40 days free

That's a great achievement, so far. A day is a good achievement for a compulsive gambler, so you're doing excellently.

16k and 2 years, sounds like me, back in 2009 and I can tell you it can be done. I swapped one addcition for another, gambling for saving and debt clearing.

Keep posting and keep strong, others seeing people abstaining from gambling, is a real encouragement.

Wondering if you could give me bit of advise on the debt side of things I'm 26 and in about £10k of debt is a debt management plan a good way to go?? I don't want to do it but feel as if it's the only way so advice would be helpful

Hello fufc321

Forum users here can certainly tell you about their experiences of managing debt, but they can't tell you what's the best solution for you. If you are looking for impartial advice on your options around debt, there are several non profit helplines you can call - you can find them listed on our website here:

http://www.gamcare.org.uk/get-advice/what-can-you-do/finance-and-debt-management

Best wishes

Forum Admin

Whichever route you take, you need to get your paperwork and sums sorted and work out a strict budget, to find out how much you can afford each month, to put towards the debt. Yes it is depressing, but it is the only way to start to get a clear focus on clearing the debt.

Once you've done that, you have a couple of options.

1/ Take out a debt management plan with payplan or stepchange, these are free, don't go with any others, as they will charge you a monthly fee and you are trying to clear it as soon as possible. Call them, they will arrrange to call you back, maybe a couple of days later. With you having all the details of your debts and budget in hand, they will go through it, to see if it is a suitable option for you. They can suggest other options such as bankrupcy, but unless you have absolutely no spare cash each month, to throw at it, for £10k, I wouldn't see they would do that. Taking out a DMP, will ruin your credit status, but that may be of little or no concern to you at the moment.

2/ Tackle the debt yourself. This is the option I took. If like I was, you are making at least the minimum payments to debts, then you are managing it yourself and possibly, still have a average/good credit rating. But because of the gambling, like me, you simply are not throwing as much as possible towards it. Taking this route, means no gambling and immediately on payday, paying as much as you can to debts such as credit cards. If you work out your budget beforehand, you can see how much you can afford to pay to the debt each month and the money you need to live on.

If you take option 2 and you still have a half decent credit rating, then you could try to apply for balance/money transfer credit cards, to pay off high interest debt for upto a couple of years, interest free. One of the things I did was transfer a credit card balance of £4000, that was costing me £75 + interest a month to an interest free card, which enabled me to pay a lot less towards it and tackle other debt, that was attracting interest.

I would suggest another website, if your not a member and that is moneysavingexpert.com and start a thread in the debt free wanabee section, so many people with great advice on debt and debt clearance, including debt management programs.