Hi, I'm after some advice as I'm finding this all very confusing. I've recently bought a sewing machine and was asked by some friends to make various bits, bunting, mobile covers etc. They bought the materials first and I made them. No money was exchanged. But after receiving comments from others and being asked to make for them I thought I could do extra. I already work part time (20 hours in a school) but thought in my spare time as I enjoy making stuff I could maybe do extra for people and also do craft fayres etc. I was told I'd need to register with hmrc, so I registered the other night whilst very tired, using a name of the top of my head and I put that I started working (the business) on) 06/04/12 (I think it was this date, I know I did it for the new tax year) - the new tax year?!? So I can start receiving money and not get in trouble...is this right? HMRC have sent me a UTR number so I went on the site to finishing registering but I want to change the name...can this be done as I don't like the name I started with? Also I have put 08/06/12 as the date I started working for myself on there as I cant remeber the exact date I put previously, will this matter? I have also read that I will have to start making class 2 NI payments? £2.50 a week??!?! Yet I am no where near earning anything like that yet, so this is worrying me? As I have heard nothing about it either from HMRC and don't want to be owing? I've had 2 people enquire about orders but no pennies as yet. I'm so confused by it all I'm thinking of not bothering now, but how do I cancel it all if I do?!?! I posted this in a different forum last week, today I have recieved a letter from HMRC telling me I need to complete a self assesment for last tax year 2011-12, yet I registered for this year and apart from the things I made for friends last year (which as I said they paid for) and materials I have bought myself to make for my own little boy I have had no other income or outgoings so now I am more confused. I made lots of little bibs and took them to my local craft fair but I didnt sell any off them so I have been giving them as presents for my friends who have had babys...Im even more confused now, why are they asking me to self assess for last year? I dont even want to set up a business anymore now as its coming up to the 6 week hols and I just want to spend time with my boys and dont even want to do any off the craft fayres etc that I was thinking of doing, I wont have the time...what do I do now???

Hi, I'm after some advice as I'm finding this all very confusing. I've recently bought a sewing machine and was asked by some friends to make various bits, bunting, mobile covers etc. They bought the materials first and I made them. No money was exchanged. But after receiving comments from others and being asked to make for them I thought I could do extra. I already work part time (20 hours in a school) but thought in my spare time as I enjoy making stuff I could maybe do extra for people and also do craft fayres etc. I was told I'd need to register with hmrc, so I registered the other night whilst very tired, using a name of the top of my head and I put that I started working (the business) on) 06/04/12 (I think it was this date, I know I did it for the new tax year) - the new tax year?!? So I can start receiving money and not get in trouble...is this right? HMRC have sent me a UTR number so I went on the site to finishing registering but I want to change the name...can this be done as I don't like the name I started with? Also I have put 08/06/12 as the date I started working for myself on there as I cant remeber the exact date I put previously, will this matter? I have also read that I will have to start making class 2 NI payments? £2.50 a week??!?! Yet I am no where near earning anything like that yet, so this is worrying me? As I have heard nothing about it either from HMRC and don't want to be owing? I've had 2 people enquire about orders but no pennies as yet. I'm so confused by it all I'm thinking of not bothering now, but how do I cancel it all if I do?!?! Many thanks x

Ok, thats lovely. I'm going to sit and do a proper budget, would the next step, once I have worked out what I can pay, be to send the letter asking them to accept payment of £x and stop interest. I'm not in arrears with any of the above you listed, only the credit cards etc, provident and overdraft x

The overdraft will have some bank charges but it is mainly interest and just that I have taken it out bigger and bigger! My credit card is the worse it is with vanquis 'who were supposed to help my credit rating' but they kept increasing my limit and before I knew it I had used more! I have been paying back £110 a month for about a year but only £20 of that is probably paid off, then something has cropped up that we have had to pay on it again!

Hi Silly Girl, so rather than write to them just pay them the extra, that then at least leaves extra for maybe my overdraft etc? Tbh, that was one of the things that scared me about their debt plan. I really want to pay it all up but their plan literally left us with the money for a basic shop and about £50 left over a week. Now I'm not saying we go out all the time, hardly ever infact, but I still want to be able to buy my babies clothing, maybe save for a camping trip for them and take them swimming. Their plan left us with nothing like for emergencys and yes it would be paid quicker but we would be worse of than now! When I send the budget sheet would they be able to check my mortgage. I dont want them thinking I'm not paying them much but I dont want to offer them more than I should and leave myself short, so I thought I could happen round my mortgage giving us some lee-way to save some money whilst still paying them or would that be wrong? x

Thank you for your replies! I did think that it would affect our credit rating anyway but I just wondered if a DMP through CCCS would look worse on our file rather than doing it ourselves if you get me! Like they would look at a DMP and go oh my god, not touching that, or see the defaults and think ok but its being paid...?!?! My overdraft is with halifax, my thoughts for changing it was that halifax could obviously decided to take from my account once I write to them. I pay £60 a month interest but from looking at the budget from CCCS they have suggested paying £100 a month which means they are getting £40 extra, but if they stop they interest they will get the full £100. Also with provident, we currently pay £50 a week and have been for a while, though we should be paying £87 a week, the CCCS budget suggest paying £250 a month which obviously it shows we can afford. Should I keep paying my doorstep collector the amount I do until the letter gets sent, as these loans contain interest that is paid within the loan, or do I cease payment until the letter has come back hoping they remove the interest, therefore reducing the balance! Once again, many thanks for your help, I really appreciate it x

Hi, Not sure if I'm posting in the right section but I'm after some advice! After living stupidly of Provident loans, vanquis cc and my overdraft we have decided enough is enough and we want to pay them off and get rid forever! I have looked up CCCS at a debt remedy and filled in the budget and according to them we have enough to pay it all up in about 2 years. We owe £5000 to provident, £3000 to overdraft and £3500 in credit cards (vanquis and capital one). I understand throught the DMP they will try to stop interest etc to pay it back at £450 a month and it says for us to get a new bank account, we only want a very basic one to pay household bills. I have a few questions though if anyone could help me. Would the DMP affect our mortgage in the future (we are on variable interest only at the minute which is brilliant but should interest rates rise we would be looking at fixed rate) Are there any letters that I can send myself explaining that basically we have lived of credit too long, we want to pay it back, will you stop interest and accept this much (ie if we divided the debt between each person we owe, more the the most etc) rather than doing it through a DMP? Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated but enough is enough! I want a holiday abroad when all this is done without maxing out a piece of plastic! x x x

Hi sorry, I have been paying the £5 a week back since Feb 2010. The original payday loans were for £225 per week....then when we had no money we took out another one and another and another, basically every week they took £225 of us and we went back in and took £180 back out as we had fell into the cycle. Eventually I said enough was enough and they agreed for me to go onto a payment plan. I paid 2 of them off at £5.00 a week by going in store, therefore paying £450 and then started paying the 3rd off at £225 and that is when I asked them tostart taking the money of my card instead of going in the store...that one went down to £175 and I still owed £225 on another. They took it all on sunday night. I have since rung them and they have returned £100 if I let the rest go so that the debt has been paid. I have done this and no longer owe them and have changed my card now so they cant take anymore from me! Thanks all for your advice! x x x

Thanks for replying hun, I haven't overpaid them though, I've been paying back at £5.00 per week but today they have decided just to not take the £5.00 but take the remainder of what I owe x

Hi all, was wondering if anyone could advise me on the following matter. 3 years ago we took out a PDA with the Cheque Centre. Eventually we couldnt keep up with the payments and defaulted but I arranged to pay £5.00 in store every week and they have been fabulous. So every week I have been in and paid until recently when I returned to work after maternity. I asked them if they could start taking payments from my card instead to save me the trip down there every week. They have been taking £5.00 a week now for about 7 weeks, no problems, I've had no letters or phonecalls. Today I get up to find £430.00 has disappeared from my bank account. After numerous phone calls it seems that The Cheque Centre peeps have decided to take the remainder of my balance...£225 on one and £175 on another loan without informing me. This has now left me with no money for nappies, electricity etc. The bank has told me I need to ring them and tell them that I want the payment stopping and they need to send a fax to the bank stating they have no further interest so I can get the money refunded.... What are the chances of this?!? Does anyone know a way of wording it as I get completely flustered. I am thinking of going into the cheque place tomorrow to see the woman in there who I did get on really well with when I had to pop in everyday and giving her what for to see if she can sort something. Many thanks in advance x

We received court papers years ago and my husband sent them off because the debt was his. We have been paying it for several years but since we havent been able to get hold of them to order a new book we havent made a payment or heard anything from the solicitors who remind us either so was wondering what to do! Whether to ring the solicitors number, leave it or pop in the bank again? x

Hi, just wondering if anyone can help or has information about the following. My partner has a ccj against him from LTSB for his overdraft and loan. We have been paying £50 a month for years but then our payment book ran out. Like before we went in the bank for a new one and they gave us a number to ring but we can never get through. When we have been late or missed a payment we have alway had a letter from sechiari, mitchell and clark (I think) Informing us we have 7 days to pay and we have done. But since we ran out of paying in slips we have neither heard a thing from TSB or the ccj solicitors regarding this debt? Anybody have any idea of what to do/who to ring as I'm worried that we may end up getting a warrant of execution/house thingy (cant remember what they are calle, sorry) or anything else? We havent paid for about 3/4 months because I have completely forgot until now! x

Please can someone help me as I'm so worried! We had a car on finance with welcome finance nearly 7 years ago. We wanted a new car and was told by the car company we use ACF that we could voluntery terminate our old one. So we went ahead and bougt another car through another finance company and then applied to welcome to vt the old car. They responded telling us that we couldnt as we had defaulted, so we were were stuck with 2 cars. The new one being driven regurlarly, the old one hardly ever because it was running well. I dont drive my partner does so we didnt need both cars but we had got ourselves in a mess now with not being able to vt it. Eventually we were struggling with the repayments so we went to welcome and told them and they sorted a new finance agreement for us dropping the payment from £60 a week to £30 a week but this extended the agreement which we didnt mind at the time as we just thought at least we are paying it off...anyway the car then packed up and was gonna cost us too much to repair so my brother in law offered to repair it if he could use it and seeing as we were paying it but not driving it because we had the other car we let him. Since then he has got rid of it, not sure if he has sold, part exchanged or scrapped it,as it was about 4 years ago now but we have still been paying for it as obviously we owe them the money. So nearly 10 years down the line we are still paying for the car and we have about a year left, we missed one payment last week as the direct debit failed and have incurred a charge, the direct debit is still set up and ready to go this week and I need to pay them for last week which I'm going to do wednesday , but this morning they sent us a letter saying that they would like us to ring them and tell them where the car is even though we are paying for it and are going to pay the arrears. Now I'm so scared as it says we could be prosecuted, I cant believe we have been so silly. Does anyone have any advice of what we should do...we just want to get it paid off and be done with welcome but what if they prosecute us!