Credit card debt sleeplessness

seven-day-weekend

Hi there, don't often post on this board but one thing sprang to mind when I saw your water rates; if you are not on a meter you may find that you only pay for eight months of the year. This is how it is with Severn Trent anyway. Is this the case, in which case averaged out over the year it will be less than you have on your SOA.

Wishing you well.

(Edited to add: I've just looked at my water rates details and it's from April to November inclusive, if yours is the same your last payment is this month. My d/d is around £24 same as yours).

weebit

the student loan payments: are you making extra voluntery payments to them or is this what is coming out in your monthly wages? if you're making extra payments, stop doing it! your CC debt is charging you more interest so concentrate on that first!

also, is your monthly incoming before or after tax and NI and Student Loan?

Jesthar

weebit wrote: »

the student loan payments: are you making extra voluntery payments to them or is this what is coming out in your monthly wages? if you're making extra payments, stop doing it! your CC debt is charging you more interest so concentrate on that first!

also, is your monthly incoming before or after tax and NI and Student Loan?

That looks like a normal amount for a student loan, to me. My take-home pay is a moderate amount lower than Bunny's, and my student loan repayment is also a moderate amount lower by a roughly proportional amount.

MoneyWorryBunny

Hi everyone!

Thank you for your fantastic advice.

Jesthar - I'm definitely going to try more batch cooking. Whilst OH is at home not working it'll also give him something more interesting to eat for lunch. I did make a great soup at the weekend with all the veg left in the fridge! (PS. I don't eat meat so any tips on fish/veg would be great!). And I'm going to go the the Greengrocers in my lunch break to save on supermarket veg prices.

As for the car payments - I haven't exactly been putting it aside, hence why payment has gone on the credit cards.... but maybe that's okay if it's been going towards cc payments...?!

Seven-Day-Weekend - Ah, that rings a bell. That's how it used to be before I switched to direct debit and now of course I don't notice when it goes out, or doesn't as the case must be.

Weebit - Ah, if I were only making extra payments... I'm on the old 'mortgage' style student loan payments, so they just come out by direct debit - amount specified by the SLC.
My monthly income is after tax and NI. (Thankfully)

You're all so helpful. I know by some people's standards my situation could be a lot worse, but my worry was that if I carried on as we were, it would be! I'm glad I've made the (quite scary) step to getting on here. I think it's one thing to do your budget and SOA on your own, but it's different putting it up on a forum for all to see! And it took some courage. Argh! But if anyone else is scared about doing it, do it! The impetus from everyone's advice and support really helps with the determination to turn things around.

MoneyWorryBunny

Oh and I forgot to say that I'm going to look at switching the CC balances later today. I think the barclaycard current offer is to transfer 90% of your available credit at 6.9% for the life of the balance. That would mean i could transfer the Natwest to that, leaving the Natwest free. Would I be right in thinking that before I do this I should find out what Natwest could offer me, with a view to transferring the LloydsTSB balance? And what if this is rubbish!?

Again Jes, your advice about snowballing is good. I'd heard about it before but then not really taken it on board. I've been paying more than the minimum from all three cards because I thought this would be better credit rating wise, but it's probably not the wisest choice interest wise. I think this has got through my thick skull at last!

Prudent

MoneyWorryBunny wrote: »

Monthly income:

My salary - £1776.62 (getting a pay rise this month so this’ll go up – yay)

Monthly outgoings:

Mortgage - £483.97
AOL - £23.21 I pay £9.99 for broadband and phone calls on aol
British Gas Homecare - £21.97 (got this because both boiler and fire needed attention this year)
Council Tax - £83.00
Dentist - £11.99
Buildings/contents ins - £54.95 This is high. Just paid £114 for both for three bed semi per year
Water rates - £24.60
E-on - £88.00 (this is high because I wasn’t paying enough, it’s back in the black now but will be high through winter)
Mobile phone - £27.50
BT line rental - £37.50 (this seems high for just line – will have to check it) Sounds like a package may not have been cancelled. I pay £10.50
Food and drink - £200.00 High for two see my sig for two adults & two cats
Magazines - £21.19 (I should probably reduce/get rid of this L) See the 3 for £1 offers
TV Licence - £11.95
Pet insurance - £20.88 (I have two cats) Think about self insuring. I have saved loads over the years
Pet stuff incl food and vets - £30.00 see food bill.
Car tax - £10.00
Petrol - £30.00 (I manage to keep this pretty low)
Car insurance - £43.29 (this is due for renewal this month and I’ll be reducing it to 3rd party because car is so old!)
Car service, MOT & repairs - £35.00
Student Loan repayments - £96.18
Loan repayments - £145.70 Balance £4,953.80 APR 8.0% Length of term 48 months, 35 months to go
Opticians -£9.00

Total £1509.88

What I haven’t included here is OH’s outgoings, which are £121.50 a month, which I might have to help out with….

I think there is plenty of scope for some cutback, that probably wont hurt too much.

Happytogetdebtfree

Hello MWB welcome to teh boards, there is so much you could do with your credit card debt id be tempted to get cracking on what some of the people said, either the lifetime of the balance transfer or a 0% credit card for all 3 balances.... that way you will only be paying one credit card bill the others can be cancelled and then gotten rid of.... dont dishearten at times like this the credit crunch i feel is a time to turn it all around.... im all should woulda coulda id love to be able to get a lifetime of balance card for my credit cards but ive no chance..... hehe nevermind :d i hope in a few days you find good rest it soon starts to sink in when your doing proactive things about your debt so dont have sleepless nights rest easy your about to start the best and worst journey of your life but plenty of support to get you through it xxx

poker_face

Happytogetdebtfree wrote: »

Hello MWB welcome to teh boards, there is so much you could do with your credit card debt id be tempted to get cracking on what some of the people said, either the lifetime of the balance transfer or a 0% credit card for all 3 balances.... that way you will only be paying one credit card bill the others can be cancelled and then gotten rid of.... dont dishearten at times like this the credit crunch i feel is a time to turn it all around.... im all should woulda coulda id love to be able to get a lifetime of balance card for my credit cards but ive no chance..... hehe nevermind :d i hope in a few days you find good rest it soon starts to sink in when your doing proactive things about your debt so dont have sleepless nights rest easy your about to start the best and worst journey of your life but plenty of support to get you through it xxx

and lots of :money::money::money:
:cool:

Happytogetdebtfree

poker are you really working 7 jobs ?:O

MoneyWorryBunny

Do people think I should try for a 0% balance transfer for all three cards? I've done it before a couple of times but I'm scared now. I'm scared of picking the wrong card because I've read that if they're owned by the same bank as one of my existing ones they might turn me down. That might send me over the edge! But then it might work and then I'll be kicking myself over not doing it months ago!