new to the site.. can anyone help me??

emily0585

hi everyone

i am new to this site and have just been reading everyones posts which has made me feel better knowing i am not alone!

I am currently around 35k in Debt (17k is in my partners name although its my debt and i pay the monthly payments)

I earn £24k a year and my partner earns around £20k. I feel like all my money goes on various minimum payments which barely clear the interest on some of my cards - it is so depressing!

I really want to clear it once and for all but my credit rating is quite poor so I cant see a way out!

I have
£15000 natwest loan at 11.4% (in partners name)
£3600 barclaycard
£2500 citicard
£3000 natwest overdraft
£900 hsbc credit card
£9500 hsbc loan @ 8.3%
£1000 hsbc overdraft

I spoke to one debt management company but they told me I did not qualify for the service as my salary covers all the minimum payments quite easily (I have around £350 a month left over after my bills go out)

I really dont want to ruin my credit rating forever but I must do something cos i want to be debt clear as quickly as I can!

Any suggestions on where to start? Em x

Rikki

Wow big writing.......:shocked:

Fill in a Statement of Affairs using this form CLICK HERE

Post it here and people can help you save and reallocate your money.

poorandindenial

Hi Emily

A very big welcome to the board

First things first, there will be a way out of it, but it may not be quick; that said, once you are back in control of this little lot you will feel a million times better. I promise, although it might feel rubbish at the moment you do sound motivated so bear with us

Right, you have done really well to get this put together, we still need a little bit more info about your situation. We need to know more about your debts and the minimum payments on ALL of them and also the APRs that you are paying on the cards. We also need to know about your other outgoings. If you use the Statement of Affairs calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com then it will help you to make sure you don't miss any bits and bobs that cost you but that you might not think about normally.

Once you have done that we can see whether you will be able to clear this yourself (in which case you will get introduced to the wonderful world of the snowball calculator) or whether you would be better off with a debt charity (NEVER a fee charging company - who did you go to before?? - a list of not for profit agencies is here)

Welcome to the forum and please don't worry, there is a way out of this and we will have you on track in no time.

PoorPrincess

Hi,

Just wanted to say well done & welcome to the board!!

If you dont mind, what have you spent this money on in the first place?? If any of it is still worth money then you can always sell it on ebay, its amazing what sells and what you can make money on.

We definatly need your SOA and APR and start making a spending diary, be honest and you will be shocked.

Princess

x

poorandindenial

PoorPrincess wrote: »

start making a spending diary, be honest and you will be shocked.

Wise words - I did mine and within a day had realised that I could save £150 a month just by not buying my breakfast on the way to work and by making my own lunch!

emily0585

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1500
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1200
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2700

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 650
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 100
Electricity............................. 40
Gas..................................... 40
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 20
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 50
TV Licence.............................. 11
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 12
Internet Services....................... 35
Groceries etc. ......................... 150
Clothing................................ 50
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 120
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 71
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 15
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 30
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 100
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
(Unnamed monthly expense)............... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1604

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
barclaycard....................3600......100.......14.9
natwest overdraft..............3000......50........11
natwest loan...................15000.....257.......11.9
citicard.......................2500......50........27.9
hsbc card......................950.......25........11
hsbc loan......................9500......202.......8.3
Total unsecured debts..........34550.....684.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,700
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 1,604
Available for debt repayments........... 1,096
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 684
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ 412

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total Secured debt...................... -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -34,550
Net Assets.............................. -34,550

emily0585

thanks everyone for the replies so far!

I spent the money on various rubbish, to be honest it was all a few years back when i was younger and more foolish! Clothes, holidays, nights out, weekends away etc... shocking that I have nothing to show for all that debt!

I have posted my outgoings, and it says we have 412 a month left to ourselves, most of which is my partners money, so I dont want to use all his hard earned wages on my stupid debt!

Jacks_xxx

Yep - I second everything that poorandindenial said.

If you can give us the full picture we can help.

One suggestion first off though. If you throw that £350 surplus at the HSBC credit card it could be gone in 3 or 4 months.

That would be one debt cleared once and for all.

Or if that's far too scary... :eek:

If you only threw half of your surplus at it for about 7 months or so it would be done and dusted.

Don't worry about your credit rating for now - you don't need to restructure your finances as much as you need to restructure your thinking and your spending. (Sorry for being bossy )

I assume that you've got the loan in OH's name because you were turned down for one yourself? And was that to consolidate previous debts?

If so honey we've travelled quite a ways past crisis point already and the last thing you need chick is even more credit.

The good news is though you have the money to pay these off - and how long it takes is essentially up to you.

You're not going to have to default, declare bankruptcy or go for an IVA and have bad credit for years and years.

What you *are* going to have to do is challenge every penny that you spend, and justify to yourself why you're spending it on *that* rather than throwing it at your big scary debts.

Without knowing any particulars my plan would be to pay the essential bills you have to, allow yourself *some* spending money and then throw everything left at the debts.

Make the minimums on everything and throw the surplus at whichever flexible debt has the highest interest rate until it's gone, and then continue making the minimums and throw the surplus at the next flexible debt with the highest interest rate until that's gone - and so on.

Until they're ALL gone. :dance:

That my sweet is snowballing and it's a big part of how we've (almost) paid off much bigger debts than yours on a joint basic income of £2644 a month.

(We also have second jobs to pay for fun stuff and we ditched our mobiles and sold our cars etc but snowballing is basically the fastes way to get debt free.)

Sorry to bang on honey!

Love Jacks xxx

Jacks_xxx

Oops! Guess who went to make a cuppa mid post and got behind with the thread!

Ok checking out your SOA now chick.

xxx

poorandindenial

Right the good news is that you are ripe for snowballing (don't google image it if you are feeling faint!!!!!! - don't worry, not that kind) if you go to www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx you will find a wonderful little calculator that works out when you will be debt free. If you are feeling brave then put in your debts with the minimum payments and tick all the non-flexible payment boxes (when I did this I discovered that the calculator can't go above 100 years) then do it properly and see what it sayd if you pay in interest order (this will sound like gibberish for now but you will see what I mean)

Right I am off to look at your SOA in more detail (just as soon as I take some bread out of the oven that I have baking - yum)

Jacks_xxx

emily0585 wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1500
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1200
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2700

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 650
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 100
Electricity............................. 40
Gas..................................... 40
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 20
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 50 Hmmm, so can you justify to yourself why you're spending this each month on mobile phones rather than on your big scary debts?
TV Licence.............................. 11
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 12
Internet Services....................... 35 Can you get a sky bundle? From £16 a month for phone internet and TV versus your £47 with no landline.
Groceries etc. ......................... 150 Cut back here too hon, if you can.
Clothing................................ 50 Promise yourself you won't buy any for 3 months and throw this money at the debt.
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 120 Blimey!
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0 Better budget for something here honey
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 71
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 15
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 30 Cut this back as far as you can sweetie - all grown up should understand - and probably other people you know will be cutting back here too because of the Credit Crunch.
Haircuts................................ 0 Ah I see..baldies huh? :rolleyes:
Entertainment........................... 100 Could you get a second job or eBay some clutter to pay for entertainment and throw this at the debts instead?
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
(Unnamed monthly expense)............... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1604

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
barclaycard....................3600......100.......14.9
natwest overdraft..............3000......50........11
natwest loan...................15000.....257.......11.9
citicard.......................2500......50........27.9 This is the one we need to hammer first honey otherwise it will never go down.
hsbc card......................950.......25........11
hsbc loan......................9500......202.......8.3
Total unsecured debts..........34550.....684.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,700
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 1,604
Available for debt repayments........... 1,096
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 684
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ 412 I bet it doesn't feel as if there's this much left every month hon? Keep track of spending to find out where this surplus money goes.

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total Secured debt...................... -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -34,550
Net Assets.............................. -34,550

It looks to me as if there is quite a lot of wiggle room in your joint finances.

With just over £1000.00 each month available for debt repayments it shouldn't take you very long to start making an impact on the debts.

How does your OH feel about tightening your belts to pay down your debts?

Love Jacks xxx