Time to take my head out of the sand!

ceegee

It's certainly easier to have a weekly allowance rather than a monthly one, because if you spend it all early on, then you have fewer days to wait until you get your next allowance, IYSWIM. I also write down every last penny I spend in a small paperback notebook. Sad, I know, but it helps me to keep track of where my money is actually going. It can also serve to shame me a little if I have spent £1 or whatever on something I shouldn't have. :rolleyes:

Regarding your debts...I can't say anything other than the CCCS and National Debtline are excellent as are the good folk on this website and advice will follow, as sure as night follows day!

All is not lost....dedication and application will get you there. Honest! :money:

Shinji_2

Well, I have just done my Budget and without me buying anything else, it reckons I'm £90 per month in the red.

I never really thought about saving for a holiday, car tax, car insurance, car servicing etc before, but I suppose if you set up savings accounts for all of these things and put into them each month, then when the time comes for them, you don't have to pay for them on a credit card!!!

Hehe, I feel so stupid right now. If only someone could have helped me out wth decent financial information when I first started work, then maybe I wouldn't be in this mess.

So, now I need to reduce my Debt spending drastically, then I can start saving for all the big things throughout the year which are causing my monthly figure to be in the red.

I feel so empowered by doing this today! I will get this sorted! (with help from you guys and maybe the CCCS).

Thanks!!

System

I've just had a quick look at your list of creditors - we should be able to really cut your interest repayments, but you'll have to do a fair bit of work by being very savvy with your credit card companies and really screwing them down for the best offer.

You've got enough (!) cards and some spare available credit to immediately get that started.

You could also post what the Balance Tfer charges (usually 2% now) are for each of your cards.

Off out for the day, but will have a good look again later.

Dave

PS - Don't delay calling CCCS - it will be the best thing you ever did. They won't judge or pressure you - just do what they can to help. Whenever I get stressed with my debts, a call to them usually leaves me nice and calm. Call them!

fairylights_2

Hey Shinji!

Welcome to MSE! you seem to be decided on your future ... which is fab. A bit of enthusiasm with others' debt repayments keeps up my determination to do the same. :T

The thing I think you need to do first is find out what it's going to cost you to transfer the big apr debts on to the low apr cards - cut as much of the interest payments as you can.

You can experiment with the snowball spreadsheet to see what difference it'll make on different interest rates.

frugglewump

I'm not clear from your post if the offers you describe are what is available to you or what you have used. Assuming the latter the obvious switches are

1. £7000 (or as much as possible) from MINT to Cahoot
2. Rest of Mint balance to Egg

If it's the former then move the MINT to the lowest apr if you are sure you will remember to move it off when the offer ends.

Shinji_2

Yes, it's the former frugglewump.

I haven't done any shifting of balances for about 2 years, and the MINT is the only card I've used to pay for stuff in the past year of so.

The only "offer" I'm using at present is the Barclaycard 0% for life of balance deal, which is working out quite nicely for the "little" bit of debt that's on that card.

So, it seems that I need to juggle stuff around so that I'm making best use of my 0% and lower-than-normal interest rate balance transfers on the various cards.

I read on one of Martin's guides that it is a good idea to move the whole lot of the egg balance to another card (such as my MBNA?) then move the full credit limit's worth back over from the higher interest rate cards (for example the original balance on my egg and then the remainder from my MINT) back over to my egg card, to take full advantage of the egg 5 month 0% offer. Then I can put as much free cash as I can muster into paying my egg card while it's 0%. Likewise, I could shove the outstanding balance either onto another one of my cards that has, say a 4.9 or 5.9% balance transfer rate, thus getting rid of my horrible 17.9% MINT card forever!

Anyway, what I'd like, if someone is generous and savvy enough, would be for someone to work something out for me. OR is this something the CCCS people could do for me? Can they help with Tarting?

I really am very very humbled and greatful for your help!

Shinji_2

I've edited my long post on the 1st page with details of transfer fee's on all the offers.

I'd really rather not transfer anything onto my First Direct card, as this is the card I use for work to pay for transport and hotels when I work away from the office, which I am going to pay off each month with my expenses, without fail!

frugglewump

Ok - bear in mind this is just my opinion:
I'm ignoring the barclaycard as i don't know how any BT would affect your 0% deal

I know Egg only allow 90% of the limit to be a balance transfer so you can have up to £11700 on that card
1. Move all egg to cahoot
2. Move all mint balance to Egg
3. Move £2239.74 from MBNA to Egg - this is now at max

Now you need to clear MBNA so you can move stuff on for the 2.9%, but not pay too many BT fees so:

4. Move 1013.20 to cahoot
5. Move 4101.61 to Lloyds tsb
Wait until sure £0 in MBNA
6. Move all Lloyds balance & morgan balance to MBNA so it's at 2.9%
Fee for move from Lloyds to mbna = £50
Fee for move from morgan to mbna = £36.58
Total mbna balance = £9237.20

This will give you the following situation:

Egg: £11700 - 0% until april
MBNA: £9237.2 - 2.9% for 5 months
Cahoot: £6300 - 9.8%
barclaycard - unchanged
first direct unchanged
mint £0
morgan stanley £0
you can then cut up your mint card

you have enough leeway to move £4k from cahoot to MBNA if you choose.

Shinji_2

Thank you for that, it is amazing what you can do when you know what you're doing.

Anyway, I've got a week to wait until I can do this, as I couldn't find my egg card anywhere this morning, so I've cancelled it and I'm waiting for a new card. Apparently I can't do anything with the account until I get a replacement card.

Does everyone agree with the above plan, or can anyone suggest any other options?

Thanks again, it really does mean a lot to me

frugglewump

Actually thinking about it - it might be better to move the cahoot £6300 to lloyds tsb at 7.9% for 6 months - since there is no BT fee and the £86 in BT fees with the original layout is more than enough (couldn't think of a way to get it down though). Also this way when the 2.9% is up you have a card without at BT fee to move £6300 onto.