'Need Help managing Credit Cards'‏

stuartbennett

hi

i have 3 credit cards, over the past 3 years while i was in work i was fine and managed to pay all my bills fine and still have some money left over at the end of the month, problem is i have now lost my job and now while i can afford the minimum on 2 of my 3 credit cards i cant afford the minimum on the 3rd, i desperately need some help on how to solve this problem.

i was told to repost this here as it was originally posted in credit cards as i didnt know where to put it.

beanielou

Hi & welcome to MSE.
You need to pop up your SOA & we can see what we can do to help.

stuartbennett

first question: whats an SOA?

Brian_Bullocks

stuartbennett wrote: »

first question: whats an SOA?

Hi, nice to see you again. SOA = Statement of Affairs, follow this link http://www.britishinvasion.co.uk/soa/soaedit.php get as much info as possible, then post the figures here.
Thanks

Gemmzie

An SOA is a Statement of Affairs or more simply, your income, outgoings and debts so you can see what you can afford.
http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html is the best one, use the MSE format

stuartbennett

right thats not very helpful figures are basically as follows

i get £384 per month coming in now, i pay out the following

£150 rent
about £70 sky thats sky+ and broadband together
about £15 a month virgin media phone line
£10 a month into a savings account
£50 per month scottish friendly
£20 a month axa sun life
Barclaycard: total = £966.81, minimum = £21
M&S card: total = £5650.00, minimum £146.47
MBNA card: total = £2007.25, minimum £25

thats pretty much it, on ones where i started with "about" i only know the rough figures not exact amounts as i dont have the statements to hand at moment but that should give you a rough idea of where i stand.

thanks in advance.

Gemmzie

Okay...
* Cut the Sky package, you cannot afford this at the moment.
* Stop the savings for now, how much do you have saved? Would it be worth putting that off one of the cards?
* What is Scottish Friendly?
* What is AXA Sun Life?
* What are the APRs on the cards?

petrafyde

Stuart, Hi.

There are other ways to save money and we can't help you if you don't post the SOA because at the end it shows if you are in negative (deficit) or positive income thus showing what you can or cannot pay (on paper).

Use the link in my signature to go it, and fill it in totally honestly not missing anything out. It really does help!

Chat soon xx

stuartbennett

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 0
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 384
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 384

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 150
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 0
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 13.33
Mobile phone............................ 0
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 67
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 0
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 20
Other insurance......................... 8.25
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Savings................................. 10
scottish friendly savings plan.......... 50
Total monthly expenses.................. 318.58

Assets
Cash.................................... 414.07
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 389.2
Total Assets............................ 803.27

No Secured Debt

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Barclaycard....................966.81....21........20.9
M&S Card.......................5650......146.4.....23.9
MBNA Card......................2007.25...25........0
Total unsecured debts..........8624.06...192.4.....-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 384
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 318.58
Available for debt repayments........... 65.42
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 192.4
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ -126.98

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 803.27
Total Secured debt...................... -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -8,624.06
Net Assets.............................. -7,820.79

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission.

i live with my mum and dad, someone suggested getting rid of sky, i do see where they were coming from but as that incorporates my internet connection and i have no hope of ever getting a job again without access to the internet then i cannot get rid of that bill at all, the phone line is my personal line not my mums line i could get rid of that but my sky+ box has to plug into a phone line which then means about £150 pound to get a BT engineer out to extend my mums phone line into my bedroom for the sky+ box so not sure about that one.

maz1964

hiya welcome

i do hope that is not your real name stuart, if it is, i would advise to change it to something else

it is known that companies who are owed money have a wander around these types of forums to see if they can view what people post - im sure there is a way to amend your user name to something that you cannot be recognised as being who you are

i apologise if i may be talking out of term but protect your identity is what im sure martin and the site would support

keep coming back and we can help you further - but looks like you have already made some progress

keep happy ciao for now maz

milliemonster

Hi Stuart

I still don't understand why you cannot get rid of Sky? £70 a month is almost 25% of what your income is, I understand you need internet connection but you can get this for a tenner a month now or certainly a lot cheaper than £70!!!!
Also you need to cut all the savings plans as you clearly cannot afford to be putting into these at the moment, you don't need life assurance at the moment either with you living with your parents and this is an unneccesary luxury, cutting all this will save you £150 a month (half your income!), this in itself will allow you to pay your credit card bills

You really cannot be putting money into savings at the moment when you cannot afford to pay your debts, it's completely false economy