ex and would be ex-gamblers support thread

baxgttdi

Well...it's the 9th and I'm still gamble free, that's 2 weeks tommorrow. Doesn't sound like a long time but I'd guess it's the longest time in roughly er....2 years or so which is something. I was never gonna see the benefits this month as I'd gambled at the beginning of it and I have an expensive stag do to go on, but at least I've been able to get my head around the fact that while I'll have no more money coming in, I''ll have 250-400 a month (yes that's not a typo) going out. So with that in mind I've come up with a way to restructures my debts which means I can pay some off more quickly than before and I'm feeling pretty good about it..just can't wait till next month to get it started I'm impatient . Hope everything is going well with everyone else, I'll update agsain next week hopefully with more good news.

cantcope

Hi Bax,

Well done on 2 weeks. You should be proud of yourself. As a problem gambler just a day seems like a long time without a bet if we have money to spend! 2 weeks is brilliant

Keep up the hard work, i say hard because it is! Nobody said it would be easy but it can be done and you can have a fantastic life without gambling x

GeorgeUK

Well done on the 2 weeks Bax.

Just curious about the "restructuring" that you mentioned though. Are you thinking of consolidating your debts or just moving them to a lower APR? I'm not a fan of consolidating unless you can get a very good rate but as most gambling debts on CCards are huge APR's - sometimes it's best to bite the bullet.

There are a few ways i have managed to reduce the amount of interest i'm paying so would be happy to offer comment.

baxgttdi

Hey George, no nothing like consolidation (been there tried and failed that) I've just decided to concentrate any spare cash into 1 debt at a time instead of trying to overpay littkle bits extra on all of them. Concentrating on the smallest (£630ish) first paying an extra £100 a month on top of the existing £70 minimum would mean it's cleared in 4 months instead of 8 while still paying min payments of the rest. That in turn should give me an extra £70 by Oct, which should allow me to triple the payments on my student loan clearing that by the end of the year. At that point I'll have an extra £100 (the £70 + 30 from loan payments) and I'll have taken £1900 off my car loan via regular payments leaving £2100. I intend to throw the extra £100 at those payments which means I'll finish the agreement a month early, meaning from May I'll only have my regular zopa payments (by then reduced by 1300) and my overdraft to concentrate on which seems like good motivation as the zopa loan doesn't put me under any strain and have, intheory, an extra £420 in my hands every month. It would be lovely to think I'd therefore put that I'd puit all of that money into paying off the final zopa loan but I know if I get a little bit of breathing space it would be nice to relax (noy become complacent) a bit so I plan to use £300 of that money to top up the loan payments meaning I'd be paying 400+ a month into a a 4k debt in theory taking 10 months taknig me to March 2011 leaving me 2 months to clear an overdraft and 1000-1500£ credit card to make the debt free date I originally wanted. Sounds confusing but I know what I mean lol. Sorry for bad spelling etc I have the screen minimized cos I'm at work and can't see what I'm typing haha.

GeorgeUK

I use notepad at work (when i remember).

I'm totally following what you're doing. Is the small account the one with the highest APR? It's usually best to clear the highest APR first, but if you might be offerred a balance transfer deal by that bank once you clear the balance, you might be able to transfer funds from another high APR debt to it.

See, you're not the only one that can be confusing
Have you tried using the snowball calculator?

Tr@cker

Considering base interest rates are so low the cost of borrowing on unsecured loans is unjustifiably high.

I personally like consolidation loans because its only one payment/one creditor to deal with if the sh*t hits the fan. What the experts recommend isn't necessarily right for individuals, when you're in debt how you feel is important too and so what you feel most comfortable with is a big consideration.

But my Bank who ive been with for 16 years and have an excellent record with offered me a consolidation loan 4% above typical APR so i told them to stick it where the sun dont shine!

Tr@cker

George UK, if you dont mind me asking was your entire debt down to gambling ?
Ive been asking around and from what i can gather on-line gambling has made things considerably worse and bigger for problem gamblers.

Dave101t

i used to spend all my money on online casino's. more recently i went to the real casino's due to the fact it was harder to get there, so i would gamble less. now, i have cancelled online accounts, only go to the casino maybe once every 2 months and with only around 100 quid. ironically i always seem to win now, but win small as a result.
i now trade shares as its a small thrill but usually get to keep the money too!

baxgttdi

use notepad at work (when i remember). <--Now why didn't I think of that?

I'm glad it makes sense to someone. Yes, the small loan is by far the highest interest it's massive, cost me about 30% of the original sum :O, so the sooner it's gone the better.

The student loan as you might imagine, isn't high up the interest list but I just find it demoralising to have on my payslip everymonth I don't know if that makes sense but it jsut seems like having asll my cash leave my account on the 1st is bad enough without having some that leaves before I even receive it haha.

I have tried the snowball calculator but obviously (and rightly) it tells me to do % order frist, it's just for me some of the smaller ones get me down more. While the planning is all great I need to get to the end of this month first with my life intact lol before I see the benfits of next month so at the moment that's what I'm concetrating on...stupid ******* gambling :S...Good times ahead thoguh

GeorgeUK

Tr@cker wrote: »

George UK, if you dont mind me asking was your entire debt down to gambling ?
Ive been asking around and from what i can gather on-line gambling has made things considerably worse and bigger for problem gamblers.

If you look at the first page of this thread, it's all there.
Other than fruit machines and the occasional lottery ticket, the only gambling i've ever done has been online. I dabbled with all kinds for a couple of years, but wasn't good at anything so never really stuck. Got good at poker and then went to the online casino with my winnings.I won there and increased the amounts i was betting - when i started losing i didn't decrease the amounts or stop. I was a gambling loon.

The main complaint i have about consolidating debts is that it is not always possible to overpay on a loan in the same way you can with a credit card. It sometimes has to be a lump sum to pay it off with a settlement fee attached. I really don't like paying anything extra - lol