alyxzandra is a debt free wannabe

At one point I was free from all credit card debts, paid off my car and just had my mortgage. But, the home I bought needed a lot of work and I was going back and forth between the UK and the US for family emergencies. I ran up nearly £17,000 in credit card debt, but it was under control. My fiance had no credit card debts and a savings of £10,000. That was all in the beginning of this year. Start January 2009:

We had a 1 bedroom home and found out that with the house prices plummeting that while we had equity, it was not enough to move to a bigger property with the tightened mortgage restrictions. We decided to build an extension, which would turn our home into a large 2 bedroom property with a massive eat in kitchen, thus adding value. We hired a firm of builders after doing checks on their work, visiting properties they worked on, etc. Unknown to us, they were major scammers. And they took us for all of my fiance's savings plus what I had saved up. They were caught contravening the building regulations and had us believing the extension was nearly complete. They even had pipes and wires, a roof (turned out to just be plywood) and the pipes and wires were just there for show. They ran off the job and issued threats to us for more money, which we told them where to go. And then we found out there is no such thing as consumer protection from such cowboys. We complained to all relevant authorities, but to no avail. They need at least 5 cases to take them to court! We did all the right things: staged payments, no cash payments, etc.

So, we had to hire another (reputable this time) builder who had to start from scratch. He tried to save money where possible for us, but it still cost us another £15000. That went on credit cards and an overdraft.

Next, there was a crisis in the U.S. and we had to pay for an attorney there. Another £13,000 down the drain.

So, here we are with the following debts:

Overdraft total on 2 accounts: £3700

Halifax Platinum
Balance: 9111.41
Interest on two balances:
20.95
6.95 until paid off (balance transfer)
Min payment: 91.11

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Halifax One
Balance: 8554.67
Interest on two balance transfers:
5.94 until paid off
6.95 until paid off
Min payment: 85.54

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A & L
Balance: 8277.62
Interest: 19
Min payment: 123.63

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Virgin - Alex
CARD CANNOT BE USED IN ORDER TO KEEP LOWER INTEREST RATE
Balance: 4613.30
Interest: 15.9
Min payment: 61.19

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Barclaycard
Balance: 3503.52
Interest: 21.9
Min payment: 78.82

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BT
Balance: 3136
Interest: 16.9 purchase
transfer 18.9
Min payment: 67.90

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Tesco
Balance: 2687.34
Interest: 0 until 23 Jan 10 then 15%
Min payment: 80

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Virgin - Dave
Balance: 1900
Interest: 0 until Dec 2010
Min payment: 60

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HSBC - will be putting this onto 0% card
Balance: 1635.04
Interest: 18.9
Min payment: 40

My fiance can keep swapping his two balances onto 0% interest cards as he does not show as much debt as I do. I am unable to get anymore 0% interest cards so I have to deal with the cards I have.

My strategy:

Against some advice I've seen, I am paying off my lowest debt first, which is Tesco. It is currently on 0% interest, which runs out on 23 January 2010. Starting on January 1, I will be paying £311 on top of the minimum payment and it should be paid off by July 2010. I am hoping that will free it up so if they have a good deal I can swap another balance from one of the higher interest rate cards.

The overdraft is currently on an interest bearing account. I just opened an Abbey account with a 0% interest overdraft rate and will be paying £325 a month towards the overdraft and this should be paid off by December 2010. I will then use that same amount of money towards our credit cards.

I will tackle each lower balance first in the hopes I can get a good balance transfer deal in the future. This has happened for me before and I usually call the credit card companies every few months to see what deals they have on balance transfers.

We have a budget in place that we do follow. Our overdraft was £5000 at one point, so I think we are heading in the right direction. We do sell things on Ebay and that pays off towards one credit card. We are hoping that by 2013 our debts will be low enough to move to a bigger home in another area near my fiance's parents. And then we will work on being mortgage free by the time I am 55 and my fiance is 48.