Need some advise urgently

bob5

I am in serious debt and dont know what to do first !

Income is 2,000 per month

Household bills 1500 per month ( including mortgage on a fixed rate interest only)
Credit cards 815 per month ( this is with 5 credit cards all finished there 0% interest so being charge huge interest amounts now, cant get a new 0% card)

Now i have an overdraft of 1350.00

I have rang the credit card companies and they wont help in reducing the rate.

edinburgher

Hi Bob

It might seem hard, but try and be optimistic - friendly advice will be forthcoming. Please complete a SOA so we can see exactly what you have to work with.

Also, as a temporary (emergency only) measure, have any of your credit card companies reduced the minimum payments required recently? There have been various articles in the money press of late warning about companies cutting payments to 1% a month etc. While I absolutely *wouldn't* recommend doing this in the medium-long term, it could buy you a few months to avoid defaults etc.

Saab

Someone will be along shortly to offer advice.

Just bumping the thread for you

CAFCGirl

My only advice at this stage would be posting up your SOA, and we can help find savings to be made which will the help to pay your credit card bills.
Can you also list how much you owe on which credit cards etc.

Good luck and welcome to the boards

bob5

is ther an soa form or just type free text in the thread?

Saab

bob5 wrote: »

is ther an soa form or just type free text in the thread?

There's a sticky at the top of this forum for you to use.:)

Verbatim

Hi bob and welcome.

When you've done your SOA there will probably be some areas where you can get better deals to reduce your essential outgoings.

Are you paying for card payment protection insurance?

~Beanie~

You can find the SOA calculator here: http://www.makesenseofcards.co.uk/soacalc.html

bob5

SOA

Employed

Income is 2,000 per month
Child benefit / tax credit 110.00 per month

Monthly outgoings
Mortgage fixed interest only 745.00
Council tax 94.00
British Gas 111.00
British Electicity 62.00
TV Licence 12.00
Sky 47.00
Water 40.00
Car insurance 53.00
BT 24.00
House Ins 28.62
Life/critical ins 38.00
Sofa 47.00
Mobile phone 60.00
Vet insurance 18.00

Total 1380.00 a month


Credit cards
Virgin Mbna = 10,008.30 ( monthy payment of 254.17)
Alliance & leicester = 1,263.75 ( monthy payment 25.00)
Tesco CC = 3,605.15 ( monthly payment 110.00)
Barclay card = 6,170 ( monthly payment 270.00)
Egg card = 8,651.23 ( monthly payment 250.00) late pay

For egg and barclaycard i couldnt pay all of last month hence why so high this month
Minimum payments = 909.00 per month

Total = 23, 444.60


Overdraft of 1500 a present
Cant get any money out so nothing to live on until i get paid on the 6 dec

The above is without factoring in food, petrol, etc

bob5

Verbatim wrote: »

Hi bob and welcome.

When you've done your SOA there will probably be some areas where you can get better deals to reduce your essential outgoings.

Are you paying for card payment protection insurance?

Yes i am paying credit card protection
Virgin 79.90
Tesco 29.23
Alliance 10.17

I thought it be best to keep them in light of what has just happened to my brother in law ( life threating operation ) he has no cover on his cards. so he still has to pay.

Jesthar

Hi Bob, and welcome!

It will help us if you can do an SoA using the link Beanie gave you above, it it very detailed and helps you not to miss anything.

How many people is your SoA for? Is it just you, or others too? If just you, then:

Your gas and Elec are very, VERY high! :eek: In fact, they'd be high for a family of four, I'd say - does this include repayments of arrears? If not, you seriously need to look at lowering your useage and switching supplier.

Sky - annoying, I know, but you need to reduce this far as possible or ditch it completely for now, if you can.

Water - is this metered or unmetered? If metered, you should be able to lower this a bit/a lot depeding on how many people are in the house - check your useage pattens and that your bill is not estimated

Car insurance - ouch! Horribly high if that is just one car - have you shopped around for the cheapest deal?

BT - does this include internet? Could be lowered if not.

House insurance - can you get a cheaper deal?

Life/critical insurance - can you get a cheaper deal?

Mobile - Assume this is contract - can you lower the tarrif or go PAYG? I only spend about £5 a month!

Plenty of scope for some savings there! Although you haven;t listed anything for food or car tax etc.

Have you ever had charges applied to your credit cards? If so, you need to reclaim them for the last six years - see the 'Reclaim 1000s' section of this website for all the info!

Secondly, add up how much you have paid on credit protection over time - chances are it's a LOT (about £900 a year on e Virgin alone, by the look of it :eek: )! If you can also reclaim that, there goes a large chunk of your debt in one go...

~Jes