Right! thats it! Enough is enough!

1982ap

I've finally had enough of owing money to banks/credit cards and loans. Today it stops! I've lost £510 in charges and interest this month and I'm absolutely sick of it.

I owe out the following:

Credit Cards
Mint card - £378.53
Egg Card - £936.56
Citibank - £856.70
Barclaycard Platinum - £3797.90

Loan
M&S Money - £9,213.12

Current account
Halifax - £1,350.00
Lloyds - £237.00

Total - £16,769.81

Earnings are £1800(Approx) per month after tax.
Outgoings are £650 Approx

£1150 to live off/clear off per month, time to get stingy :eek:

My major problem is that I can comfortably afford to live like I am at the moment but I will NEVER end up clearing my debt if I don't actively try.
Every now and again I have a month like this one whereby I get paid a little late and it has a devastating effect on my finances. Time for this to stop.

I feel like I need to have everything written down for me and others to see so that I have targets to focus on. Its also like a real admission from myself that I have the debt and I need to do something about it instead of paying the minimum payment and pretending its not there.

First target - By June 1st 2009 debt levels to be no more than £12,500.

£4,269.81 / 6 months = £771.64 per month.

I will be quitting smoking to aid my effort (and health).

I'm feeling inspired to change my financial life today!!!

Looking forward to speaking to you all over the coming months. :j

Diana_Prince

No advice to offer! But you are surrounded by amazingly helpful people to encourage and advise!!

Good luck!! x

embarrassed_about_my_debt

Good luck! It can be done, it just takes a little focus but going by the above your in a position to sort things!

I've subscribed to your diary so will def keep looking in!

bluekaw

Hi and Welcome to the boards, it stranges but it becomes good fun getting rid of the debt, Join the payment a day board, it really does help you keep motivated on a daily basis and your eyes on the target,

Good luck

Bluekaw

GeorgeUK

The best place to start is to work out exactly how much your expenditure is and payments are so you can prioritise the debts with the higher APR's. If you pay these off first, you will be paying less interest and reduce your debt quicker.
http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

1982ap

Thanks guys, Just moved my Barclaycard over to Virgin for 16 months interest free so thats £918.56 in interest saved over that period. Offset this against the £113.16 transfer fee and I'm £805.40 better off for 5 minutes work.

Why haven't I done this earlier?

This months target is to clear my Mint Card as its the lowest balance and the interest rate is fairly high. Plus it will be nice to have one card less (quick wins and all that).

Thanks again for the kind words, I'm looking forward to this challenge now.

Caroline73_2

Good luck! It's definitely inspiring being on this forum. I'm aiming for £15k by Christmas 2009. I will pay off my two CC's, put enough in my savings to live off for 3 months and put the remainder on my mortgage payments.

GeorgeUK

If your Barclaycard now has a nil balance, wait until you receive a statement, then phone them to enquire as to the current interest rate and if they have any balance transfer offers on - for existing cusomers, banks sometimes offer 0% for 6 months or a low interest for life of balance. You may then be able to transfer some higher APR debt to the Barclaycard and keep repeating when the offer runs out. These offers don't usually require a credit check as you are an existing customer so you shouldn't need to worry about that either.

I would advise setting up a direct debit to pay the minimum on the Virgin card - if you miss a payment or are late, you could losethe 0% rate. From the 2nd month, the minimum payment on that card should only be £25 so you'll have even more to throw at the higher interest debts.

Damita

Hi and welcome to the club

You sound so postive, I am sure you will do it