Dilemma/matter of pride....arggh!

Lilith1980

Hi all,

Just needed some advice. One of my credit card interest rates has shot up and my minimum payment has gone up by £60 per month :eek:

I fear that I will have trouble with this increase but my husband has a fair income and could probably help me out. I say probably, in reality he SHOULD be able to as he earns about £700 a month more than me. Trouble is, he's not as thrifty as I (now) am with money.

I know we're married but I feel bad for asking him to help me. He has debts too but he can meet his minimum payments, plus a bit extra, each month.

My other dilemma is that in a year's time I am planning on doing a Diploma at my local uni (I am doing a certificate course at the moment). I am doing the good old paid clicks and had originally planned on using those to pay off some of my credit card. But in reality, I will need them to put some funding towards my course. So what do I do? Not do the course and take a lump off my credit card or pay the minimum payment and keep saving for my course?

Sorry for the rant, just the shock of my payment going up today and not sure what to do for the best :rolleyes:

Thanks all

Jesthar

Hi Lillith,

Is there any hope of transferring your CC to a different card with a 0% transfer? Or at least a lower one that what you are paying - for life obalance if you can get one?

Might also help if you have a recent Statement Of Affairs to hand to post up to give a full overview of your situation.

~Jes

Lilith1980

Hi Jes

I applied for one of the "life of balance" cards recommended on here but I was declined

Maybe they think I am going to start spending on it but I just want to move my high interest credit card somewhere else.

Here is my SOA which is joint with my husband.
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1033
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1700
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2733

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 325
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 84
Electricity............................. 40
Gas..................................... 50
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 60
Telephone (land line)................... 14.45
Mobile phone............................ 113
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 25
Groceries etc. ......................... 150
Clothing................................ 40
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 ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 30
Haircuts................................ 30
Entertainment........................... 640
Holiday................................. 40
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1653.45

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

No Secured Debt

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Virgin Credit Card.............8750......213.......29.9
Halifax........................1374......13........0
Alliance & Leicester...........11000.....289.......7.9
Student Loan...................16000.....5.........NaN
Egg............................500.......25........NaN
HSBC Credit Card...............4700......156.......24.9
Total unsecured debts..........42324.....701.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,733
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 1,653.45
Available for debt repayments........... 1,079.55
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 701
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ 378.55

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total Secured debt...................... -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -42,324
Net Assets.............................. -42,324

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

======== Enter any other useful information below ========

I am in the process of switching my broadband to O2 for £10 a month which will save £15 per month.
I know our "entertainment" spending is horrendous. That's going out for drinks/meals. We need to sort that out but I don't know how other than banning my husband from withdrawing money. He can spend £50 on a night out easily, while I can keep it at about £20 if we aren't going for a meal.

I am making the minimum payment on the Halifax card but can only just afford the minimum payment on the Virgin Card.

My hubby pays £180 off his HSBC card each month and I have taken it away from him and plan to cut it up so he can't use it anymore

Anyway, any advice would be welcome, thanks all.

halight

Hi,
To get a bit more money could you do some you Gov polls? Type you Gov into googal and you will find there site you get paid for filling out there servays... Also have you had a look at quidco? For chash back shopping?
Also have a look at the up your income thred.
Also think about trying to do a payment a day. Evern if its only a £1 perday you pay off on top ofyour min payment. This will get your bill down a bit and in turn you will pay less in intest
Good

halight

Hi,
To get a bit more money could you do some you Gov polls? Type you Gov into googal and you will find there site you get paid for filling out there servays... Also have you had a look at quidco? For chash back shopping?
Also have a look at the up your income thred.
Also think about trying to do a payment a day. Evern if its only a £1 perday you pay off on top ofyour min payment. This will get your bill down a bit and in turn you will pay less in intest
Good luck

beanielou

As you say yourself your entertaiment is very high~ i dont spend that in a year~ as are your mobile costs.Could you reduce your mobile costs?

Jesthar

Hi Lilith,

Shame about not being able to transfer. Now, let's have a look...

Lilith1980 wrote: »

Here is my SOA which is joint with my husband.
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1033
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1700
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2733

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 325
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 84
Electricity............................. 40 Have you checked to see if you can get cheaper?
Gas..................................... 50 Have you checked to see if you can get cheaper?
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 60 Seems extremely high for two of you monthly, are you sure? If so, and you're on a meter, I'll post some water saving tips.
Telephone (land line)................... 14.45
Mobile phone............................ 113 :eek: You NEED to get a better deal on this! And/or cut down useage...
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 25
Groceries etc. ......................... 150 Check the Old Style Moneysaving boards for ways to lower your food bills - they can make meals out of practically nothing!
Clothing................................ 40 You need to consider cutting back here for a while
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0 No travel expenses at all?
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 ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0 No insurance at all? Particularly contents/building?
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 30
Haircuts................................ 30 This could be 'cut back' , sorry.
Entertainment........................... 640 :eek: :eek: :eek: Sorry to be harsh, but you can NOT afford this! Well, technically you can, but until you have cleared your debts you really need to cut back on going out to no more than once a month as a treat, or have strict monthly budget for it. It's only gong to keep you in debt for several more years...
Holiday................................. 40
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1653.45

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

No Secured Debt

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Virgin Credit Card.............8750......213.......29.9
Halifax........................1374......13........0
Alliance & Leicester...........11000.....289.......7.9
Student Loan...................16000.....5.........NaN
Egg............................500.......25........NaN
HSBC Credit Card...............4700......156.......24.9
Total unsecured debts..........42324.....701.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,733
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 1,653.45
Available for debt repayments........... 1,079.55
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 701
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ 378.55 Well, the good news is you have plenty money to spare even after all this! Time to start overpaying as much as you can on your Virgin card!

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total Secured debt...................... -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -42,324
Net Assets.............................. -42,324

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

======== Enter any other useful information below ========

I am in the process of switching my broadband to O2 for £10 a month which will save £15 per month.
I know our "entertainment" spending is horrendous. That's going out for drinks/meals. We need to sort that out but I don't know how other than banning my husband from withdrawing money. He can spend £50 on a night out easily, while I can keep it at about £20 if we aren't going for a meal.

I am making the minimum payment on the Halifax card but can only just afford the minimum payment on the Virgin Card.

My hubby pays £180 off his HSBC card each month and I have taken it away from him and plan to cut it up so he can't use it anymore Good girl!

Anyway, any advice would be welcome, thanks all.

The problem you have, hon, is you are saving the pennies (such as on the broadband) but wasting pounds! I think you need to get your hubby to take a look at this thread and see in black and white (and a bit of blue ) just how much money you are wasting which would be better spend on clearing your debts.

The silly thing is, when you look at your debts, your income and your outgoings, you have plenty of money to spare, and several areas where you could make more savings. If you took all of that into consideration, then if for one month you:

- Spent only £50 on your mobile (save £63)
- Didn't go out (save £640)
- Knocked 20% off your grocery bill (save £30)
- Didn't have any unexpected expenditures and could put all spare money towards your debts (which you should do anyway - £378)

you could knock an extra £1,111 off your Virgin Credit Card debt between you!

I suggest you look at the debt Snowball Calculator here: http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx for inspiration on how much more quickly you could pay your debts off if you threw various amounts of extra cash at them. You have a VERY good income between you, and therefore a very good opportunity to do something about this before things get out of hand - and in the current economic climate you should definitely be looking to reduce your debts as a matter of priority.

Anyway, hope that helps - and really hope you can get your other half to have a lightbulb moment too!

~Jes

Lilith1980

Thanks for both your replies. I am signed up to some survey sites so hopefully they will add up eventually.

The mobile bill is £33 mine and £80 hubby's as he uses it for business too but him and his business partner are getting business contracts soon so the company will pay for his mobile bills. About time!

Oops, I forgot about travel. I spend £55 a month on my bus pass as we don't have a car. I am not so sure about hubby as he gets cabs quite a bit to and from work (even though he is 20 mins walk away!).

Probs with our utilities like gas/water etc is that we live in a flat above a hairdressers and we split the bill. We have been thinking of moving cos I am sure we're paying over the odds for our bills here.

Our electric is one of those coin meters, I'm sure its set too high.

Hair - I dont spend £30 EVERY month (I have an aversion to hairdressers) but that is more like every 3 months. Same for clothes really, I hardly buy anything new as I am cutting back.

I think showing hubby the SOA would be a good idea. I think he is still a bit blind to how much money we are wasting on going out. Even if we went out ONCE a week. At the moment sometimes its 2 or 3 times and I am sure we don't need to really :rolleyes:

moanymoany

I am fascinated as to what you spend that £640 going out money on. That is about my entire monthly budget for EVERYTHING after the rent!

katie2407

get a spending diary and write everything down that you spend it help to see where your money is going

Lilith1980

Moanymoany - I know, it is ridiculous. We have nowhere to go where we live so the nearest town where all our mates are is 15 mins away so we end up having to get a cab on the way home which is about £10 so its £10 before we even start drinking.

We do need to cut down. I don't know how its £640 but that's what it was one month. One of our closest mates owns a pub so people are out there regularly. My hubby is one of these who needs to go out and be a part of things whereas I don't mind staying in and watching TV. The problem is, if I start doing that to save money then how is that fair if he is out living it up down the pub?

So I need to sit us both down and tell him how much quicker we could be out of debt if we cut our entertainment spending.