'Need Help managing Credit Cards'‏

JohnD76

Stuart,

First things first, you need to up your income somehow and amend your outgoings.

Can you balance transfer any of the cards onto the MBNA at a low APR? 0% or life of balance transfer?

You must have Sky world or close to it, to be paying that kind of money. Do you need to have a SKY+ in your room? Is this the only one in house or are you also paying for multiroom?

Whats with the Virgin media phone line?

Are you paying the line rental and SKY ontop of what your folks are paying for theirs or are you paying this for them?

I would switch to basic Sky TV, 2mbps broadband and skytalk freetime, which will cost £17 a month. You can go back to SKY World when you have the money available which you don't have presently.

£150 for BT is nonesense mate, buy a £1.50 telephone extension lead.

http://www.google.co.uk/products?q=Telephone+extension+lead+15m&hl=en&show=dd


I also would use the £60 you are currently saving towards repaying the cards.

Your life assurance seems very high, and since you don't have a mortgage going out is this necessary in your current position?

What is the other insurance for?

Hopefully not sounding too rude, but have you got anything to show for the £8,624.06 aside from the £389.20 listed in the assets column? My reasonig behind this is that you might be able to sell some stuff and pay back the cards?

At the end of the day, you need to take responsibility if you want to sort this out. That will involve giving up things you may not want to give up. I know everyones situation is different, but it sounds like you know this needs sorting out and giving things up now should help you get out of this situation.

stuartbennett

i appreciate maybe killing the £10 a month into my savings, however the scottish friendly if i kill that now less than a year into it ill get nothing back at all and everything ive paid out so far will be lost i cannot afford to lose that money, with axa sun life my life insurance again its ben 8 years since i started it if i cashed it in now i might get £2400 out of it but not sure or may end up with nothing, the £67 per month isnt just internet its the sky+ subscription aswell unfortunately i am not the only person to be affected if it were cancelled so its not really my call although i might try asking my parents to take over the bill and see what they say.

as for changing my username yes it is my real name but unfortunately the site doesnt allow me to change it so theres nothing i can do about it.

JohnD76

Stuart,

I am not sure what you mean about the life assurance? To my knowledge, you can't cash them in..

What cover have you got?

I pay £108 a year for a Life Assurance policy with Legal & General with frer terminal illness cover which covers my mortgage of £130,000.

Can you provide more details about the policy?

Don't take this the wrong way mate, but do you know that the policy does and is? Or was it recommended to you by some over zealous banker?

milliemonster

Stuart, I don't mean to be harsh but you have come to us asking for advice on how to manage your debts, we have looked at your SOA and offered advice on what you need to do, whether you decide to take on board the advice offered or not is obviously entirely up to you, but it seems you aren't prepared to heed any of the advice offered.

You can't afford to pay your debts currently, but you are unprepared to alter anything in your life which would free up some cash to pay your debts.

As John has said, you need to take some responsibility, there are many of us on here that have been and are in the same situation as you, and some that are in much worse situations, none of us like to give up the things we love and the little luxuries that make life more bearable, but when it comes down to it, debts have to be paid one way or another, they won't just go away and you will have to make sacrifices to achieve this.

stuartbennett

the axa plan im on is at http://www.axa-sunlife.co.uk/bonus_cashbuilder_plus_plan/asld/index.html?refpage=axamain&icid=D056-48866224-053D i am on skyworld package with multiroom, i need multiroom because me and my parents watch different programs to each other and would only fight over the tv, i might be able to change to another package but ill neeed to see what i can get as certain channels need to be maintained my scottish friendly plan is at http://www.scottishfriendly.co.uk/regular/ the £389.20 is whats in my savings account at present yes i could possibly use some of that to pay of the cards, my mbna card only has a £2800 limit so while i can transfer some money to it and be 0% until february 2009 after which its 15.9% i wont be able to transfer much

EDIT:

i am not saying i wont make some sacrifices however certain things have to be maintained to a degree for various reasons, i am not trying to make excuses if i can do something and its doable i will.

EDIT 2:

i have just chased my payments from jobseekers allowance to see why i hadnt been paid and theres a £25 per week disability componant to the jobseekers allowance i wasnt aware of so my revised SOA is as follows.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 0
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 522.16
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 522.16

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.................... 522.16
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 318.58
Available for debt repayments........... 203.58
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 192.4
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ 11.18

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.

JohnD76

Stuart,

These both appear to be long term savings plan, whihc make sense as to why I was confused about the Life Assurance thing, since this is not life assurance, which is a policy that will pay out in the eventuality of death (hence assurance and not insurance).

EDIT: though there is life cover included in the plan....

Gemmzie

If your parents also watch Sky and your on benefits, then they should be paying towards it.
I didn't say ditch Sky, just cut the package, movies and sports are a lot. The basic package with multiroom is £36 with the free broadband, £34 would make a huge difference to your debts.

fizz190

Hiya,

Virgin are currently offering 1/2 price broadband when you have their phone line, making it £4.50 per month. If you switched onto that you could get rid of the sky in your room (so your parents would just pay for their own usage) and save a huge amount each month!

If you felt you couldn't cope with terrestrial tv invest in a freeview box (£20 tops).

Good luck!
Fizz