Please help us get our life back on track. We may be about to lose everything and don't know what to do.
My wife had to leave her job due to illness and our finances collapsed. Before things got out of hand I went for advice and was told I must seek help from my bank. I asked my bank for advice and was told if I didn't accept their financial assistance I would probably have to go bankrupt. As I thought it was the only option I accepted, only to find their interest rates higher than the ones I had with my previous creditors.
I eventually asked for assistance from a debt management company who I was with for 3 years. They promised to get my interest frozen and persuaded my creditors to accept lower payments. 3 years on I've paid out over 12,000 pounds in this agreement only to find my debts are larger than they were before. The interest hadn't been frozen at all. I only found out because one of my creditors sent me a statement by mistake. Under the agreement, the creditors usually sent all correspondence to the debt management company.
I took on a 2nd job some time ago which took my working hours up to more than 60 a week. On top of that, I've found out I've got a disease in my spine which makes my bones fuse together. Although working helps the condition because I need to keep mobile, too much work makes it worse. I need to reduce my hours but can't afford to.
My wife managed to fight her illness and get another job but it's getting worse again and I'm beginning to fear for her safety. She's recently heard she may soon be made redundant so the pressure on her is enormous.
We've worked so hard to try and overcome our problems but every time we make any headway, we just keep getting knocked back down again.
On top of this, over the last 3 years we've received over 600 letters threatening action against us or demanding immediate settlement, and received many more demanding phone calls, even though we've been making our payments. We're now too scared to answer the phone or to answer the door to anyone. The fear and stress are overwhelming.
We have tried for an IVA but even this was rejected, the creditors just wont stop hounding us.
We feel totally ashamed to be in this position, and I feel even more ashamed for posting this notice. It really is a last resort.
Although we accept responsibility for getting into debt, we've had a lot of help to make it worse - bad advice, being misled about the frozen interest and the interest itself, sometimes it's extortionate.
I'm not sure if anyone can help, I think we've gone too far down the line now, but if you can help in any way we would be eternally grateful. My email address is: wanderingsid45@yahoo.co.uk
Thank you for taking the time to read my message.
Sid
P.S. My wife will kill me if she finds out I've done this.
