Any Advice Welcome!

Bravetart · 23 July 2008 at 10:09PM

For the past year or so, I've been becoming more and more worried about my finances. Now I'm by no stretch of the imagination in a terrible situation and have never felt my finances are out of control, but I do definitely need to get a hold of the situation and sort myself out before things get any worse, I've been too good to myself lately.

I looked at the SOA calculator, but to be honest my situation is likely to change a lot in the next 3 months or so as I am 90% certain I'm moving in with my girlfriend, which will mean my outgoings should reduce (I currently live alone). That's half the reason I want to sort things out, I don't want to be a burden on her, though she has her own debts, she earns more than me also and is in a better situation to pay them off.

My biggest burden at the moment is a £160 repayment to HSBC for a FlexiLoan I have with them, the repayment has been harder to deal with than I expected when I took it out a year ago. I also had hoped to have it cleared off by now. I am getting a bonus at work this month, which should cover the repayment of this.

On top of the loan I have £1900 on an Egg credit card, which is currently interest free until April 2009, with repayments of around £40 a month.

I also have a second card with HSBC with around £1450 on. This is the killer, the interest rate on this is around 18% and the minimum repayment is £35 a month.

My current account is a graduate account and as such has a £2000 overdraft limit (£500 interest free), which it reaches each month. I believe the interest rate on this is around 18% too and interest which must be paid each month is about £9.

Lastly, I bought a new computer on interest free credit. After the deposit the remaining balance was £650. It has to be paid off within a year, or it goes to some ridiculously high interest rate, so I'm puting aside £55 each month in to a basic savings account so I can pay this off in full before the 12 months is up.

So overall I have debts of around £6000 and repayments each month of £139, though 2 of my debts are also accumulating a fair bit of interest, that obviously I would rather have in my pocket.

What would you suggest is the best way of dealing with this debt? It always seems a better option to have it all under one roof, but consolidating the debts seems a bit silly when I have 2 interest free loans. I did notice Egg are offering loans of around 9% with no penalty for early repayment or paying off larger chunks each month, so I thought this could be an option, but again, it seems silly to do this when I currently have interest free loans, though these are my biggest payments each month. Also, the credit card won't be interest free forever.

The other option I considered was to take out another interest free credit card to transfer my HSBC card and overdraft to, however there's no guarantee that they'll give me the limit that I require and it was only 6 months ago that I applied for my Egg card, which will also have to be tarted in April.

I am confident I'll have more disposable income in the coming few months, which should allow me to be more comfortable with repayments. I also plan to be a bit less free flowing with my expenditure, which made me think that consolidating in to a loan I can pay off as much as I want at a time would be the best option. I also have a few holidays coming that I should probably save up for though, in particular my best friend's wedding, which is in New Zealand in Feb 2010. There's always something around the corner that requires money it seems!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Numpty_Monkey · 23 July 2008 at 10:22PM

Hi
have you had a look at the snowball calculator?
http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx?country=uk

boredofbeingathome · 23 July 2008 at 10:22PM

Perhaps it would help if you posted a SOA up. It has alsorts of hidden expenses you may not have thought of.

also you seem to be pretty well on track for juggling things around and making the most of the existing situation. You are right in saying if you got it all under control now, then it will be better in the future.

And welcome to the board.

Bravetart · 23 July 2008 at 10:56PM

Thanks for the welcome! I've posted on some of the other boards, just never this one before

Thanks very much for that snowball calculator, that's incredibly handy. By the looks of things consolidating may work out cheaper in terms of interest, provided I often overpay.

My SOA will be completely different in a few months though, that's why I wasn't sure it would be worthwhile posting.

Here is my current situation:

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1400
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1400

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 500
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 86
Electricity............................. 20
Gas..................................... 20
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 13
Mobile phone............................ 35
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 18
Groceries etc. ......................... 175
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 60
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 5
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 7.5
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 15
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 986.5

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 0

No Secured Debt

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
HSBC Credit Card...............1450......35........18
Egg Credit Card................1900......40........0
Overdraft......................2000......9.........18
Shop Loan......................550.......55........0
Total unsecured debts..........5900......139.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,400
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 986.5
Available for debt repayments........... 413.5
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 139
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ 274.5

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total Secured debt...................... -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -5,900
Net Assets.............................. -5,900

As you can see, it doesn't really leave me a lot for doing much, particularly with the FlexiLoan repayments at £160.

When I move in with my girlfriend, my outgoings should decrease a lot as bills etc will be shared between the 2 of us. This is a very rough estimate but here goes:

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1500
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1500

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 250
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 65
Electricity............................. 10
Gas..................................... 10
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 6.5
Mobile phone............................ 35
TV Licence.............................. 6
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 5.5
Internet Services....................... 5.5
Groceries etc. ......................... 100
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 70
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 7.5
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 15
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 606

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 0

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(250)......0
Total secured debts........... 0.........-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
HSBC Credit Card...............1450......35........18
Egg Credit Card................1900......40........0
Overdraft......................2000......9.........18
Shop Loan......................550.......55........0
Total unsecured debts..........5900......139.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,500
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 606
Available for debt repayments........... 894
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 139
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ 755

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total Secured debt...................... -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -5,900
Net Assets.............................. -5,900

RAS · 23 July 2008 at 11:18PM

Hiya

I dare not make a long post as my connection could nosedive at any minute but, rahter than moving your computer payment into a saving accoutn, can you transfer the money to an ISA? Not a lot but you might get £10-20 towards another debt from the interest.

Any Advice Welcome!

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