I wannabe debt free!

Andy1978_2

Hi!

Like many others I want to be debt free.

I have been treading water for far to long and have decided to pull my head out of the sand and get on the road to being debt free.

After reading many posts I took the step of admitting to myself the severity of my financial situation, decide to deal with and recify the mess I'm in and tell my parents, family and girlfriend.

I rang Pay Plan and gave them my financial details thinking that a DMP was the way I needed to go. After a great chat with them they actually advised me to try and sort the mess out on my own since although bad I should be able to sort it on my own without damaging my credit rating for x years.

Although my credit payments are relitively hih in relation to my income my main problem is the fact that my bank (HSBC) continually charge me ( £100+ ) for going over my overdraft each month not allowing me to get back under my agreed limit. To be honest I have found them les than helpful. On the last occasion when asking them for advise I got routed to a women in India who simply told me off for my spending.

Anyway.... Pay Plan advised me to open a new bank account and get my wages put into that. Then pay HSBC thier money for my personal loan and pay off as much of my overdraft as possible each month. This will then allow me to hold the money I make, pay them and make sure they don't charge me any more.

I am then going to go through the process of reclaiming my banking charges from HSBC to pay off some of what I owe them. I know that these are currently on hold pending a court decision, however I my plead financial difficulty.

I will post a SOA shortly for you all to pick apart and advise me of any money saving tips.

My only worry now is that HSBC may get super annoyed that I'm not putting my wages into that account. Can they take action? I don't think so, after all I'm only trying to sort my affairs out and I will continue to pay them what I owe.

Thanks for reading, any advise more than welcome.

Cheers,

Andy

poorandindenial

Hi Andy

Welcome to the board, when you post your SOA we will be over it like viltures but in the meantime hello :wave:

Some handy links (you probably have them already but just in case....):

SOA calculator tool so that you don't forget anything: www.makesenseofcards.com

Snowball to see whan you will be debt free and to see what impact paying a bit more each month can have: www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

www.Nationaldebtline.co.uk have got lots of template letters and fact sheets to help you through too.

Don't forget to keep a spending diary so that you can spot any areas that are left that seem to chew money up and swallow it (mine was buying lunch at work).

HSBC: I don't know what action HSBC could take but you should make sure that whoever you go to aren't a subsidiary of HSBC (a bit of a google should show you which banks are part of the same company)

All the best

beanielou

Just wanted to say hi & welcome.
Pop up your SOA when you get a mo.

Hell1

HI ANDY:j

Welcome! i [EMAIL="don@t"]don@t[/EMAIL] know if i am allowed to recommend alliance and leicester? i chaanged my acct and it all went very smoothly> i would like to wish you luck with your debt free journey> sorry about strange symbols my computer has a mind of [EMAIL="it@s"]it@s[/EMAIL] own tonight!!!
hell

Miss_Piggy_2

Hi Andy and welcome to the best board on here!

As others have said, post your SOA and we will all see waht we can suggest with regards to cutting back and getting those debts paid quicker. Its surprising how much we spend without realising!

Miss P
xx