Need some advise urgently

dancingfairy

I agree it would help if you could complete a fuller SOA - how much are you spending on food, petrol , car tax, car maintenance, presents, entertainment, holidays, any Standing orders to savings accounts? , haircuts, etc,etc.
We really need to see the whole gruseome picture to give you the best advice.
However I agree with Jesthar - there are loads of savings she has highlighted. The only extra one from me is the vet insurance - is this the best deal? does it cover what you want it to? Shop around for this.
Gas and elctric are mega huge - I presume you have never switched from british gas - have a look around and see if you can get a better deal as that is daylight robery to be honest.
Don't forget you can also seek help and advice from your local CAB/CCCS/National Debtline etc.
Best of Luck
df

Stubbsy055

Whats your house worth and how much equity do you have in it?

Jesthar

Stubbsy055 wrote: »

Whats your house worth and how much equity do you have in it?

Given the amount of potential savings the OP can make, probably not worth considering trying to sell up, especially in the current housing market. There are plenty of options to be tried before it comes to that!

bob5

Jesthar wrote: »

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: Just me and my son under 18

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.
Spoke with british gas re dual fuel i have them this has gone down a little now but wont take efect until jan 09. Gas: 96.00 Elec: 54.00
i shopped around and seems to be similar prices on u switch .com etc

Sky - annoying, I know, but you need to reduce this far as possible or ditch it completely for now, if you can. Spoke to sky i have reduced this but wont take effect until jan 09. Purely becasue i late payed on last month i cant chnage it til then.

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
Metered - bill is not estimated.

Car insurance - ouch! Horribly high if that is just one car - have you shopped around for the cheapest deal?
Shopped around but just found out from direct line that if i canx i get charged 2 months ...renewal is up in april so might as well wait

BT - does this include internet? Could be lowered if not.
No internet is through the company i work for so i dont pay anything for that

House insurance - can you get a cheaper deal? i will shop around

Life/critical insurance - can you get a cheaper deal? i will shop around

Mobile - Assume this is contract - can you lower the tarrif or go PAYG? I only spend about £5 a month! good idea i will move to payg

Plenty of scope for some savings there! Although you haven;t listed anything for food or car tax etc. car tax is approx 90 every 6 months, food, petrol, going out etc iup and down really depends on how much spare cash there is as to whether i can do it.

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

Thankyou Jes for your advice , very much appreciated,i have done some of the above, commented against your advice above in blue. so have made a little indent. What i really need to do is get these cards sorted out.

Stubbsy055

Jesthar wrote: »

Given the amount of potential savings the OP can make, probably not worth considering trying to sell up, especially in the current housing market. There are plenty of options to be tried before it comes to that!

Was just thinking if things get really tough could remortgage.

CAFCGirl

Hi Bob,
Ive added in a few comments regarding some of your outgoings, although as other suggested a fuller SOA which details every monthly expense will aid you better.

bob5 wrote: »

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 Can you contact your council and ask for this to be spread over 12 months as opposed to 10, then reducing your monthly expense
British Gas 111.00 This is WHOPPING! Are there arrears here, is it direct debit, can you contact British Gas regarding this and ask for your direct debit to be reduced.
British Electicity 62.00 Same as above. You are paying over £2k a year on these two, you need to get this reduced, limit your usage, switch everything off thats not in use, turn your heating down, make sure you're not heating spaces unnecessarily.
TV Licence 12.00
Sky 47.00 Switch your package down. Is it still in contract. Contact Sky and ask to reduce your package or cancel it and get freeview. If you seek to cancel, they are likely to offer you a much better deal.
Water 40.00 This too is quite high, how many people in your family, Shorten showers/baths, only use what you need in the kettle for a cup of tea, get a water hippo for your cistern
Car insurance 53.00 Look at a new supplier for this
BT 24.00
House Ins 28.62
Life/critical ins 38.00 look for a better deal here
Sofa 47.00 How many payments are left on this and what is the APR?
Mobile phone 60.00 Is this for one contract? Thats phenomenal. Limit your usage to necessary calls/texts and get a new contract, or ask your current provider (if you cant cancel) to lower your package
Vet insurance 18.00Look for a better deal here, use Quidco to get cashback.

Total 1380.00 a month Overall this can be reduced quite a lot
You also need to budget for your food shopping, and other car expenses like petrol etc.
Once you've done this you can make steps to make sure that you are living within your means.


Credit cards What are your APR's on these cards when any promotional rates run out, and when do they expire
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

How many people are in your household? There are a lot of monthly expenses which you have missed out, you mentionned getting child benefit, but didnt highlight any other childcare costs, schoolcare, medical bills etc.

Are your monthly payments to your credit cards the minimums only?

Waspeze

Do you get single persons council tax discount if you have people under 18 living there?

If so and you haven't got it already, there's a bit of a saving

Jesthar

bob5 wrote: »

Thankyou Jes for your advice , very much appreciated, i have done some of the above, commented against your advice above in blue. so have made a little indent. What i really need to do is get these cards sorted out.

You're welcome!

Right, just you and your son? In that case, all your utilities are astronomical unless you have a special reason for using so much gas, elec and water every month. How big is your house? I'm trying not to sound too schoolteacher-y here, but I'm single and live on my own in a one bedroom semi detached house, and what you and your son spend in three months on gas and electricity and water would MORE than cover my equivalent bills for the whole of last YEAR, and my gas and elec have also been dual fuel British Gas up until now (switched last month! ) You're not on pre-payment meters, are you? :eek: Even if you are, take a good look at where you are using all this energy, as it is costing you a small fortune, it would seem.

As your water is metered, have you checked your statements for estimated readings? If you really are using that much water, you should check to see if you have any leaks, as you must be using a lot of water to generate that big a bill for just the two of you. I can post you up a list of basic water saving tips if you'd like.

Fair enough on the car insurance, but would you save more by switching now that it would cost you to pay Direct Line the extra two months? If not, switch when renewal is due, as you said.

Yes, you do need to get your cards sorted, but you will find that an awful lot easier if you know where all ther rest of your money is going. I suggest you sit down with all your statements from the last few months, then go through absolutely EVERTHING to see what you are spending on. You might be surprised at where the pennies all slip away! Then you can use all this new data to do a full SOA with the link that Beanie gave you, and we can have a really good look at saving you some serious amounts of dosh to throw at your debts.

~Jes

Verbatim

Wow you're getting things moving quickly!

The reason I asked about ppi on your cards is that they often don't pay out anyway, I think Martin has an article on this on the main site. You are spending a huge amount on this which could go into paying off a large chunk of debt.

I've missed where you say it's just you and a son but I guess you won't have a lot of time for planning meals and cooking? This is important as without planning, eating becomes very expensive; takeaways, ready meals, picking up the odd thing on the way home all add up to serious sums when money is tight. See what you have in and when you have time work out what you could make from this (the old style board is good for ideas) and maybe batch cook for the freezer over the weekend. If you need to shop make a list based on what you have decided to make and stick to it. Most of us on here have found that some of our largest savings have come from grocery shopping.