My Husband has passed away

I haven't posted for a while but I will start again and let you know about widows benefit and allowance and also If I have to pay my husbands debts. Getting letters now from his creditors but there is no estate am I liable for his debts or will they be written off. He had a cover my life policy with payplan and I am waiting to see what they sort out. I am still greiving so my brain is not working properly. Can his creditors take my house, Can they put a charge on the property, will my creditors start hassling me. My God I am going through it all again, will payplan be able to sort it out. As when I can I will post and let you all know what is happening, please bear with me in this difficult time.

Clear Debt Solutions

Christmas over and another year still in debt.I have put together a list of benefits available which may help clear debt.Solutions are not easily found and some of the benefits you may be entitled to are not widely published. For example we found out that because my hubby is over 60 we were entitled to Pension Credit which now pays the interest on our mortgage. Also because we are entitled to the pension credit we also get council tax benefit and free prescriptions and help towards spectacles. This may not be a clear debt solution but it goes a long way to help.

Even if you are working you may be entitled to working families tax credits which can make a huge difference to your income. I also found something called healthy start which is a benefit ok its only £3 per week if you have children under 4 but if you have a child under 1 then it is £6. It is in vouchers which can be used to buy milk,fruit,veg or infant formula.

christmas presents ideas on a low budget

I can't believe its only 7 weeks to Christmas. Money is still tight and the credit crunch is certainly not helping. I wonder if I wrote to Gordon Brown and told him I worked all my life till ill health then got into diffficulties would he bail me out. I don't think.

With christmas just around the corner I need christmas presents ideas that are cheap. My own children will understand I can't get them much but my four grandchildren are only young and they will be wondering why grandma's not got them much.

I do realise that there are people out there a lot worse off than me and try not to get too down hearted. I have had a couple of e-mails asking me about payplan all I can say is it works for me and they have been really great.

I found a good site last night it compares prices of supermarkets Tesco, Ocado,Sainsburys and asda and then tells you which is the cheapest www.christmaspresentsideas.org It also has loads of famous name shops so you don't have to trawl around the net. I keep trying the lottery but hey ho no luck yet.

how to get extra cash

I didn't realise it has been so long since I posted on this blog. Things went quiet for a while no more debt letters thanks to payplan. I thought I would give an insight into what I have been doing. I think I said in one of my earlier posts that I had recovered from a serious life threatening illness which made me unable to work hence getting into so much debt, or rather not being able to pay it back. For the last twelve months I have been looking at ways to earn money on the internet. the problem is they all want paying for telling you how to earn money working from home.

Debt collection agencies now threatening

All has been quiet up until now. There is one particular debt collection agency who have bought the debt of citi financial and are refusing the payment agreement. They have been on the phone using bully-boy tactics saying they are going to get a charge on the property and eventually make us sell.

I don't think they can do that unless they take us to court and onlyif we default on the payments then they can put a charge on the house. Also I am sure they should not be phoning us up and threatening us this way. They are quite aggressive on the phone. I am going to look into this.

Another debt agency who has bought the debt off one of our other creditors keep phoning up and asking personal information ie how did we get into this debt, what are our dates of birth, how long have we lived in the house and other such questions, when I said I was not prepared to answer these questions over the phone (after all they could be some person trying to steal my identity) they got very stroppy and said they would not send be a letter but would put on my file that I refused to answer questions.

Looks like the quiet time is over and the phone calls are starting again. Just when my nerves were beginning to settle.

Claiming Bank Charges back/Abbey

What a shambles trying to claim bank charges back from Abbey. They have said no, so Abbey I am taking my case to the Financial ombudsman.


I have been on several blogs and it seems ABBEY is the worst at dragging their heels and making excuses. I will keep you informed how it goes. In the meantime there is lots of info on http://www.moneysavingexpert.co.uk/

Barclays/Halifax and DMP

Off all the debt we have despite being in a Debt Management Plan Barclays and Halifax are still charging us interest. It seems ludicrous to me they know we cant pay and yet they are adding nearly £150 per month onto the bill. Surely this cant be legal, its like adding lead weights to a drowning man.

Mis-sold Endowment Policy

Mis-sold endowment policy the saga continues. I must admit Abbey were pretty quick when I sent the forms back. Norwich Union though were very slow responding to a request for a surrender value. But as usual for me what looked like a pretty straight forward thing is being delayed because believe it or not Abbey have said mine is a unique case and will take more time.
Am I going to be compensated or not that is the question and I wonder how long I will have to wait to find out. Fingers crossed it will turn out ok. I will keep you informed. Wish me luck.

Claiming Bank Charges from Abbey

Well things don't get better. We have had a letter from Abbey refusing to return Bank Charges.
Not sure what to do now I think they deliberately dragged their heels waiting for the outcome of the recent court case over bank charges. I wonder if I can do anything about this. Anyone with any ideas I would be grateful.

Claiming Bank Charges from Abbey

Not posted for a while because not a great deal is happening at the moment. I am still waiting for a further response from Abbey about claiming back bank charges. I think they are due to get a letter from me threatening to take court action because they are taking a while to respond.With regard to mis-sold endowment nearly broke my neck getting stuff out of the loft for all the information they required, still waiting for an answer back. Whats the betting they ask for even more information.

Mis- Sold Endowment

First of all my thanks to Wonga Wallah www.wongawallah.co.uk for his assistance if you can pick up this link there is some really good information there.

Sent a complaint to Abbey re mis-sold endowment you should see the form that came back they want information dating back 25 years ie who did I speak to, How did the conversation go. Now I have to dig into the archives of the attic to find all the paper work. I will keep you informed and let you know if it was worth the trouble.

Claiming Bank Charges back

To try to recoup some financial backup I have now done as the money saving expert at www.moneysavingexpert.com has suggested and started to claim back all my bank charges from Abbey £1400 or there abouts We have had one reply offering us £325 which I have refused so waiting now for a reply to the next letter I have sent them. Also trying to claim compensation for a mis-sold endowment which also was via the Abbey. I only sent the letter last week so I will keep you informed of the details.
A bit of info for those of you in the same position as myself watch out if you get a basic bank account with Co-operative bank. We went overdrawn by £4 the money went in the next day then we went overdrawn by a miniscule amount because a standing order came out and then once again because money was late being paid in ie. the same day the the standing order came out and Coperative bank closed the account on us.

I rang their management services and explained the overdrawn amount didn't even reach £20 and on each occassion the money was paid in the same day,whilst they sympathised they said thats it three strikes and you are out. So be very careful, I am not sure if other banks do this.

Debt Management Plan/Payplan

Is this Debt Management Plan with Paylan a good idea? I am not so sure now. Granted they have managed to get all the creditors and collection agencies to stop all the phone calls, but still the interest is accumulating. What little we are paying the creditors is disappearing I feel there is no point paying anything. If our circumstances dont change and we don't get finances from somewhere I can see the creditors forcing us into selling the house. What is it about Mondays,I always feel desperately low and depressed I think it is because a new week has started and we are still no better off.

This time three years ago we both had good jobs, we have worked all our lives but circumstances changed I am too ill to work and who will employ a 60 year old male,not to worry theres always the lottery on Wednesday.

Barclays/Barclaycard

Barclays or maybe Barclaycard debt collecting agency Merciers have been on today saying they wont accept the payment that Payplan have sorted out. When I asked the guy what did he want, he said a higher payment which I told him I didnt have. He said they would be passing the debt on to a local collection agency. I am not sure what that means, whether they will come knocking on the door or they just take over the debt.Has this happened to anyone else out there. I will keep you informed as to what happens. Everything has been quiet so far I wonder if this is the start of all the creditors having a go at us again. Most of them are still charging interest which is a ridiculous amount, we initially dug the hole for ourselves but they have got a mechanical digger and are burying us rapidly.

on a DMP and Loan Companies offering me money

It appears that Payplan have sorted most of the debts out, but there have been a few hiccups.Some of the creditors are ringing me up saying they haven't heard from Payplan but this gets sorted pretty easily. The phone calls have all but stopped, but can you believe it? I am now getting about three phone calls a day offering me loans. Even when I have explained I am on a DMP. One was from Barclays who I owe loads of money to.

I am still concerned about the new ruling I heard about last week about bailiffs, but have found no other info on it, anybody out there who can help I would be grateful.Also in an earlier post I said I was looking at doing an E -Marketing Course but they all look the same to me and I am not sure if they are genuine,any thoughts on that please?