Advice on my debt please

enthusiasticsaver · 11 October 2016 at 1:57PM

The only loan I would consider is to get rid of that online retailer debt. 39% is horrific. Now you have over £1k in emergency fund I would put that £100 and all your lodger money towards debt repayments. That is £900+ per month to get rid of the debt so entirely doable in around 18-24 months providing you stick to budget, don't take any more debt on and get the online retailer debt moved to something more affordable. What did you use that for?

Not sure what to suggest about the car except you cannot afford any more debt at the moment so until you get a payrise or get the debt more under control you should not be borrowing to pay for a new car.

EssexHebridean · 11 October 2016 at 2:24PM

asoe209 wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Electricity............................. 50 - Over estimate, again a lot of these vary general put on £40 per month.
Gas..................................... 40 - same with this its more in the region of 20-30PM Pre-payment meter then? Nasty things - can you request to change onto a standard meter? Have you checked that you're getting the best deal you can, regardless of the answer to the first question?
Telephone (land line)................... 17.4 - Just the phone internet is free at the moment but this does seem over the odds Fairly standard for line rental unless you're in a position to pay upfront
Mobile phone............................ 25 - Over estimate if it goes over average £21 pM Contract? Sim only? PAYG?
TV Licence.............................. 37 - 3 monthly payments So this should show £12.12 per month, yes?
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 22.5 - Cancelled down to freeview. cancelling the multiroom which is £10 towards this So there is now no cost here at all?
Petrol/diesel........................... 70 - fluxgates depended on where I have to travel to £50 fills the tank does me about 350 - 400 Miles Read Martin's guide about driving economically and put it into practise religiously. Every little helps.
Car Insurance........................... 33 - Renew next week shooping around at the moment Definitely do - again use Martin's guide on the main site.
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 100 - This is around what I have been paying on repairs and main. I count my savings towards these sorts of cost, not a separate cost. And this is some of your problems. You can't afford the luxury of savings when you have debts at 39% - I promise you that. You NEED to start budgeting for things like this monthly - else your situation is only going to get worse.
Presents (birthday, Christmas etc)...... 30 - don't by gifts family does secret santa at a maximum of £30 So this isn't £30 per month, no? It's £30 per year?
Emergency fund.......................... 100 - Counted this as my saving which is £1400 The point of an SOA is it details what you actually spend, and therefore shows you what money you have, and where it goes.
Current Account OD.............1450......40........0 - this is a Barclays OD and they charge a percentage per day the account is in OD. I don't know the percentage for it. Are you absolutely sure it's a percentage? If you go online and check your statements it should tell you what's being charged - it will also show you how much those charges come to in a month.

Humour me here - but I'd like you to try something. Look at the latest statement for your hideous 39% finance debt - and write down how much interest it is adding on every month. Then log into your online banking and see what the monthly charges actually are for that overdraft. Write that figure down too. Then add the two together. Can you now see why we're saying you can't afford savings?

You're double accounting at the moment - and that isn't helping. You need to account for every penny of what you have coming in, know where it's going and be able to hammer away at that debt. At the moment the books aren't balancing though and you don't have a clear grasp of what your expenditure actually is - that's when problems occur.

Sanctioned_Parts_List · 11 October 2016 at 3:34PM

Hi asoe,

To follow the excellent advice you've already received, just to note that if you're being charged £40pm on a £1450 overdraft, this is 2.76% non-compounded, or roughly equivalent to 33% APR.

There's no way your savings are earning that interest - pay off the overdraft!

I'd love to know which online retailer charges 39% - that's usury!

asoe209 · 11 October 2016 at 4:31PM

Thank you all for your advise and comments its really been appreciated.

Whats annoying is the debts were going down, but when I took this new job the extra travel has hit me a bit harder. which made me use the credit cards more.

some have u have mentioned don't save. I did originally start the saving to pay things off in bigger chunks but also it was to cover this things that crop up like the car repairs, insurance etc.

to be fair if I had not save those extra bits from the car allowance, I would have been screwed at this point.

the retail account was used to buy bits for my home( fridge, freezer bed etc), when at the time I had a partner it was being paid jointly. when we split and she moved out it left me to cover all the rest on my own.

Most are saying tackle the retail account. and work on the rest from there. but is that worth putting on a loan of just more trying to put every penny into it?

from my point works just going to have to lump it in terms of a new car. the lodger money is going onto the retail account that was the original plan. and just try a do more preventative maintenance on the motor.

asoe209 · 11 October 2016 at 4:32PM

My bank charges - 75p/day on up to £1,000, £1.50/day from £1,001 to £2,000 and £3/day on more than £2,000. New charges for breaching your limit. If this happens, Barclays will charge £5/day up to a maximum of £35/month

MrsTinks · 11 October 2016 at 4:39PM

asoe209 wrote: »

My bank charges - 75p/day on up to £1,000, £1.50/day from £1,001 to £2,000 and £3/day on more than £2,000. New charges for breaching your limit. If this happens, Barclays will charge £5/day up to a maximum of £35/month

Typically how much are your charges at the moment each month? That way we can reverse engineer like SPL has kindly done on a theoretical amount for you.

MrsTinks · 11 October 2016 at 4:43PM

As for the online retailer thingy... are you utterly certain that you have the discipline to not take out any more credit? to close the accounts you currently have the 39% apr on? if so then look at if you can balance transfer to a lower apr card.

You do need to be utterly utterly sure though that you won't be tempted to use other accounts again...

I would hold out on the car for as long as you can right now... until they REALLY get shirty about it. Depending on how much they check up on you then you can fly under the radar for a significant period - but do get a decent breakdown/recovery plan

EssexHebridean · 11 October 2016 at 8:36PM

asoe209 wrote: »

My bank charges - 75p/day on up to £1,000, £1.50/day from £1,001 to £2,000 and £3/day on more than £2,000. New charges for breaching your limit. If this happens, Barclays will charge £5/day up to a maximum of £35/month

So on a 30 day month you're being charged £45?

Sanctioned_Parts_List · 11 October 2016 at 9:44PM

EssexHebridean wrote: »

So on a 30 day month you're being charged £45?

Equals 37.3% APR assuming an average balance of £1450

EssexHebridean · 11 October 2016 at 9:47PM

EssexHebridean wrote: »

So on a 30 day month you're being charged £45?

Sanctioned_Parts_List wrote: »

Equals 37.3% APR assuming an average balance of £1450

If this is the case, I'd definitely say get rid of the overdraft using savings - not least as it's actually increasing month on month at the moment I suspect?

Advice on my debt please

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