Help with Working it all out please!

Jessi_2

Hiya

I wonder if anyone can help me work all this out....I have cc debts and am trying to work out how long its going to take me to pay it all off ......but I'm rubbish at maths....so I wonder if some kind soul could help me out a bit??

Egg card £5047.45 - 0% until Dec then 1.167 p/m (I pay £120 p/m)

Egg Money £5049.65 - 1.240 p/m (I pay £120 p/m)

Virgin £4680.38 - 0% until 17th Dec then 15.9% (I pay £100 p/m)

M&S £2,800 - 0% until 22 April 06 then 15.9% (I pay £100 p/m)

Visa £881 - 1.385 p/m (I pay whatever I can on this - usually about £30 ish)

Please can someone help me work out how long it will take to pay it all off! And is there a better/quicker way of doing it than I currently am!

Thanks very much for your help ....this is really getting me down and so any advice/suggestions would be more than welcome!!

Jo x

Lottiepots

Jessi,
I've not used it but i've heard people talking about a snowball calculator that helps you work out how long u have left to pay and which ones to pay off first.

Some more experienced people will be along to help you soon.

good luck

Alleycat

Hi, as the previous poster said there is a snowballing calculator which if you input all the info, will give you a debt free date and how to go about paying it all off.

http://www.whatsthecost.co.uk/snowball.aspx

I've done my debt, but haven't dared putting it on my sig yet! Its not too bad but still a bit humbling!

Alley

Jessi_2

Oh great, thanks for that - I'll go and have a look now!

Just another quick q.......how do I work out the overall apr if I only have the int rate per month?

Thanks

Alleycat

I'm not very good at explaining things but someone kindly helped me work mine out on the following thread...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=92890

"If there were no other costs etc then the APR would be the monthly interest rate multiplied by itself twelve times.

Eg: 1.22% monthly interest rate multiplies the amount you owe by 1.0122 each month. The annaul rate is then 1.0122 to the power of twelve (ie: 1.0122 x 1.0122 x 1.0122 x 1.0122 .....twelve times). And that comes out as 1.1566 ie: 15.6%. I've made no allowance for inflation in that though."

Alley

Robert_Sterling_3

1.167% per month is 14.9% per annum

1.240% per month is 15.9% per annum

1.385% per month is 17.9% per annum

If that is what you wanted to know.

[ They are annual equivalent rates rather than APRs ]


Priorities

1 Pay at the minimum amount required each month on each card.
If possible pay it by direct debit.

2. If you can pay more than the minimum apply the extra to the
card with the highest interest rate and not to other cards.

Robert_Sterling_3

How long will it take to pay.
Rather longer than it will take to work out how long it will take.


Urgent: Stop paying £100 per month on M&S

Just make the minimum payment each month.

What you save add to the payment of the card with the highest rate.

Jessi_2

Brilliant - thanks for the help - I'm really not good at this kind of thing (which probably helped towards me getting in this mess in the first place!)!

I've been paying a bit more than I've needed to on the 0% cards thinking that if I pay more on them then I'll get rid of them quicker and then when I start paying interest on them again it will be more manageable!!! Ooops! (told you I was bad at this sort of stuff) I'll start paying less on them and more on the higher interest ones then!!

Thanks again - I really appreciate all your help!

Robert_Sterling_3

On the card with rate 1.167% pm your £120
is about £58 for interest and £62 to reduce the loan.

On the card with 1.24% pm interest your £120
is about £62 interest and £58 to reduce the loan.

Robert_Sterling_3

Alleycat wrote:

Eg: 1.22% monthly interest rate multiplies the amount you owe by 1.0122 each month. The annual rate is then 1.0122 to the power of twelve (ie: 1.0122 x 1.0122 x 1.0122 x 1.0122 .....twelve times). And that comes out as 1.1566 ie: 15.6%. I've made no allowance for inflation in that though."
Alley

It is not the annual rate that is 1.0122 raised to the power 12
( Usually written as 1.0122^12 and equal to, as you rightly say, 1.1566 )

1.0122 is the monthly multiplier
1.1566 is the annual multiplier

in each case by subtracting 1 and then multiplying by 100 we get the appropriate monthly and annual % interest.

( 1.0122 -1) X 100 = 1.22 i.e. Monthly rate is 1.22%
( 1.1566 -1) X 100 = 15.66 i.e. Annual rate is 15.66%


Using the usual symbols * for multiply / for divide and ^ for raise to the power and R for the annual rate and r for the monthly rate then we get

R = 100 * [ ( 1 + ( r/100 ) )^12 -1 ]

Similarly

r = 100 * [ ( 1 + ( R/100 ) )^( 1/12 ) -1 ]

Robert_Sterling_3

Clear Visa Card First