In Debt At The Age of 19

youngandreckless

Hi David,

To get started you need the following:
To know exactly what your pay will be each month
Get the interest rates on your cards and o/draft so you know which to overpay first ie the highest interest rate card/odraft should get as much money as possible and then as soon as it is cleared, move on to paying the next highest.
A clear list of exactly what you pay each month so that all the money smart people on here can give you as near a step by step plan as possible. We need to know the amount each contract costs, the loan, what you have to pay on your card (the minimum payment), rent and anything else you have to pay each month. Once we know this versus what you have coming in, people will be able to point you in the right direction.

Take some time out to work out what you can give up / cut down on - ie going out, smoking (if you do), takeaways etc etc, basically you don't have to live a total fun free existence, but you'll need to keep as much money back as possible to chuck at the debts.

Have you got stuff you could sell on eBay or similar? 4 contracts = 4 mobiles and you only need one, so sell the others if you still have them. Selling off some old stuff may well clear the £200 credit card.

As you pay off stuff, cancel it so the temptation is gone.

Your friends seem a bit weird to happily take your money for nothing. Don't have it, and if need be drop the offenders, you can't afford to fund yourself at the moment let alone a bunch of freeloaders. You're worth more than that.

Finally give yourself a massive pat on the back, at 19 you show real maturity to be facing this problem. Get it sorted now and you have a lot to look forward to. Keep posting we all want to help x

$17mma

dcampbell86 wrote:

what is PPI?

no my credit cards have interest on them

will the bank freeze the interets if i explain im struggling to repay?

i shouldnt be struggling to repay but i am for some reason

ihave already spoken to my mum and dad and they arent willing to reduce the rent

PPI=Payment Protection Insurance

$17mma

I know a few others have said it and I do not want to sound harsh but these so called friends taking money from you are fair weather friends.

Please get rid of them, they are doing you no favors. If you need support or advice there is always someone here on MSE to give you support.

postingalwaysposting

hi, just to say, £1.85 is cheap for the bus, i have to pay £50 for a month ticket or £3.60 each way

I was a little like you last year (before i lurked on these boards) I would always be spending money on stuff i didnt need/silly things (in your case your 'friends) - sorry if that is harsh. At the end of the day please follow the advise of people on here. Many are either out of debt or getting out of debt (due to everyone and this site).

You have done the hardest (well i think) thing so far which is acknowlaging (sp?) that you have this debt and you want to change. But you must be patient you and your debts arent going to change over night but good luck for the future

AussieLass

£££££
Forgive me, thought I'd give it a whirl. :snow_grin

daveboy

I've had 4 credit cards at the same time, I can understand that one, a lot of people fall into that trap at some early stage in their adult life.

But 4 contract phones?

That's about as hard to understand as the Conservatives winning the next election.

$17mma

Daveboy your post made me chuckle

not making fun of you dcampbell, you have been really brave and I am glad that you came to MSE.

So far you have been given some really good advise. Use the next few days to make those ever important next few steps. You have done the hardest already in facing it.

$17mma

AussieLass wrote:

£££££
Forgive me, thought I'd give it a whirl. :snow_grin

:xmassmile

jade_2

This time last year, I was negotiating with my line manager to work from home as I couldn't even aford to travel to work (by public transport)!

The first place that I started was to take the previous months bank statement and type it into an excel spreadsheet. I then categorised the spending into two types regular (mortgage, direct debits and standing orders), casual (cash withdrawals and payment by card).

By simply adding up the regular (or essential bills) to the casual expenditure, I could see where we were 'losing' money. We only have a joint account. The net result was that casual spending was over £1000, the bills came to about £3500, and combined income was £4000.

The solution was 'radical'. I set a monthly budget for the following essential items:
Food (supermarket and green grocers)
Husband's spending money
Yoga - essential to deal with stress
Cleaner (we both spend 3 hours a day commuting - believe me, this an essential household item)

Also changing where I shopped from Waitrose to Lidl saved approx. £150 per month, from a farm shop to a market saved £120 a month (it was a very expensive farm shop!) I now take out £50 per month for Lidl + £20 per week for groceries.

Limiting my husband to £100 + petrol expenses

Yoga approx. £40 a month

Cleaner approx. £112 a month

This comes out in a single cash withdrawal and is placed in separate money bags. The net result was an instant £600 in saving from cash withdrawals!

I was lucky enough to get a season ticket loan paid interest free from my pay cheque. You could ask your company if they have a similar scheme.

As a result of sticking with this in, at the end of Nov 2004, we were £3000 overdrawn on the current account, in comparison to Nov 2005, where we ended the month £550 in credit.

I have increased the repayment on credit cards to above the monthly minimum (amazingly just by increasing these payments by £25, it has meant that the overall amount per month is decreasing).

We did go cold turkey, which meant no cinema, no meals out, no presents to each other. But, we did do it. I also found that phone banking was not as helpful as talking to the bank face to face, especially in months when I didn't think it was going so well - it was quite nice to be reassured by banking professionals and to be up front.

I think in some ways going in as a 19 yr old, financial mis-mangagement is almost to be expected (my parents bailed out my brother 3 times in 18 months, but then refused to do so any further). We had been married 9 years and were in our mid-30s!

You need to be stubborn and self-disciplined!

You can do it.

tomstickland

Well I am earning £10,510 a year but recently got a payrise and now am earning £13,050 which has got ackdated to 1 November 2005.

Yes, I do live at home with my parents - paying £150 a month in digs.

You must be taking home around £800 per month and your only real outgoings are £150 rent and travel/food. If you put your mind to it you could clear the debts within a year, but I think 18 months would be more realistic. That's around £300 per month to pay. Obviously, pay off as much as you can each month.