Friday 30 October 2009

The Bailiffs.

Well i phoned scotcall today on my follow up of paying 19 pounds to them on Monday to keep them happy. now when i phone up Monday i agreed to pay 19 on monday and what i heard the gentleman on the phone say was then pay £5 today. Ok so i phone them back up to pay it today and what did you know i was wrong! they instead wanted £85! Now as a student i don't have any money at the moment so i explained to the gentleman on the phone about my situation.

Now these weren't his exact words but they went something like this "Im sorry but you have to either pay £85, or the full amount". And i explained again im a student. I DON'T HAVE THE MONEY! The guy just pretty much shrugged it off and said it wasn't his problem. Then i asked if there was a better way of doing it. maybe paying some money each week. they said it wasn't any good to them. The cheek of the guy he just said pretty much bye to me after.

Now why the fuck isn't £3 any good to them its still money to pay off the debt! even each week paying a £3 he said no. Made me angry so i hung up. that guy was the least helpful person in a call centre!

so anyone got any ideas on what i could do to solve this? it seems they are rather incompetent.

Monday 26 October 2009

Statment take two.

Ok this isn't all me. most of it is dad(homer) changing it to make it sounds how it should. So just to give you an idea of what i was asked, this is the question on the access to learning fund.

"Please state why you are in financial difficulty and why you believe your situation to be exceptional, and to merit additional support. please indicate what you would like help paying I.E course costs,childcare,rent arrears etc."

And here is what my dads written in answer:

"Before I started at University I was working for Maplin Electronics, Ipswich for over a year, on a part-time basis. A few weeks before I left to go to University I took out a contract with Vodafone for £35 a month, as I felt it was something I could afford to do at the time. This was a contract for 18 months, and I thought I could pay it back once I got a job in Bolton. However jobs have been incredibly hard to get since the recession started, and to date I still haven’t managed to secure one despite putting my CV out to a number of potential employers. The result was I couldn’t service my Vodafone contract and ended up in an indebted position with Vodafone to the tune of £424.

In the same month that I took out the Vodafone contract I also entered into a “buy now pay 6 in months” deal with Argos, using the same logic as I had when I took out the Vodafone contract, which I have also been unable to service, and now have a similar indebted situation with them.

In the course of trying to service the above costs I was forced into acquiring a laptop computer, as my course deemed it necessary for me to have one, and my PC was starting to play up, and doing Computer Game Programming I could not afford to be without a computer of some description. This cost me £700 and took up a lot of my student loan; fortunately my parents were able to support me after Christmas by covering my accommodation fees and this at least allowed me to complete my first year without starving.

As I am now in 2nd year my costs have increased, having moved away from halls of residence, and the student loan it is only sufficient to pay for my rent and groceries.

Now after a year of stupidly ignoring the companies I owed money to (thinking they would go away) I am currently living on not much more than £10 a week trying to keep them from taking legal action against me.

My father’s job is currently under threat of redundancy, and my mother’s small business is struggling to survive the recession, so I cannot depend on them for financial support at this time, especially as my sister is also at University in her final year at Liverpool."

now based on the question asked io think that covers most of it. Obviously i need to indicate what i want them to pay. Also on the form it says i can take out up to £3500 each academic year. i am thinking no more than £1,500. About £1000 to debt. then £500 for food and general necessities.



First post, And first revelations!

Well i've decided it was a good idea to start blogging as my whole family is now doing it. It seems like a good place to vent my anger, or even just to place stuff that people can read. But in this case today i need some help!

Ok so ill go back a bit to explain what has made me need help. Back in august last year i was working at maplin electronics and i was off to university on october! i was very excited and decided to buy myself some gifts, what a good idea! WRONG!
So i got myself an ipod touch for £300 ish, but i did it on finance. So i didn't have to pay till february 2009. Awesome idea. Well as it goes no!
And lastly vodafone. i got a contract out with them on august too. it was for 18 months, got a nice new phone that is now a apiece of junk. it was for £35 a month. that seemed like a good idea too!

so now i had all these new gadgets to play with i left for uni(October). So it comes to student loan, first year you get all excited about having your own money and ohh its so much fun!
But i did another stupid thing. bought myself a laptop, which at first was really good. (it did get me through times where my pc died for months). but i had to pay 700 over 10 months. So all in all you can guess i racked hell alot of debt up!

i started get notices from companies about having to pay them, back. but i stupidly ignored them! I've made some really stupid choices this last year that have screwed me over financially.
and its only really come to pass this year that it was really urgent.

I've been sorting money out here and there. and i have really learnt a thing or two about spending money. Don't!

So here i am with money issues. i have payed my laptop off but i need to pay argos and vodafone. both have passed my debt to other companies. Never fun, i can tell you that.
So i have gone to university to sort out a emergency loan, but im not allowed one. I am however allowed an ALF. And for you people who don't know what this is, its an access to learning fund.
basically it means i can get money off the government, but i will have to pay it back off as i would with my loans ans such. But at the moment i need to write a paragraph on why i want them to give me the money.

Now ive never been good at writing convincing statements so im gonna post what i have written so far, in hope someone can help me a bit.
here it is:
"Before i started University i was working at maplin electronics. A few weeks before i left to university i took out a contract with Vodafone for £35 a month. This was a contract for 18 months, and i thought i could pay it back while i was at university. subsequently i couldn't and this got me into debt of £424. I also on the same month took out a buy now pay 6 months later with argos, expecting to do the same as i did with Vodafone. But once university had started i had to pay for rent, food, general goods(e.g.washing powder). Now after a year of stupidly ignoring the companies i owed money to, i got myself into debt. It was stupid to think the companies would forget about the money i owed them. Now because of the debt i still owe i am currently living on not much more than £10 a week. I am currently struggling to live on that a week. And the companies are demanding money that i owe. At the moment i am paying them off very slowly."

Now i know its not complete, but its awful, any ideas?