1 year gamble free but still struggling... on here for support and advice!

Hi DM 

I am also in a huge amount of debt around 30k. 20k of that is  in a debt management plan with  Payplan who I believe are very similar to stepchange. It’s very daunting but it is a good thing to do if you are struggling. 

The debt management company will work out a monthly affordable budget for you and how much money after all living expenses will be left to pay your debts. They will then  talk to all of your creditors and agree on reasonable  repayments.

A lot of creditors will stop interest on your account but some may not. Stepchange would have contacted all of your creditors within the 30 days and everything should be set up. This now means you no longer have to deal with you creditors too and all correspondence will go through stepchange. If a creditor writes to you, you just forward the letter over to stepchange. If they call you then you ask them to contact stepchange regarding any matter. Soon your creditors won’t contact you at all. 

 Some creditors over time may issues defaults against you which will stay on your credit for for 6 years, but to me I thought this was better than the crippling debt. It also gives you 6 years to not get more credit and clean up your credit file ready for when the defaults drop off.

If you ever can pay more towards your plan or if your circumstances change then your monthly payment will be adjusted lower or higher depending on your financial needs. 

You have taken a really good step here to becoming debt free. 

Can I please also tell you about an amazing site debt camel. If you feel your loans were given to you irresponsibly you can make an affordability complaint about them. This site debt camel is a free debt advice site and amazing! It tells you step by step how to look into this. 

There are template letters and a wealth of knowledge on debt camel about this. The lady who runs the site is amazing. I used this tool to claim back refunds for the interest payed on some of my payday loans as my complaints went to the financial ombudsman.  Look into this as many payday lenders are giving out loans  irresponsibly. 

Good luck and well done on your 1 year! That’s amazing! You are an inspiration 

Thank you for your support,

I am just really anxious just now though with all the uncertainty but once it is set up I hope this will calm me down a bit.

Does the DMP include your car finance etc as I would rather just continue to pay that as normal...

Are you able to pick and chose which debts you would like included?

D

I have a large amount of debt too north of 40k, I have just finalised my DMP with step change and the first payment will be going out on the 10th.

Its a huge relief for me as the amount I was paying before was unsustainable and in part was the reason i continued to gamble. in order to try and fix the issue that gambling had already created. it was a viscous cycle. 

My wife now has full control over my finances and we have a budget in place and I have set up an account on Money dashboard which is a free app where you can see all your bank accounts in one place and Tag expenditure to track it. 

I feel so much more free and like a huge weight has been lifted. Step change have been fantastic and I made all my creditors aware I was talking to them and again they were all really good too. As previously mentioned above there will be defaults placed on my account but its a necessary evil and will mean a far better way of life in the long run for me and my family. 

step change was definitely the right decision if anything you should have contacted them sooner 

im in the last year of my iva and have reduced a 12k debt  down to 1,500 once thats paid i will be completely debt free

it will take time but things do get better when you realise the destructive gambling lifestyle is pointless 

perhaps you could look at ways of gaining a second income to reduce the debt faster ? 

good luck 

Posted by: Givemethebuzz

step change was definitely the right decision if anything you should have contacted them sooner 

im in the last year of my iva and have reduced a 12k debt  down to 1,500 once thats paid i will be completely debt free

it will take time but things do get better when you realise the destructive gambling lifestyle is pointless 

perhaps you could look at ways of gaining a second income to reduce the debt faster ? 

good luck 

Thanks for your advice.

Today I have been really stressed about it all. They got back to me looking for a lot more information and stuff for the application which stressed me out and questioned whether I am doing the right thing. The woman I spoke to on the phone for assistance felt like she pilsner be bothered speaking to me and was very rude which was rather disappointing. I suppose now I have committed I feel like I should go through with it but the whole thing has been making me really anxious as I am not entirely sure what this is going to mean for me entering the debt management plan.

D

The Debt management plan will help ease the stress. One word of caution from your post is that I would advice returning to your meetings to really get an understanding of how your behaviour has you to this point and how you can change this and improve. Its very common for people to attend GA after this hit rock bottom and have run out of road financially, they go through the motions of attending meetings without really have some serious introspection they revert to type once the debt is cleared. Im not saying this is the case here but to be wary of it. Go to your meeting, talk honestly there of how you feel about it all and you will feel better for it.