Help with Working it all out please!

Willsnarf1983

Robert_Sterling wrote:

Clear Visa Card First

sooooooo your saying that the OP should clear the visa card first!

:rotfl:

*Sparkle*_3

Thanks Alley for posting that snowball link, i just done it and its really helped me see and understand my finances.

Jessi_2

Thanks

Just done the Snowball calculations and it really helps put it all into perspective rather than me sitting here getting more depressed thinking I'm never gonna find a way out of it!!

Don't worry - I'll make sure the Visa card goes first!!

Thanks again!!


Jo x

Robert_Sterling_3

Willsnarf1983 wrote:

sooooooo your saying that the OP should clear the visa card first!

:rotfl:

Yep

YorkshireBoy

Jessi wrote:

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

To add to the excellent advice already given, for accuracy when snowballing, you might want to check and confirm your APR's on a regular basis - particularly as you approach the end of your 0% deals.

For example, I believe the Egg card is now 15.9% APR (which is around 1.24% per month).

Many other card providers have increased their rates recently and these could/should influence your snowballing decision-making.

Jessi_2

Yeah I actually rang Egg yesterday after I'd posted that just to double check and they've confirmed its gone up to 15.9%!

Jessi_2

Just another quick q.......I've been putting money into an ISA which I recently had to use to pay some unexpected bills! I've always been taught that you should put a little away every month - but in my current situation I would imagine that paying off the cc's is more important than saving for the future (right now anyhow).....would you agree with this? Or am I better trying to pay a little less off the cc's and putting a little away?

I have no pension plan - so the Cash mini Isa was all I had (although as I said - that's been spent now anyhow)!

Thanks

margaretclare

Jessi wrote:

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!

You've been doing it the wrong way round!

What you should have done was to pay just the required amount each month by direct debit to the 0% cards until the 0% runs out.

Pay as much as you can to the card with the highest interest rate until it's paid off, then pay off the next one, and so on. That's what is meant by 'snowballing' - with every card that's paid off you have more to throw at the next one. The snowball gets bigger - see?

Aunty Margaret

Robert_Sterling_3

Jessi wrote:

but in my current situation I would imagine that paying off the cc's is more important than saving for the future (right now anyhow).....would you agree with this?
Thanks

You are right.
Why borrow money at 15%
and then have it in a savings account at 5%?

On the other hand
You may feel you need to have some money readily available in an emergency even if comes at some cost.

It is a personal decision as to how much money you ought to hold under these circumstances.

Jessi_2

OK so that plan so far is:

I've cancelled my ISA payments because at the moment I think getting the debt down is more important than saving up (and because I regularly dip into it to pay the bills anyway).

I've cancelled all charity payments - ok it was only £15 a month and I feel very mean for doing it but just for the time being, charity will have to begin at home (I'll continue sending crimble pressies out to the 3rd world via my neice's school so that eases my conscience slightly).

I've got loads of stuff together that I can sell on ebay and hopefully make even a bit of money (after all the charges)!

I'll keep up putting £25 per month into a Christmas savings account so I don't have to worry about where my money for pressies is going to come from each year!

I've done the snowball calculations and now know what I should be paying and when to pay off the debts asap!

Any other obvious things that I may be missing?

Thanks again for all your help - I really appreciate this! As you can see, I've been doing it all wrong.......with your help I now feel like I'm slowly getting my head round it all and actually helping myself instead of making matters worse!

Jo x