Job loss, bankruptcy and probably depression

[throdgrain]

I've had plenty of support anyway, so I'm not too fussed. But as I've said though there's no point sitting here pointing fingers, progress is in the future and not the past. Thanks though

Well said and good luck to you mate. I've been redundant 4 times in my working career, its not nice.

When I drove home from my old job on the last day my boss cried. Honestly. I got in my car and I fired it up, and on my cd player was Never Say Die, an old song by Black Sabbath It cheered me up for a bit. But when I got home I realised the total loss of it, and I cried a bit too to be honest with you. It was a long time since I'd done that, and a long time since I'd not had financial security, many many years.

But hey, I got up and did what I could and within 6 months I was earning a a bit more than I had been before, and things wernt so bad.

Just remember, keep your priorities sorted, your family, and do your best, and everything else will fall into place

 

[Jupitus]

Kryt - you have my sympathy. I know a bit about debt, have plenty myself, but I am lucky enough to have a good income and although times are very lean right now, I am confident that it will pass for us.

I read your thread the day it started, and tbh the first thing I did was look at your location.... if you were closer to London I might have been in a position to look at any internal positions we have available that might suit you, but sadly I think distance is an issue.

Keep yer chin up though - I also smiled at the umbrella quote as a good one, and very true. It's encouraging that you are still thinking things through and taking advice on board without taking a downward mental spiral... keep at it, and as others have said, things will sort themselves out in the end. I see your attitude to others and the helpful way you approach other users of this forum, and in that I sense a good person who deserves better than the hand you have been dealt right now... it could, and it should, get better

 

[Raven]

what so cos they give you a 15k limit you have to spend it? im sorry but the blame lies with you on that one, and don't play the cancer card cos it doesnt affect your decision making.

At 18 I fucking would, think I was in and out of temp work at factory's and stuff, probably on no more than 8k. Got a £1500 limit card at Currys and a 2 grand credit card. Resident Evil 1 had just come out so I bought it along with a PS1 and a £600 stereo, was fantastic a lot of games to buy for a kid with 3.5k's worth of never never. Was great until I started missing payments, spent most of my cash money on booze, soap bar and take away. after £25 a week rent I usually only had 60-70 left which doesn't last long on a summer weekend Got in a right mess, took me 3 years to pay it off, the best feeling in the world when you make that final payment.

It taught me a very valuable lesson with regard to the way I handle money. We only have about 1.5k debt between us now, £500 overdraft and 1k on her credit card.

and Kryt, best of luck, I am sure with your computer know how you won't have any trouble with finding something else, you ever thought of going free lance in PC repairs? maybe small firms?

 

[Himse]

I feel sorry for you mate deep sympathies

I hope you pull through and i hope the sprog is born nice and safe

 

[Kryten]

Yeah that's the sort of thing I'm after, Raven. I've just turned down a contract job in Brackmills repairing printers for £11 an hour, mostly as it'd cost me more in difference with petrol and running costs. Aint far from Rushden but christ the petrol costs make it feel like the other end of Scotland.

Thought about going freelance a lot, but my disability makes it rather difficult. I've a few private clients (well, friends really) who came to me after a technical/sales job I had going back almost 10 years and they often put me onto new folks, but doing it properly is something I can't manage.
My speech problem isn't much of an issue there being honest, it's just my inability to ask for money. I'd happily sit there for 3 hours doing a system build & windows reinstallation, get asked how much they owe me and muggins here pipes up "ooh, just call it a tenner for petrol and a pint".
I nearly always walk out with double and have had someone hand me a credit card and force me to buy myself an upgrade before, but I've just a complete inability to ask for sensible money or force a "set rate" :/

Holding out a glimmer of hope for my existing place at the moment, it's an odd situation. Still no closer on getting more investors as existing shareholders are being morons about it, they've got large slices of a small pie and want to hold onto them, despite knowing full well if they dont give up a slice they'll have no shares in no company. If it goes under, I've little doubt it'll get bought up, but it's a matter of time and lack of money. Fingers crossed

 

[ford prefect]

A friend of mine makes a fairly decent living knocking together cheap £200-300 towers for the small business market. They are nothing flashy, just what you would need for an average office desktop on the cheap for small businesses. He sells them on ebay all around europe, usually does 10 or so a week. He was in a similar situation to your's Kryten, and started doing that to make ends meet while he looked for a new job, that was eight years ago now and he's still doing it. Just a thought

 

[inactionman]

Hope the situation works out for you.

Thought about something like this Kryt?

iPod repairman: a full-time job in NYC

 

[Bodhi]

what so cos they give you a 15k limit you have to spend it? im sorry but the blame lies with you on that one, and don't play the cancer card cos it doesnt affect your decision making.

an you were a student or you were out of work? make your mind up. these are completely different situations

rubric and kryt got bad debt over years, supporting family bad luck and some bad descions which im sure both will admit


you on the other hand decided im gonna spend 13k on beer and drugs and hookers cos im a student and i dont give a fuck, unfortuanly you do have to pay it back... bad luck

So earlier in this thread you go on about the responsible lending act, but yet you don;t think it applies to my situation? I'm sorry but between that and your assertion that cancer isn't an issue, I think you are a prize cock without a single clue about life, the universe, or anything really.

Anyway Kryt hope things work out for you. I'm currently working for one of the largest UK PC manufacturers, I shall ask around and see if they have anything in your area going. We mainly serve the educational market and we have our own PC Recycling centre - think Staffordshire might be a bit of a commute for you though Still, I shall see if anything's going.

 

[RandomBastard]

I have a car that eats petrol like it's going out of fashion.

They all do and it is

Sorry to hijack the threat Kryt, best of luck, i'm afraid i'm only just entering the job market and as such can't offer any advice.

 

[Yaka]

yikes kryt really sorry to hear how things are going for you.




niote sure if this might be useful but west yourkshire fire service are looking for skilled IT workers supposed to be doing a major upgrade or some thing

 

[throdgrain]

In English?

 

[nath]

Oh come on Throd, Yaka's typos are a fundamental part of the Freddyshouse experience. If you're still having trouble with them after all this time, you're beyond help

 

[Yaka]

yesh!

 

[throdgrain]

They looked like deliberate typos to me

 

[russell]

Yeah that's the sort of thing I'm after, Raven. I've just turned down a contract job in Brackmills repairing printers for £11 an hour, mostly as it'd cost me more in difference with petrol and running costs. Aint far from Rushden but christ the petrol costs make it feel like the other end of Scotland.

Thought about going freelance a lot, but my disability makes it rather difficult. I've a few private clients (well, friends really) who came to me after a technical/sales job I had going back almost 10 years and they often put me onto new folks, but doing it properly is something I can't manage.
My speech problem isn't much of an issue there being honest, it's just my inability to ask for money. I'd happily sit there for 3 hours doing a system build & windows reinstallation, get asked how much they owe me and muggins here pipes up "ooh, just call it a tenner for petrol and a pint".
I nearly always walk out with double and have had someone hand me a credit card and force me to buy myself an upgrade before, but I've just a complete inability to ask for sensible money or force a "set rate" :/

Holding out a glimmer of hope for my existing place at the moment, it's an odd situation. Still no closer on getting more investors as existing shareholders are being morons about it, they've got large slices of a small pie and want to hold onto them, despite knowing full well if they dont give up a slice they'll have no shares in no company. If it goes under, I've little doubt it'll get bought up, but it's a matter of time and lack of money. Fingers crossed

Reading posts you have made -I get the sense that you are a good guy and the good guys always win in the end. Hang in there. You will sort it out and when baby Kryten comes you will have the added incentive to push onwards and upwards. It can only get better. I wish you luck and look forward to hearing what you decide to do.

( I know nothing about IT jobs, so I can only offer the touchy feely stuff -sorry mate)

 

[Deebs]

Good luck Kryt.

Never been in this type of position so don't have any real advice apart from throw any letters offering any form of money in the bin. I do and it has managed to keep my debt down to a manageable level.

 

[Kryten]

Reading posts you have made -I get the sense that you are a good guy and the good guys always win in the end. Hang in there. You will sort it out and when baby Kryten comes you will have the added incentive to push onwards and upwards. It can only get better. I wish you luck and look forward to hearing what you decide to do.

( I know nothing about IT jobs, so I can only offer the touchy feely stuff -sorry mate)

Cheers russell, appreciate the thought anyway
As said before, I'm keeping my chin up and the support is greatly appreciated.
It's still looking positive whatever happens. I'm still hoping my existing company pulls through, popped in this morning and there's still no update, but my MD is badgering on. He was on the phone to the difficult shareholder who's putting the block on things and the words "cretin" and "moron" were oft used.
On top of which I've had another job offer last night this time in Bedford doing something similar to what I was here, with a bit of database and SQL work thrown in. I'm not up on SQL and only basic with databases but they're willing to give me a shot on the strength of my learning speed and enthusiasm. They've given me a week to mull it over and get back to them, so the depression and panic has long left me. For some reason, it's been remarkably easy to find work this time round, I suspect it's the addition of this job on my CV.

For note though, if anyone's hunting for work in IT or otherwise, go see Jobsite UK - 1000s UK Jobs, Start your Recruitment Job Search Now - it's a bloody marvellous site. I've used several others like Totaljobs, Monster, Reed etc and had limited success but this one is a class above the rest IMO.

 

[Chilly]

Very glad to hear you are making progress bud, doesnt look like you are going to have any problems. Once you have a few real jobs on yer CV you won't want for work unless your particular industry goes titsup or you become famous for taking a shit in your MDs car or something and no one wants to hire you

 

[Kryten]

Had an update, very upset phone call from the warehouse manager to confirm that despite some optimistic looking discussions and input from investors, the company's finally gone under.
There's a possibility of resurrection but now with some closure I'm going to do some serious job hunting and consideration of those I've already been offered/shortlisted for

All good fun, eh!

 

[Dreamor]

Had an update, very upset phone call from the warehouse manager to confirm that despite some optimistic looking discussions and input from investors, the company's finally gone under.
There's a possibility of resurrection but now with some closure I'm going to do some serious job hunting and consideration of those I've already been offered/shortlisted for

All good fun, eh!

Like you say, at least you know either way... can hope for the best but if its got this far its pretty final I guess (people being upset etc)

Don't worry about the SQL type work, its easy enough to pick up. What Databases you likely to work with, if you PM me your email address I have a tonne of stuff I could send you to help you out.

 

[SilverHood]

I'd go for it Kryten, money coming in is better than no money coming in.

SQL is easy enough to understand. We have some real numpteys at work doing SQL and they somehow manage to get the desired results out of the databases eventually.

 

[Kryten]

Indeed, I've always worked on the below motto:

"Knowledge isn't knowing everything, it's knowing where or how to find out"

t'Internet is where or how It might be crammed full of anal stretching, gender bending and otherwise generally sick stuff but it's also absolutely full of resources for every single thing you'd ever need to know on the planet

 

[Aada]

Just when you think your own financial life sucks balls somebody else comes a long and makes yours seem insignificant.

Debt is a horrible thing but unfortunatly it is something anybody avoids in life.

Hope everyone gets their shit sorted.

 

[Chilly]

Actual SQL programming or DB admin, kryt? If the former - you can pick up 75% in a day or two and the rest you either wont ever need to know about or you'll pick up as you go. I do oracle pl/sql coding and plain oracle sql coding and I use so few of the DBs features it's silly, yet I get the job done efficiently.

 

[Marc]

If you want to avoid bankruptcy (whoever said that after 3 years you will be able to get a mortgage again is so so wrong) then try these guys

CCCS - Free Debt Advice from the UK's Leading Debt Charity

They are a charity, who wont charge you hundreds, even thousands like these dodgy companies who advertise on challenge TV. They charge you nothing.

They will do all the work for you so you end up paying one amount each month which they then distribute amongst your creditors. The CCCS are held in much higher regard in the credit industry, than these IVA companies so the chances of your creditors accepting lower repayments each month is far greater. They will also do their best to make sure you have a decent amount of money to live off each month. I have reccomended them to a few people who wanted to pay off their debts and once everything was sorted, they had much more to live off each month than they had whilst they were paying their creditors direct.

Obviously your credit rating will take a hit in the short term and you wont be able to get credit, but in the long term its far far better than bankruptcy.

 

[Kryten]

Marc : thanks, but have already been through those long ago. It's a non-avoidable course of action I'm afraid
I'll certainly agree though that if anyone's reading this thread in a similar situation, they are indeed the best people to speak to; and do it as soon as they realise they've a problem.

It's no bad thing really. We don't intend on getting a mortgage, certainly not within 3 years (that's an odd figure though, not sure where that comes from!) 6 years is a more reasonable time-frame, after which our credit file *will* be entirely clean and we'll be free to get a mortgage with no difficulty.

Plenty of research has gone into this


Edit:

Just in case anyone is in a similar situation, I'll list some of the most helpful resources:

Money Saving Expert: Consumer Revenge - Credit Cards, Shopping, Bank Charges, Cheap Flights and more
Bankruptcy Help: Bankruptcy Help Forum, articles, blogs, TV channel ...
The Consumer Action Group - Bank Charges - Reclaim Bank Charges - Welcome
CCCS - Free Debt Advice from the UK's Leading Debt Charity (nod to Marc's post above)
Cheap loans | mortgages | credit cards | home & car insurance - moneysupermarket.com

Most or all of the above sites have messageboards/forums full of people who are either in the same situation or have been through it and pulled through the other end, as well as plenty of experts on hand. Definitely worth a look.

 

[taB]

Not much to add to the above except better to have an income and looking elsewhere than no money coming in at all. I'd personally be tempted to take the best incoming offer and still look around for the next ideal job Caveat: I've always been shit at doing that myself.

Good luck and I'm sure your enthusiasm and knowledge will see you through, it certainly reflects well on you here.

 

[Tom]

Get a boat instead of a house Kryt A decent narrowboat can be had for £30,000.

 

[throdgrain]

I thought people already knew about the CCCS, I feel bad. If you have problems ONLY go to the CCCS or Payplan, or the CAB at a push.

Please don't use DebtsRUs or whatever shit names these people use. They charge you more than they give to your creditors, they tell you dont worry everything is under control and you wont get any more calls or visits, which is all bullshit.

 

[Kryten]

Too bloody right. Made the mistake of trying DebtMatters last year, complete waste of time. Fell through in the end anyway for various reasons.
At all stages I was told "It wouldn't cost me a penny, nothing is taken from the monthly payments etc etc, we are honestly doing this for nothing". But of course delve into the small print and they do take from the amounts the creditors get paid if the creditors agree to do so.

So, you're a credit card provider.
Someone owes you £5000.

A debt management company approaches you on behalf of the debtor, and says "The debtor is willing to pay £15 a month. I will be taking £2.50 from that amount."

And then a charitable company such as CCCS or Payplan approaches.
Same situation, offer of £15 a month, They get £15 a month.

Who's going to get the nod?


Consolidation loans, debt management companies, the lot needs to be avoided.
And Carol Vorderman should be shot.