Gran helping me get out of debt.

Nix143

You may not like this advice but unless you are 100% sure in your heart that you are completely COMPLETELY ready to tackle your debt once and for all then don't take advantage of the offer your gran is making you. Sorry but could you live with disappointing her? Letting her down? I'm only saying this because even when we know we have to sort our debts out if we, personally, haven't had that LBM or that bone deep shattering revelation that we want to change then it won't work.

Of course it might be the case that because your gran has done this for you that you become more determined to resolve everything - do you feel that? It sounds a little bit like you might already be thinking of how this is going to go wrong, not how you are going to make it go right.

Honestly, you have enough surplus income to be able to tackle this in one way or another. But you have one relationship with your gran. Make her proud of you. If you truly feel that you can use this offer and resolve your stuff then go for it. Just be really really sure

And good luck x

paybacktime2008

But you aren't going to sink! If you tighten up, stop spending, sell a bit you will be fine.......

partickz

Just opened all the statements I could find hidden about my room. The following is not 100% accurate as I have made some payments since the statements. (but not used the cards- go me!!!!)

CC1 MBNA- £9814 27.9%
CC2 AMAZON MASTERCARD- £2442 19.95%
CC3 Capital One- £1900 16%
Old Student Overdraft BoS- £1600 (Frozen)
Burton Store Card- £ 511.77 (29.9) (I think its 29.9 anyway?)

partickz

Nix143 wrote: »

Of course it might be the case that because your gran has done this for you that you become more determined to resolve everything - do you feel that? It sounds a little bit like you might already be thinking of how this is going to go wrong, not how you are going to make it go right.

Honestly, you have enough surplus income to be able to tackle this in one way or another. But you have one relationship with your gran. Make her proud of you. If you truly feel that you can use this offer and resolve your stuff then go for it. Just be really really sure

And good luck x

I do not want to let my gran down..... but I know what I am like!!!!! I really want to wipe my slate clean though as I would like to move out probably to rented to start off with. I think I have enough money coming in to sort this out but have had a very comfortable couple of years since leaving university. fair enough, it was using the banks money!

GeorgeUK

Hi patrick

Well done on posting, but i think you are a long way from moving out. Sorry if this seems a little harsh, but you have lived at home paying hardly any rent for years (same as me), spent money you don't have (same as me) and hope to move out (same as me) but have no savings and a whole pile of debt. If you did move out before you changed your spending habits, think of the mess you'd be in after paying the rent, council tax, gas, electricity, tv licence, groceries, insurance, travel, phone and water rates. Not to mention buying clothes and entertainment costs.

You first need to learn how to budget properly, then how to stick to that budget. It sounds like your gran will be able to help you alot with that. I would recemmend tomorrow phoning up all your creditors and enquiring as to what your current balance and interest rates are. You need to know exactly so you can plan how to tackle this.

For the next month, i would strongly recommend keeping a spending diary. Write in it every morning how much you are taking out with you, keep the receipts for everything you buy and put that into the diary every day as well as any money you withdraw. At the end of the month, calculate how much you have withdrawn/spent and see if there are any areas you can cut back on - total how much each item cost you, like magazines.

Do you ebay?
You can sell anything you no longer need or use on ebay - there are even magazines being sold for close to the cover price so you may be able to get some cash back if you have older copies that people would want to read. It takes time and effort, but it also took you time to build up the debt. There are no quick fixes and as previously stated, you will need to be fully committed.

As you gran had suggested, it is better to make payments towards the higher APR debts first so you are paying less in interest. Do you know the credit limits on the cards you have? If any have a decent limit but a low balance, it may be worth clearing before some of the higher APR debts. If you can get a nil balance on the card, you may be able to take advantage of some of the existing customer offers that some of the banks do - 0% for 6 months ot low interest life of balance. You could then transfer some of the higher APR debt to a better offer and hopefully you will eventually have enough room to manouver your funds around so that you are paying very little interest overall.

maman

partickz wrote: »

so it is not really my fault that I am about to sink.:o

OH YES IT IS!!

Don't mean to sound harsh but you have to be really, really serious about wanting to sort this out and that includes taking help from your gran. Up to now you've been silly with money but it's only money. IMO if you let your gran down it will be far, far worse. Be really strict with yourself and try to use as much of your disposable income (and you have loads!) to pay off debts every month. Try to live on an absolute minimum then when you do live alone you'll have a good start for budgeting. Good Luck!

partickz

GeorgeUK wrote: »

Hi patrick

Well done on posting, but i think you are a long way from moving out.
As you gran had suggested, it is better to make payments towards the higher APR debts first so you are paying less in interest. Do you know the credit limits on the cards you have? If any have a decent limit but a low balance, it may be worth clearing before some of the higher APR debts. .

Thanks for the honest feedback. I know deep down that moving out is a pretty much out of my plans any time soon. I am almost at the limits with all my cards as I am only making minimum payments plus a few pounds here and there.

partickz

maman wrote: »

OH YES IT IS!!

Don't mean to sound harsh but you have to be really, really serious about wanting to sort this out and that includes taking help from your gran. Up to now you've been silly with money but it's only money. IMO if you let your gran down it will be far, far worse. Be really strict with yourself and try to use as much of your disposable income (and you have loads!) to pay off debts every month. Try to live on an absolute minimum then when you do live alone you'll have a good start for budgeting. Good Luck!

I do not want to let my Gran down and recognise that relying on overtime was not the best idea I ever had. I cannot wait to my payday next week as I plan to account for every penny. I have bought a little 10p notepad and will make a note of every penny I spend. My Gran has the form for the Credit Union loan already filled out for me to sign tomorrow morning.

My Mum has offered to pay my Burton card off as an early Christmas present. However, this will come with a whole load of conditions regarding how I manage my money?????? I will basically be left with 'pocket-money' for the next few months if she gets her way. I feel a bit hen-pecked!:rolleyes:

GeorgeUK

Trust me, a mother getting on your case about money is not as bad as people threatening to send doorstep collectors and phoning at all times of the day and night.

If you let them know what you are planning on doing and keep them informed of both progress and any relapses, you'll do fine. Sounds like you have a good support network at home - make use of it. We can try to give you some ideas as well.

Something else that may be worth considering is getting another credit card. Sounds crazy i know, but there are lots of promotional offers out there right now for new accounts and you may be accepted for a card with a promotional 0% on balance transfers for a year or more. After you activate the card and trasnfer any balances, you can cut up the card as you won't be spending on it and this will take away any temptation to do so. Run it past your gran and see if she agrees - i think you'll be listening to her alot ofver the next year or so. That's the only reason i can currently meet my payments and if you are paying less interest, you should be able to reduce the debts quicker.

RobertoMoir

partickz wrote: »

Salary- 1156 a month

I still live with my parents so my set outgoings are as follows.......

Rent- 150
Car Insurance- 68
Contribution to groceries- 100
Mobile- 35
Broadband- 19.95
Contribution to Sky- 20
Other Insurance- 8.50

Total- 401.45

This should leave more than 750 a month, which either goes to the debt or gets spent on rubbish. I don't really know the interest rates on my individual debts or the exact amounts I owe to each CC as I am too scared to even think about that at the minute. The figure in my signature is basically my credit limits on the cards added together (17000 pounds of credit) minus a payment I made on the 12/11/08.

Right. Your gran has a sound plan, and as for your worries about slipping away from it, well all I can say is that you need to trust yourself as much as your gran does. If you can't do that, then you have to think about why... and fix it.

Cut up all your cards. There's no such thing as "keeping one back for emergencies". You are already having an emergency, and it's been caused by "having credit", not by "not having credit".

As for the overtime thing, not to hammer you but relying on that is your fault. You made a plan that relied on something unreliable. That kind of thinking is not that much different to "I've got the perfect repayment plan figured out, it starts with winning the lottery this weekend, and then..."

If you need to account for every penny, as you say in another post, then look at your SOA above.

Rent- 150 Fair enough

Car Insurance- 68. Are you sure this needs to be this high? Is there a better deal you could have? Is there a better car, in terms of insurance, you could be driving? Funny that you're paying car insurance but don't apparently have to pay to run a car?

Contribution to groceries- 100 Fair enough

Mobile- 35. Is that contract? If so, can you switch to PAYG and use the phone less. Is that PAYG already? Use the phone less.

Broadband- 19.95. Are you sure you need to spend this amount? Can you switch to a lower service tier or get a different provide to save a bit here?

Contribution to Sky- 20 Is this for just one or two channels that only you use? If so, do you need to keep that channel?

Other Insurance- 8.50 Other Insurance for what? Is it needed?

Oh yes, and if you think being nagged about money is bad, wait until you meet a bailiff. Feeling hen-pecked is a small price to pay.

Sorry if this sounds harsh, but I think you do need to take a long hard look at things here.