Hi all,
Today is my first day on here as ive officially hit rock bottom. Im sat here typing this message having just wrote all my debts down and, whilst Im not in as much as other people on here, it may be worth starting with my own debt:
Payday loans: £2500
I have 5 different payday loans due and to put it into perspective, I earn £1500 a month and my payday loans due this month are £2300. Ive no family to rely upon and so any advice on what I can do here would be a big help!
This stemmed from FOBT - they are the devil - any machine that lets you gamble £100 on the 'spin' of an electronic wheel really is sickening when you take a step back and realise these are fixed. I dont have any online accounts - this is all solely going into bookmakers and depositing £XXX at a time. Yesterday was the final straw: I deposited £250 which I didnt have (i had to come home afterwards and sign up for ANOTHER pay day loan) and placed 5x £50 spins on roulette - AND NOT A SINGLE HIT. I entered the bookies at 9:13am and left at 9:19am - in 6 minutes, 5 spins I lost £250! Literally not a penny back in any spin! I felt sick and as I write it it sounds even worse!
So why have I joined today? To seek help essentially. One thing is for certain is that I cant afford to pay my payday loans back - i owe more than i earn and thats before buying any food, petrol etc!
Today is the day i never step foot in another bookmakers - I rung my bank to block any transactions to key bookmakers so thats the first step done. I am spending today looking for things I own that I can sell - i horrible feeling but ive no choice.
Id love to hear peoples stories and any advice on how i can pay these back would be great. For the record, my credit rating isnt good enough for a bank loan and I have no family to call upon as unfortunately they have pssed away. Thanks for your time. Craig
Hi Craig,
I have been in a similar situation before. 7 payday loans that were more than my income. A cycle that I kept up for over a year until I broke. What I did and would recommend is to call each of your payday lenders, and tell them you can't afford repayment due to having a serious gambling problem. If you say about problems with gambling they won't relend to you in future. I think all but 1 of my payday loans broke the amount due into 4 monthly payments and stopped further interest. I was afraid to do this in the past because i thought my credit rating would get slaughtered but actually it only improved as I wasn't taking payday loans every month.
Hope this helps
Boot,
you need to contact some professionals to help you with this debt, debtcamel is a great website for you to look at and you might have some options under unaffordable lending but also CAB, stepchange etc all great options to look into in regards your debt.
You should also reach out for some professional gambling help and I would suggest, whilst it is very very early stages for you, you need to revisit what your mindset is telling you. There is anger, frustration at the FOBT's and probably the whole 'system' but WE are the compulsive gamblers that make the decisions to gamble. Whatever you do to restructure your debt will be pointless if you do not take ownership for your addiction andtake real steps to get it under control. I'm very sorry to hear you don't have close family, is there anyone else in your life that you could talk to?
It's easy to commit to stopping when you have no funds left, I don't write that to scare you but having been in your position many times I do think you need to consider the two things seperately, one the debt, second your addiction. I know one impacts the other but again if you dont address the addiction the debt will just reappear, each time a little worse than before
best wishes to you
oh and self exclude, be proactive
Cancel the continuous payment authority in the payday loans by calling your bank now!
Then get help! I would suggest a debt management plan with step change and of course some help for your gambling
I feel your pain, I really do. But we've got to cling onto that horrible feeling and use it to establish a fool proof plan to beat this addiction. We can't rely on this feeling lasting forever as we all know by the time payday comes around it's "gonna be different this time" or "I'll only deposit £10". You've got some time now to really crack down and get this sorted out for the best. Maybe for the first month try and micro manage your finances. I've cancelled most of my direct debits and I pay all my bills etc on the day I get paid (as in I wake up an hour earlier at 6am and do them all), I then manually transfer money into a savings account I cannot touch and then transfer a huge payment to StepChange to tackle my debt. The rest I will withdraw as cash (as betting shops aren't really a problem for me). Maybe a similar system could work for you? I do all this to ensure all my bills are paid first and foremost, and secondly, it mentally helps *** the value of money as I am phsyically making these payments myself and they aren't going out automatically. Somehow it helps, I don't know why.
Who do you bank with, if you don't mind me asking? I would be interested in getting such transactions blocked if this is possible.
Hi Scambling,
That will be my first port of call tomorrow - my issue is I would take out one payday loan to pay off the other, if that makes sense? Can I ask did what you done result in a debt management plan?
I woke up today and prmised not a single penny more will go into a FOBT and I mean it - when you realise these are computer generated images, you realise how daft you are loading note after note into the machine.
But at the minute im counting down the days to payday just to pay off the payday loans
By calling an admitting my problem i arranged a payment plan with my payday loan companies, not a debt management plan resulting in my credit rating not getting worse. They may try to put you off the idea by saying it will affect your credit rating as they would miss out on further interest you would pay by extending or renewing.
Scambling wrote:
By calling an admitting my problem i arranged a payment plan with my payday loan companies, not a debt management plan resulting in my credit rating not getting worse. They may try to put you off the idea by saying it will affect your credit rating as they would miss out on further interest you would pay by extending or renewing.
They tell you it will impact your Credit file because it WILL have a negative influence. It will show as an arrangement. maybe not as much as a formal DMP but a credit rating is not just about the score.
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