Advice Needed - Please Help!!!!

[charliebarley]

I've been reading up on IVAs but I'm not sure if it's the route I need to take. My husband and I have a joint unsecured loan of £22,000 and I have about £10,000 on various credit cards. In addition, I also have an overdraft of £2000 and my husband has an overdraft of £1700. At the moment, we can (just!) afford to make all the monthly repayments as we are living with his parents and therefore not paying rent/mortgage. It is tight, though, and I always seem to be paying for food and petrol on credit cards and so the debts just keep on mounting up. My husband has depression and so works infrequently (self-employed) and I work part time as we have two young children. The debts were run up due to my husband's gambling problems and not because of any frivolous expenditure on my part. The crux of the matter is, relaionships with his parents have broken down and we need to move out. There is absolutely no way I can afford to rent privately and pay off these debts. I also don't know whether my husband and I are going to be staying together as I feel completely let down by him running up these debts (this really is like some kind of therapy, writing all this!!!). Can we, and should we do an IVA together to try and regain some control over these debts? I really don't know what to do - I know an IVA takes time and the clock is ticking...any help (or marriage guidance!!) would be really appreciated. It's so good to know that other people have found a way out - thanks for all your helpful posts on the forum.

[kallis3]

Hello Charliebarley and welcome to the forum.

One of the experts will be along shortly to give you some advice.

[Viki.W]

Hey charliebarley, welcome to the forum. I hope that you can work through this. Your husband really needs to seek professional help for the gambling before you think of doing anything. An expert will be along shortly to advise you. Good luck, you'll get lots of good advice on here. Viki X

[charliebarley]

Thank you, both of you. I think it was helpful just getting it off my chest! The gambling isn't an active problem anymore, fortunately, and he did seek help a while ago. We're just left with the debts from it. I eagerly await the expert's advice!

[Viki.W]

That's great charliebarley, I'm sure there is a way forward for you. We're all here so you're in the right place for support. Hang in there for the experts. X

[Moneystinks]

Hey there, I hope you get sorted soon.

Best wishes

X

[MelanieGiles]

Hi there

You have wider issues than your debts to sort out first - such as finding a home and addressing your husband's gambling problem. Have you tried to get housing from the local council?

[charliebarley]

The council are 'processing' my application and my husband is receiving help with the gambling. As I said, it's not an active problem anymore, just that we're left with the debts. I guess I just need to know which avenue we're going to take to address the issue of our debts before we move out. We've not yet defaulted on any payments, but we will have to as soon as we're paying rent on somewhere. I just need to have an action plan in place.

[Moneystinks]

I'm sure an expert will be able to discuss with you your options if you contect them directly for advice.

I am with Melanie she's great, but there are other IP's who post on here also and you can have a look on IVA.com to see reviews of different IP's.

Good luck

X

[MelanieGiles]

If you cannot afford to pay your debts, then you really have three choices - bankruptcy, IVA or an ongoing payment arrangement with creditors commonly known as a DMP.

An insolvency practitioner would be able to give you advice on the options available to you, and explain the advantages, disadvantages and implications of each one - and in order to get the best advice possible, you would need to calculate your income and expenditure to see if there would be any money left to repay creditors on an ongoing basis once you moce into rented accomodation.

[charliebarley]

Thank you. I'm going to update my budget spreadsheet and then contact an IP and talk through our options.