best way to deal with gambling debt?

Hi, have you contacted Stepchange the debt charity, they don't charge any fees and work out a payment based on your income minus essential monthly payments. This is who I have turned to with 27k credit card debt and this should stop all interest on your loans.

Worth a look even if it isn't  for you. 

Good luck

thanks @bladesman funnily enough I did go on their site but ended up speaking to the bankruptcy bureau instead. 

Are you having to pay off the full £27k or are part of your debts written off?

Do you mind me asking what your monthly payment is that you have to make? Does it come out of your salary or is it down to you to make the payment yourself

as I say, I don't have any income at all for now and most likely wont for at least 6 months so I am just wondering what the best course of action is for me.

Hi, they create a debt management plan and the payment is based on what money you have left after paying for essentials each month. It will take a long time to pay off, but, as I said doing this has stopped anymore interest being added. If you go on the site you can put in your income, even if only universal credit,  and your expenditure and it will tell you your monthly payment. you pay this amount to them each month and they spread it across each debt as a percentage. It does not write off any of my debt.

Hi Peter86,

If you don’t mind me asking, roughly how much is your debt in total? With no income at all and already with 3 CCJ’s, banckrupcy might be a good option to consider but this very much depends on your personal circumstance. Were all your loans, credit cards etc repayments  affordable when you took them out? If not, you can lodge a complaint with your creditors for unaffordable/irresponsible lending. I have got back over £10k refund on interests from various lenders for loans I took out to gamble. I’ve not  gambled in almost 2.5months and my life is making a massive u-turn. Have you been to debtcamel website? There’s a lot of information there on how to sort out your debt.

Post here if you need further info but ofcourse, as you and I know, dealing with the gambling addiction is the first step.  

hi @frogman

truth be told I don't even know what the total of my debts are. I would guess around the £40k mark but that could be give or take £10k.

I don't think half of them were affordable but not sure what the parameters are/how I could prove it. How did you lodge your complaint and how long did it take for you to get the refunds back? It sounds very interesting that.

I don't even know who I owe money to there are that many creditors.

I feel like for the first time ever I am taking positive steps to overcome the addiction (I've never really wanted to before), I come on here every day, have signed up to Gamstop, applied for rehab and admitted to everyone I know how bad my issues are.

The debts are another issue all together though and they have got worse and worse because I have buried my head in the sand and pretended they dont exist.

Thanks for your help pal

Don’t worry, you are not alone and I know exactly how you feel. It can be a very daunting task to put your debts together but those are the early steps along with sorting out the addiction. It took me about 6 months to face reality and list every penny I owe on an excel sheet. I have lost over £100k in gambling and still about £50k in debt but believe me, I now have surplus every month.

In the thick of it, I was going from payday loan to payday loan, credit card to overdraft, guarantor loan, name it and I have been there, I took out credit from all the lenders out there, I had more than 20 creditors at one point. Stepchange helped a lot.

With complaint, you don’t have to do much, there is a template on that website and it tells you what you need to do, very very simple and you’ll be surprised, there are so many people there with all sorts of debt problems. Even if you don’t get refunds because you still owe, you’ll get interests taken off and adverse entries on credit file amended. I discovered the website in January and believe me, it’s literally changed my life.

The concept of complaint is that creditors should carry out sufficient check that loan is affordable before lending, a lot of the lender out there, particularly high cost and payday lender don’t carry out theses checks. Once you complain, they will first review internally and must get back within 8 weeks, some will agree and refund, some won’t. If you think genuinely, it wasn’t affordable, you refer it to FOS. 

Forgot to mention that having surplus in the last three months is solely down to not gambling so the refunds isn’t the way out of it. It has to be that you want to stop gambling. It’s one thing saying it, it’s another actually wanting to stop.

thanks a lot @frogman , so, just to be clear, as far as the complaints to the creditors, did you just have to go to each company individually and lodge a complaint?

I think as far as my debt management goes I probably would benefit from speaking to an independent expert to figure what my best solution is. 

My credit score is that f****d anyway I don't see how going bankrupt could be much worse than the position I am in anyway.

Hi Peter86, 

Sorry, I am going back now to read your previous posts, just going through the fist one now. How are you feeling generally? health wise , are you okay? You need to look after yourself first. I'll post again after I have read everything.

@frogman

Thanks for being so kind.

Overall I feel better than I have for quite a while.

Even though my life is a complete mess I do feel a sense of relief that I don't have to hide stuff or lie anymore. Gambling has had me in some extremely dark places over the last 5 years and I've recently been led to self harm and suicidal ideas. 

I'm from a great family, had every advantage in life and earned more money than anyone else I knew my age, but every penny that came my way I gambled away and have totally ruined my relationship with my family.

I'm in an aftercare facility with casts on each leg so I am being looked after properly which is something I'm grateful for. 

The guilt of what I've done to my now ex girlfriend is what is really upsetting me at the moment. She loved me so much unconditionally and was looking forward to a happy future with no idea of what I had been doing and I was telling her so many lies and did so many terrible things to enable me to keep gambling and she was totally broken when it all hit the fan. Breaks my heart even writing that.

Hi Peter86,

Sorry to hear what you are going through, I can see that @Chris.UK has given some very helping advice, particularly on the fact that this problem is much more than the money we lose. Although your post is about debts, I think your focus for now should be more on yourself, if you have the spare time, you can list  all your debts as I suggested earlier.

I can see you are almost the same age as me. I read a post here recently that got to me, I can't really remember the name of the poster, but it was an elderly guy who's lost everything through gambling and was advising younger ones like us to try and sort out problems while the sun is shinning. At 34, I think you still have a lifetime ahead of you so my advice is to try and use the period to start a new chapter in your life. Face the gambling addiction head-on, the debts will sort itself out  (I know it doesn't look that way to you). 

Believe me, you are not alone and I know exactly how you feel, I am a destructive gambler myself and you don't even want to hear the terrible things I have done as a result of this addiction.

As for the complaints, yes, it's individual, I can guide you through the process.

Hi Peter.

You need financial advice and the CAB are very helpful.

You are over the limit for a DRO but bankruptcy isnt the end of the world. If you cant pay it...you cant pay it....its as simple as that really

If you have no reasonable possibility of paying that debt back during the bankruptcy time period, bankruptcy will draw a line under it. You will be assigned a trustee and if you are on UC you wont have to pay much if anything back. You do an expenditure sheet and these companies may be forced to accept £1 if anything.

If you are unlikely to earn the income needed to pay that off in the next year then bankruptcy is a strong option if you have no assets you need to keep. 

Dont worry and stress too much. They lent you unsecured so I dont want be too light about it but they are finance companies and its their risk. Perhaps it will wake some of them up about the amounts they are lending and the risk they take because they well know that debt = misery

You need advice from open organisations like the CAB who dont charge a fee. Beware private companies as they may tell you anything to charge a fee. If you cant make a dent in the debts there is little point starting a debt management plan.

Bankruptcy is there for a reason. When debts are overwhelming your mental health comes first

Best wishes from everyone on the forum

@frogman

thanks for the advice and support. I am trying to work on myself and am glad I have been put on the wait list for residential treatment for Gordon Moody. It's good to read other people's experiences and advice. I dont want to be a skint lonely old man, but if I carry on the way I am that is the only possible outcome.

I would appreciate any help on the complaints procedure, thanks so much for the offer.

Hi  Peter86

I am sorry to hear you are having a difficult time at the moment, but pleased to see our other members are offering so much fantastic advice and support for you. 

I just wanted to add to what others have said and suggest you call Stepchange or National Debtline. Both would be good organisations to help you work out the best way forward for yourself financially. 

You don't mention if you have or not but it might be good for you to speak to one of our advisers. They are available 24/7 to offer advice and support with the gambling side of things. You can reach them by calling the HelpLine on 0808 8020 133 or you can use our Livechat. 

For now, 

Take care and keep posting. 

Rebecca, 

Forum Admin.