Advice on Finances

Dear @ccpt, 

Thank you for posting on the forum, I am sure some of our great forum users will be able to offer you some great advice. 

Below are some links for free,impartial, independent money/debt advice for you to have a look at, 

Money Advice Service: www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk

National Debtline: www.nationaldebtline.co.uk 

Debt Advice Foundation: www.debtadvicefoundation.org

Talk About Debt: www.talkaboutdebt.co.uk

We also have some good information regarding mental health and depression on our website that you might like to take a look at. Just scroll down the page to find information that could be useful for you. 

You are also welcome to call our HelpLine to talk more about this on 0808 8020 133. We are open 24/7 and also have Livechat available. 

All the best, 

John

Forum Admin

Hi ccpt,

Sorry to hear about the financial problem gambling has caused you. Its done the same to me. 

Do you have a limited company or are you self-employed? It's very hard to give advice as every case is different and the types of debt as well. You will be better off talking to a debt advisor. Stepchange deals with personal debts so you will need to speak to the business debt line for your business debts if you have any. If your debts are still 'manageable' you should please speak to these people as a mater of urgency, I recommend doing that before taking out any loan to consolidate, but obviously, the first thing is dealing with the root cause which is gambling otherwise you'll be back in the same place.

To share my own experience, I was self-employed (Director of my LTD)  up until early 2018 when I became an employee for a company. This was about the time my gambling went out of hand and I lost control completely. It was the period I smashed my credit file too. I owed everyone out there, name the payday loan and I have been with them, I had guarantor loan, I owed Cop tax, VAT and self-assessment. I owed business credit card, I had business loan. both personal and business accounts overdrafts drawn to the max, I had logbook loan. It was absolute madness. I still don't know how I survived that period and managed to keep my job and company, and even my family. Long story short, I went to Stepchange and put all my personal debts on a DMP paying them £456 a month (DMP will do no harm to your business but IVA will). Because I hadn't closed down my limited company, I started using my annual holidays, weekends etc to work through my limited company, I was rolling over the company debts so it doesn't get me in trouble whilst I worked and quickly paid the likes of VAT. In my case, it was about prioritizing the debts that are most likely to land me in trouble. I am in a better place now (Still owe approx £60k though), all personal debts nicely tucked in with stepchange with a £256 monthly payment. I have gone after a lot of my creditors complaining about unaffordability and irresponsible lending and have had refunds in excess of £5k already and some of them I am still waiting.

My advise in summary is please separate your business completely from personal. If you cannot manage your personal loans anymore, too many letters , unaffordable repayments etc , talk to stepchange. Bear in mind DMP will affect your credit file.

If you have any specific question , you can post here, otherwise stay strong and remember you are in this mess because of gambling and stopping is the way out. Stay strong my friend, you are not alone

Hi @frogman

Appreciate the reply. 

Currently self employed sole trader and do have both personal and business debt that was caused from gambling. I'm annoyed of the situation that I've put myself in. 

Thank you for sharing your story and glad you are in a better place - I'm probably similar in your shoes. Quite intrigue with speaking to lenders refunds, how did you approach them about it? 

I haven't received any letters or anything yet, as I'm just about enough to pay some things - just in deep into my overdrafts and credit card around 80% used - like you said I think I need to start prioritise where I'm paying my debt off. 

I think what is kinda stressing me out and giving me uneasy sleep is knowing the amount of debt there and how and when will it all get paid off. 

Thank you. 

Hi ccpt,

I was surprised myself how easy it was to get interests paid on loans refunded. Debtcamel is a fantastic site and you will see a lot of people there with gambling problems who have landed themselves in financial mess. A lender should always undertake sufficient checks to make sure any loan is affordable to the borrower, a lot of the lenders out there with the exception of the high street ones don't undertake sufficient checks so they end up breaking FCA rules. In my own case, as I was borrowing to gamble, my credit rating was dropping and I was being turned down by high streets lenders, my bank etc so I was going for the high interest ones, a lot of them shouldn't have borrowed me money if they had undertaken sufficient checks like looking at my bank statement (that would have showed heavy gambling transactions). All you need to do if you have any of these loans is to check if you think it was unaffordable at the time you took it out, if you think it is, there is a template on that website to use. You will be surprised at the number of successes there. If you haven't had any letters yet, please try and sort out the gambling issue before things go out of hand, honestly, you don't want to end up like me financially. The only thing saving me so far is that I have a good income from my Mon - Fri job and the turnover from my extra ltd company work is btw £20k/£25k. This 24/7 working obviously can't go on forever as I rarely have time for my 4 and 2 yr old boys. It's crazy all the problems that this stupid addiction brings.

I also want to say that thinking about when you will pay off all the debt also tends to drag people into further gambling. It certainly did to me. Don't worry too much about the debt if you can still get by as you said and focus on quitting gambling.

Hi ccpt and welcome

I would just like to say here that openness and honesty are your saviours Even though you need financial advice you cant bypass dealing with the root of the problem.

I will give you the reality check again that is a lot of money from your annual income. I would hesitate to use the word hiccup and I hope you can talk things through. I dont know how close your accountant is but please remember honesty with people that can truly help you is key here.

I will give you another reality check that you need to think about. I wouldnt knowingly lend 30k to a gambler but that is just to focus your mind on the issue and help you need here. Im sure if you work hard and schedule your bills your business will be fine.

Now with a viable business you will get financial help but this is a deadly addiction which creates comfort zones and comes back at you with various trigger points.

Have you told anyone close to you because you really need to. There is no shame in admitting this got to you as you are one of countless millions that got addicted.

The gambling must stop and that takes a born again moment with people monitoring you closely. Its got nothing to do with casual willpower and actually getting a loan gives this addiction a breather or second wind to work on you again

This addiction loves secrets and mind control...it will bide its time if given free reign. It loves telling you that you are  grown man with a tidy business because that plays in its favour. I see it in your writing and you have to be humble in the face of the most powerful addiction I know. You need to face it full on or it will come back at you

This is nothing about ego or projected income. You need help and I hope you are getting it. You actually need to be living on an allowance and providing receipts...if that conflicts too much with your idea about yourself you may not be as ready as you think you are.

Yes by all means get financial advice but the root of the problem needs to be firmly under control. You can never be complacent ever again but that should be a positive statement

best wishes from everyone on the forum