit card or cheque, so far I've been using boyfriends account but,I've now found out that people with bad credit such as myself can open a BASIC account, that I can have my wages paid into, set-up Direct debits and standing orders but I can't have an overdraft, cheque book or even a debit card. I've opened an account with HSBC and so far so good, I like that fact that I have to pay for everything by cash now, it means I can't get into any more debt at least!

With some of my creditors I have now entered into what I think is known as an informal voluntary agreement. I did this by I writing to them, I found a template of this letter on The Citizens Advice Bureau website....

"To whom it may concern,

RE ACCOUNT NUMBER XXXXXXXXXXX

I regret that I have been unable to maintain monthly payments because I lost my job earlier on this year and during this time I was only receiving job seekers allowance which was only able to cover my basic needs. I have now taken a temporary position so feel I am able to make an offer to repay the outstanding debt.

I am enclosing a copy of my financial statement that gives details of my income and expenses and makes offers to all my creditors. You will see from this information that I am able to offer you £50.00 per month. I propose to make my first payment on 06.10.06. I trust you will except my offer as realistic given my circumstances and agree to suspend interest and any other charges on my account provided regular payments are made. I shall of course keep you informed of any changes in my circumstances.

Thank you in anticipation for your response."


...I sent this letter along with my financial statement (a list of all my in-comings and outgoings). Since sending these, I received a letter from MBNA asking me to call them to arrange to make payments (they were suprisingly very nice) and I have arranged to pay £50 per month by direct debit for the moment. I had to call 'Moorcroft' who are dealing with my Natwest Credit card account and have agreed to pay them £50 per month by D/D aswell.

I will be calling Westcott credit agency this weekend to arrange a re-payment plan for my Natwest Bank account again for £50 per month, I've been having problems with this as part of the money I owe is from a joint account (I 'll explain more about this later). All of these Direct Debits will be presented on 22nd of each month. (Anyone thinking of considering this type of agreement should be aware that this will show on your credit record for up to 6 years after the debt has been cleared in full)

Regarding my utility bills, well, I'm not so organised with this yet, Powergen will be coming to fit a pre-payment metre for gas and electricity next week, £40 per month of any money I put onto the metre will go directly towards paying the debts. I have sent a letter to the City Council similar to the letter above stating I will arrange to pay them £80 per month and will have paid the amount in full by April 2007. I have also set-up a D/D for TV license and home contents insurance. Not doing too bad! x

Introduction...the situation as it stands...

Ok this is where I have to grit my teeth and actually figure out how much I owe, in TOTAL, now you'll have to bare with me because as I'm writing this I don't actually know the total, so If my fingers seize up or something I apoligise. So here goes (I'll start with the biggest debt and work my way down)...

MBNA - £6196
Mint - £4111.45
Natwest account - £2593.59

Moneyshop - £625
Powergen - £475.14

Council Tax - (not sure yet)
Natwest Credit Card - £394

o2 - £374.30
Severn Trent - (not sure yet)
Specsavers - £30
Ebay - £15.56
Library Fees - £8.45

Ok so thats a total of - £

Introduction....how I got into debt....

Well I guess it all started when I was old enough to start shopping and drinking, not both at the same time of course, I'd basically end up blowing all my wages on going out and clothes to go out in within a week of being paid.

When I was 18 I got offered my first credit card when I signed up to some stupid bank scheme that was *supposed* to save me money (ha! how naive was i?) anyway within a few months I was getting pretty close to my limit.

When I turned nineteen I took on a second job at a 'trendy' (I hate that word) bar, the uniform was pretty much 'wear what you want', except each night there was a colour scheme, so practically every week I'd buy something new to fit in with that nights colour (of course I didn't want to wear the same outfit twice) and all the money I earnt would be spent going out after I'd finished work and on my nights off with all my cool new friends.

I then moved in with my ex boyfriend who was even worse with money than me and my debt increased, by the time I'd moved back home after we split up (which caused a few major shopping sprees and many many drinking sessions) I was in a fair bit of trouble, but I didn't let that bother me and carried on racking up the credit card bills and even took out a loan to re-pay the credit cards, but then just ran them back up again.

Anyway fast forward to early this year and I was about £10,000 in debt then in early March disaster struck, I lost my job, meaning I was unable to keep up with the ridiculously high re-payments on my credit cards, utility bills and pretty much everything else (even library fees!!). So having nearly been cut off, taken to court and threatened with bankrupcy i'm now removing my head from the sand and taking action.

I've recently found a temporary secretarial job and I also work in a chinese restaurant for extra pennies (and free chinese food), so I'm now going to tell you all about my journey to debt freedom, in the hope that it will inspire me and maybe others that read this. x