Advice needed

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

Basicully I will be honest I am struggling to live on my wage at the moment as I have previous debts that are killing me etc.

Long story short I am a class 2 hiab driver for just over 2 years done alot of central London work and around the counties. Have forklift and ADR in gas too. Now I have the money to do my class 1 but its all I have saved at the moment as debts have been eating away at me.

In short is it worth wasting all I have to get my class 1 licence ? What’s the likelihood of finding work after ?
I remember it had taken me 18 months to get class 2 work

Any advice appreciated

2

I’m not sure class 1 work pays that much more than class 2 work. What are you earning now per hour for how many hours per week & where do you live then people can be more specific.

3

My advice is do nothing with those savings at the moment other than put them somewhere that ‘‘officialdom’’ can’t link with you and can’t access :wink: …though well done for managing to save anything at all if you have debts as well.

Then get yourself an appointment with Citizens Advice who will have debt specialists available, take as much relevant paperwork as possible (incl any loan or payment agreements)so CA can see the full picture.

The biggest killer is debt interest, you need to shift some of that one way or another, CA will help point you in the right direction.

I’m not suggesting you do this as no one knows just how serious your problems are, but some who see no light at the end of spiralling debt problems go bankrupt, this is an extreme measure though and not to be taken lightly and may not be in your best interests…hence the suggestion to keep schtum about that bit of savings you have accumulated if possible.

I wouldn’t be spending money on your class 1 unless you happen to work for a secure company where transfer onto class 1 is possible and the figures add up.

Best o’ luck mate.

4

Hi I earn £8.50 per hr, I live in Ipswich but work in Colchester spending £100 month on travel to work fuel.

Thanks for the advice so far

5

I take it that it is a permanent job you have at the moment? Even when you have your class 1 unless you have contacts that can get you into a permanent position then you will be stuck with agency work and the hourly rate probably isn’t a lot better but, more importantly, you won’t have any security and that’s even assuming agencies will want you with no class 1 experience. If the money was ‘spare’ then, yes, it is worth considering getting your licence but if you could use it to pay off some of the more expensive debts (interest-wise) then I would recommend doing that first.

6

It all depends on what you’re willing to do. Being home every night won’t pay as much as someone tramping all week, and tramping all week won’t pay as much as someone tramping around Europe for 3 months.
There are a lot on here that moan about pay, But they are usually the same ones that have a can’t do, won’t do attitude.

7

Getting your class 1 will open more doors but won’t always get you more money. I’ve always worked near to where I live, so saved on commuting costs (used a bicycle for a few years)

Look at your debts & decide which one is the highest interest rate, pay that off as soon as possible (whilst paying the minimum on the others) then move on to the next highest Rip Off Rate & so on.

If you get your class 1, Tramping would probably pay the best, it’s not for every one & you won’t stay married for long, but there must be some work down your way on containers.

Good luck (try to get your debts sorted ASAP, then everything else will fall into place)

8

Forget class 1 for the moment, pay off your debts as previous post suggested, keep grafting when on a better footing think about class 1 if thats what you really want to do

9

If it’s unsecured debts, then not having a full time job empowers you to throw the whole damned lot in the bin.
Debt collectors won’t bother trying to collect from someone taking home less than about £486 a month basic (ie doesn’t have a regular job) because the first few quid of any meagre income from irregular work/benefits you might get is ringfenced as for you not to starve.

No need to make yourself bankrupt. Let the creditors do it, and then you’ll find they don’t actually bother, because why pay £800ish quid merely to recover someone’s furniture at most? No cash payments beyond £1/month because your below the breadline…

You need to change your phone numbers, don’t apply for any further credit, and live within your means for the 6 years (unsecured) that it takes for the debt to die the death.
Don’t respond to any further correspondance, or the ticking clock towards 6 years keeps getting reset every time you make contact/make a token payment. They’ll be keen to get a token payment off you, just to “keep the debt alive” so to speak. Don’t fall for it.

Taking on debt is done with the assumption that you will be propserous enough in the future to easily make repayment(s). Should that prosperity not materialise, then that’s not your fault - if it were, the lender wouldn’t have loaned the money in the first place - right? :sunglasses:
Defaulting debt isn’t the same as theft, or borrowing money when you know at the time you’ve got no chance of repaying it.
Punish the lender for backing the wrong horse, not let them punish you for your poor downwardly changing fortunes since. :wink:

10

You havnt said what you take a week but i should think if you do nights out on artics you’ll probably earn abit more, im 23 and havnt had any issues what so ever getting work, almost been able to pick and choose :open_mouth: … Being close to the docks puts you in a good position and as the summer comes it will only get busier.

11

Thanks for the replies I take £1200 home a month. Work 8-5, and yes it’s a permanent full time job. I don’t want to go back to agency crap as I’m secure at the moment.

The debts are previous court fines from long ago when I lost control of my life when my girlfriend left me (long ago crap).

Thanks again have some food for thought now

12

keebs26uk:
Thanks for the replies I take £1200 home a month. Work 8-5, and yes it’s a permanent full time job. I don’t want to go back to agency crap as I’m secure at the moment.

The debts are previous court fines from long ago when I lost control of my life when my girlfriend left me (long ago crap).

Thanks again have some food for thought now

That’s easy, Write to the court and ask for a hearing, it’s usually free. be very humble.

13

You’ll easily earn more on artics… My spending went completely to pot when i split up with my ex so know where your coming from.

14

Winseer:
If it’s unsecured debts, then not having a full time job empowers you to throw the whole damned lot in the bin.
Debt collectors won’t bother trying to collect from someone taking home less than about £486 a month basic (ie doesn’t have a regular job) because the first few quid of any meagre income from irregular work/benefits you might get is ringfenced as for you not to starve.

I’ve clipped that to save space, but that is absolutely spot on advice from Winseer and the op could do lots worse than follow the tips in that excellent post.

These chancers threw money at folk in the good times and we all took it. Granted, with hindsight that was maybe a little foolish, but hindsight is the best sight apparently.

As long as you don’t owe money to friends or family I say screw them and let them reap the whirlwind.

Btw, I say this as someone who mistakenly thought it was dishonourable to go bankrupt and paid back 250k to various financial institutions over a ten year period and nearly worked myself to death to do it!

Would I do that again? Would I hell. If they’re stupid enough to (as Winseer puts it) “back the wrong horse” then sod "em.

15

the maoster:
Btw, I say this as someone who mistakenly thought it was dishonourable to go bankrupt and paid back 250k to various financial institutions over a ten year period and nearly worked myself to death to do it!

Would I do that again? Would I hell. If they’re stupid enough to (as Winseer puts it) “back the wrong horse” then sod "em.

Absolutely!! Theres no shame in going bankrupt, do it right and you can end up doing very well from it… They say that every successful business owner has been bankrupt at some point.

16

If you owe say, £50k on credit cards, and then your job that used to make the monthly payments OK goes, then you’re sinking deeper and deeper because of the rolling up interest.

Now consider what happens if you avoid a full time job for the next 6 years… You learn how to live within your means, you get out of paying the £50k back (because they won’t and don’t chase you) which means what you didn’t spend becomes what you’ve gained. Then there’s the interest saved on top of that…

The pedllers of debt would have us believe that borrowers “steal” money from them, but the only reason most people borrowed in the first place was because WAGES were stagnant, whilst the cost of living rose. Who engineered inflation for cost of living but deflation for wages? - Yup. The bankers.

Screw them. Shaft them. Get your own back. Don’t bother waiting for their bought-over politicians to do something, when in all fairness they’ve been paid to look the other way already.

I’m surprised it isn’t generally well known how easy it is to do debt walkaway. So-called “debt advice” always say

"Hey guy, you’ve got no job, no money, and you owe tens of thousands. Well you must try and pay it off".

Tossers. :imp: If you’re skint - you’re skint. Without the banking crisis we’d all still be earning relatively good money in our non-financial/legal sectors of the economy after all.
Why do you think “bad debt provisions” by banks are on the rise? - People are waking up to the fact you really don’t have to pay off unsecured debt at all once you’re too poor to afford it.
“Too poor” is as soon as you have no full time job and confiscateable assets any more.

Debt collectors like to boast “THey’ll chase your house”. Yeh. THe mortgage is upto date (you don’t default secured debts) so if some unsecured creditor went after your house, they’d have to trump the secure mortgage lender to do it. Nothing better than having a catfight between two different types of lender - one fighting your corner for you!

If your house is in negative equity, or you are a tenant, then there’s bugger all any creditor can do to force you to pay, once that full time job has gone as well. Any attempts will cost them money each time, and CCJ’s are only awarded against “won’t pay” rather than “can’t pay” defendants. The “Won’t pay” end up with an attachment of salary order made. The can’t pay don’t, because if you work say, agency, then there IS no regular salary coming in thanks to zero hour contracts…

Co Op Bank is already on it’s knees thanks to the increasing number of people who are now waking up by the way… :exclamation:
Watch the news over the next few weeks/months for more detail.
If you’ve got savings there, I’d seriously consider getting them out whilst you still can! :wink:

17

Waste of money mate, keep saving or put it towards paying off your debts…

18

;'/

SHYTOT:
Forget class 1 for the moment, pay off your debts as previous post suggested, keep grafting when on a better footing think about class 1 if thats what you really want to do

Totally disagree with this ^^^^^^. Even the quadruplicate aspect of this post smacks of bean counter origins you might say… :laughing:

If you use money that would have paid some debt interest on getting your class one, then guess what? - You’ve now got something (assuming you pass OK) that cannot be taken away from you…

There’s nothing more satifying than using money earmarked for some banker’s new porsche to feather your own nest instead, and drop the credit controller who granted your loan under THEIR false pretences (not yours) in the crapper into the bargain.

We, the indebted public have already paid that debt off in full after all - via the banking bailout which came from taxpayer funds, soon to be written off in the case of banks like Lloyds and HBOS.
Don’t let some prick in a suit tell you which money was yours and which was theres. They’ve already taken away whole livelihoods to preserve their own worthless necks, and the stand has to be made against them re-floating the entire economy on a “prosperous financial sector/slave transport industry” ticket. :imp:

Stop paying, and improve yourself in ways that don’t involve buying things that can be confiscated. A class one licence is an EXCELLENT way to spend such clawed-back money.
:sunglasses: Do it! :slight_smile:

19

the maoster:
Btw, I say this as someone who mistakenly thought it was dishonourable to go bankrupt and paid back 250k to various financial institutions over a ten year period and nearly worked myself to death to do it!

Would I do that again? Would I hell. If they’re stupid enough to (as Winseer puts it) “back the wrong horse” then sod "em.

Absolutely!! Theres no shame in going bankrupt, do it right and you can end up doing very well from it… They say that every successful business owner has been bankrupt at some point.

20

Pimpdaddy:
Waste of money mate, keep saving or put it towards paying off your debts…

This is what I’m worried about, I suppose if you can get a permanent job before you pay for it then it would be worth it ? Always mixed reviews on getting a class 1 I noticed