Help required for debt

john957432 · 11 October 2007 at 8:24PM

Finally plucked up the courage to do this, I think im going under big time and am going to lose our home. I Just dont know what to do to be honest, I am really depressed and cant think up a way out so looking for help please. The only thing I can think of is to remortgage the house but have heard that is not usually a good idea and will still leave us approx 5k short of clearing all the debts anway. (if we get the mortgage that is)

Anyway.......

Here is my SOA

Monthly Incomings:

My salary - £1,011
Partners salary - £673

Total - £1,673

Monthly Outgoings:

Phone - £16
Alarm - £15
Mortgage Life Insurance £42.96
Garage - £34.84
Contact Lenses - £16.50
First Plus - £156
Council tax - £115
Mortgage - £365
TV License - £11
Egg Life Insurance £11
House Insurance - £19
Electricity - £32
gas - £14
Sky - £38
Aol £15
Car Insurance - £16
CC MBNA - £196
CC Marbles- £5
CC Hilton Honours - £11
Credit card Egg - £80
Food - £185
Petrol - £108 - (will be cut to £72 in one months time)
Bus travel for wife - £120 (will be cut to £70 in 1 months time)
Car tax & repairs (total for last year/12) - £53
Mobile Phones - £30

My wife currently has a job that is quite a distance from where we live and depending on the days/times she works I have to drive her certain days. She has got a new job closer to home so this is why there are 2 figures for petrol/bus fares)

Total: £1,705.30 (1,619.30 in 1 months time)

Debts:

Hilton Honours – Balance £764 (limit £5400) 15.9% APR
Marbles – Balance £391 (limit £6400) 15.9% APR
MBNA CC – Balance £9,294 (limit £16,000) 1.45% per Month
Egg CC – Balance £3,938 (limit £4,200) 1.385% per Month
First Plus - 15k loan over 20 years (28months in) - approx 14k outstanding?

Total Debt: £28,387

Thanks to all who give advice.

Gale_10 · 11 October 2007 at 8:38PM

Hello and welcome,

Its very brave of you to come on here and post your SOA, well done you!

I am not most knowledgeable, there are however loads of people who will give you great advice!

They will go through your SOA step by step and see where they can make savings, however, two things stand out to me, firstly your council tax seems high compared to your mortgage, have you checked you are in the right band?

Also your food shopping can certainly be cut down, are there just the two of you? I think you could easily take that down to £120, if you go to the Moneysaving Old Style forum you can get ideas there.

If you put all your debts in the snowball calculator then it will show you your debt free day, and it can help you see how you can bring it closer.

Don't be nervous, we are all friendly here, and you will get really great advice.

Also, please go to your doctor if you are feeling depressed, it pays to get proper medical advice.

Gale

john957432 · 11 October 2007 at 8:59PM

firstly your council tax seems high compared to your mortgage

Yes we are in correct band but in Scotland, so houses are cheap but the council tax is still the same as down south where the same house would cost more - also this is just for 10 months (I had forgotton about the 2 "free" months")

Also your food shopping can certainly be cut down, are there just the two of you? I think you could easily take that down to £120

Any ideas to help with this are welcome but I should have added that £60 of this is paying for nicotine patches as ive recently (4 weeks ago) stopped smoking.

Thanks for your advice.

tallyhoh · 11 October 2007 at 8:59PM

Have a good look at what your mortgage life insurance consists of & if it is worth it.
I had a good look at mine a few years ago & really nothing in it would apply to me except the actual life insurance bit. I cancelled & got life insurance to cover the mortgage for £8.25 per month.

Gale_10 · 11 October 2007 at 9:08PM

Here is my SOA

Monthly Incomings:

My salary - £1,011
Partners salary - £673

Total - £1,673

Monthly Outgoings:

Phone - £16 - You can get this as part of a bundle through different suppliers, you will be able to get it cheaper
Alarm - £15 Is this really necessary? I appreciate that sometimes it is.
Mortgage Life Insurance £42.96 This seems high, have you shopped around?
Garage - £34.84
Contact Lenses - £16.50 Some people have reduced this cost by shopping around online, or you could wear glasses?
First Plus - £156
Council tax - £115 Have you checked you are in the right band, and you could ask if you can pay it over 12 months instead of the usual ten
Mortgage - £365
TV License - £11
Egg Life Insurance £11 Another life Insurance?
House Insurance - £19
Electricity - £32
gas - £14
Sky - £38 Can you reduce this package or cut it out altogether? Freeview box?
Aol £15 This can be combined in a bundle with your tv/phone/broadband, which would work out cheaper. See the utilities boards for tips
Car Insurance - £16 Have you checked that this is the cheapest?
CC MBNA - £196
CC Marbles- £5
CC Hilton Honours - £11
Credit card Egg - £80
Food - £185 This definitely could be reduced, see Old Style Moneysaving board
Petrol - £108 - (will be cut to £72 in one months time)
Bus travel for wife - £120 (will be cut to £70 in 1 months time)
Car tax & repairs (total for last year/12) - £53
Mobile Phones - £30 Can this be reduced? Is it PAYG or contract?

These are just a few more things I have noticed George, where you could perhaps save some money.

As regards all the debts you would probably do well to contact Payplan or CCCS who would be able to give you more advice, or even your local CAB.

Don't worry, your situation isn't hopeless, and you are in the right place for good advice,

All the best

Gale

john957432 · 11 October 2007 at 10:25PM

firstly your council tax seems high compared to your mortgage Yes we are in correct band but in Scotland, so houses are cheap but the council tax is still the same as down south where the same house would cost more - also this is just for 10 months (I had forgotton about the 2 "free" months")

Just checked this out from the info on this site and certainly looks like I may have a case to lower our band. half the houses in our row are band A, half are band B (including 2 of our direct neighbours to one side). All the houses are the same except ours has worse windows and doors lol. Gonna phone the council asap to try and get this reduced as nearly 4 years of overpaying could mean 500-600 quid less debt :-)

This board has gave me hope less than an hour after posting, its not much in the grand scheme of things but its really made my day. :T

Gonna look into some of the other stuff now(probably tommorow as its late!)

Meant to ask, should I reply to posts like Gales above or not. some of the things I dont think I can change because of various reasons. Dont want to appear ungrateful if I post answers/reasons. Is it the done thing?

Thanks!!!

HHH_2 · 12 October 2007 at 7:50AM

Have a look at the CCCS website or give them a ring they are very helpful and understanding, you get excellent advice but can make up your own mind if you want to take it or not. Good Luck

tyllwyd · 12 October 2007 at 8:22AM

Could you explain a couple of the entries

- mortgage life insurance - what is this, is it an endowment policy linked to the mortgage, or is it just life insurance? Why is there a second life insurance through Egg?

- garage - what is this, do you rent a garage?

Sus1e · 12 October 2007 at 8:41AM

You can get your contacts a lot cheaper than £16 and if you go through Quidco or other cashback sites you can even get money back for doing it!

I get mine for £10 a month and they are of a high perscription.........

john957432 · 12 October 2007 at 11:26AM

- mortgage life insurance - what is this, is it an endowment policy linked to the mortgage, or is it just life insurance? This was life insurance taken out in a joint name by myself and my wife at the time of getting our mortgage. It is to pay for our mortgage should one of us die. It pays out no more than the cost of the mortgage.

Why is there a second life insurance through Egg? This is only for me. Reason for it, if I were to die my wife would have the house paid for as above but no money, this gives her money. It was taken out before we got a mortgage.

- garage - what is this, do you rent a garage? yes but not for much longer ;-)

lindens · 12 October 2007 at 11:36AM

Some other things that may help, do the food cupboard challenge. Write down everything in cupboards/freezer and see how many meals can be made out of this stuff. You'd be surprised how many things you find, Then mealplan so you dont get over full cupboards again.
Also ebay anything you dont need/is too big/small.

Help required for debt

Comments

Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

🚀 Getting Started

Categories

Is this how you want to be seen?

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free