From 0 - £15,000

I shall try & start at the beginning, for what i can remember. This is the story of 0 - 15,000 in ten years. And i want to tell you about what has happened & about the nice & the nasty & what really happens when you try & sort out your debt problems, what these companies so, the tactics that they use & what it it does to your life .. I am a 31 year old Libran, with a love of clothes & a stupid recklessness with money, i think thats heriditary, my husband says my Dad's crap with money & i think i have inherited that gene ! . My husband is from nr Manchestre & I moved up there to be with him, more shops, more temptation.........But it probably all began at University, i got a 2:1 Hons Media/Cultural Studies from Staffs Uni. , that i have never, ever used, when i tell you what i did for a living ,i was a Collector of Mortgage Arrears for a big U.S Bank. Lets just say that i was probably the most hard nosed twat there, i admit that now ! As i came to find out though; its a case of what comes around, goes around ....So i worked there 5 years chasing debts, i knew every trick in the book to get them to pay & broke a few rules too...Then i got made redundant while on matenity leave. I was chuffed ! To be honest i thought i'd take the money & run & go get a job elsewhere when my baby was 6 months old. That was the plan..but motherhood completely changed evreything about me, i suppose it softened out the hard egdes & after 6 months we moved back to the country & i didnt want to go back to work. My redundancy money ran out & so I contacted the Consumer Credit Counselling Service. Spoke to a brilliant bloke called Jonathan, we drew up a plan; £1 a month to Barclaycard, Capital 1 , acouple of store cards......( shall post my I& E shortly ) . Polite letters followed, the odd call, became an hourly call from 1 company or another. I lied to my husband at first ( he's 40 & never had a credit card, how could he understand ? ) & my parents still dont know ( i think they may have an inkling though as they got a couple of calls there from creditors. The main point that i want to get across is that over 6 months later i have changed my telephone number ( a great move after geting 10 calls a day, waking my baby & generally getting me down) they still threaten various things; that debt collectors will cal ( so far no ) & that they will sell the debt on to another company ( so far no ) & even offered to accept lower settlement. My main advice, keep you cool, change your telephone number, write to them instead. suppose i am lucky in a way that they are unsecured debts. I must say Barclaycard are complete twats & that Capital 1 have been so nice & patient. Theres more to follow & i'll keep you posted !!