A bit of inspiration (kind of)

iwanttohavesomemoney

Hi Guys,

Everyone seems to be on a path towards sorting their money out, sometimes it can be daunting as you juggle it all about. My income is steady insomuchas I've got a (seemingly touch wood) stable job, but I'm paid hourly on a 4 weekly basis and the net can vary by as much as £500 month on month so some months (this one) you're skint about a week after pay day, and other months its not as much as a stretch.

Anyhow, I was reflecting on how much I've seemingly repaid without any real structure apart from what I could negotiate with the collection agencies on the phone. In the last 4 years I've knocked about £9k on the head, which when you look at it like that is a fabulous amount!

The things I've learned are to not try to overstretch too much, eg if one month 'they' call me and ask for a payment as I've not made one and I can only afford say £15 instead of £30 to say so as they seem to appreciate that better.
Also, when they call you or you pone them when you get a letter from them asking for a payment plan, ask them straight away how much of a discount they can give you. Surprisingly quite a few collection people will knock a couple of hundred quid off a large debt. I had a mobile phone debt of about £150, which I simply said 'if i pay in full today, how much will you accept as a full and settling payment?' got about £20 off, which ok wasn't much but still money in my pocket which I wouldn't have had if I'd just offered my debit card number.

Good luck everyone, and I hope that you feel as pleased with what you've already achieved as I did!

Simon :-):j