Debt Free by the New Decade! HallamLad's DMP

HallamLad

Just found out why my direct debits have been cancelled. Co-Operative Bank have cancelled my account due to me not having enough funds when I made a payment for petrol.

I checked my account and it said I had money in so got some petrol, now they say I didn't have enough funds and have cancelled my account my direct debits and my account will close on the 1st January.

Very annoyed! What can I do?

hypno06

Not sure what you can do about this - is it part of the co-op's "3 strikes and you're out" policy? If so, you could appeal this, and say that you were responsible enough to check your balance before putting in petrol so genuinely believed there to be enough money there.

Sometimes this works, sometimes not - depends on who you get at the other end of the phone I think, but def worth a try and eating a bit of humble pie!

Apart from that, happy Christmas!

HallamLad

Thanks for the advice hypno! I phoned Co-Operative up a couple of days ago and explained the situation to them. They have agreed to reinstate my account and setup my direct debits again.

I was made to feel like I had done something majorly wrong but main thing is my account is now sorted. They asked what I would do different from now on, there's not much I could have done different except not spend money when the balance is low.

22nd December

Went into Manchester centre to do the rest of my xmas shopping I spent £9.99 on a cuddly bear, £11.75 on a chocolate set, £20 on a gift box from The Body Shop and also spent an extra £9.36 on a couple of items there, £24.45 on some items at HMV, £2.87 on fast food. Parking cost me £6.50 in total.

I also got some tablet from the chemist for £3.71 and spent £6.40 sending a parcel special delivery as I had missed the last postage date for first class, 50p on gift tags also.

Food shopping I spent £79.47 at Aldi and £76.24 at Tesco. Last of all I paid off £100 on my MBNA account!

24th December

Only spent £3.87 at Boots on food, mainly just got everything ready for xmas.

27th December

Was in work, first day back after xmas, dragged like crazy! Spent quite a bit on food, airports are never cheap. £1.50 at Boots, £1.80 at Greggs and £4.74 at WHSmiths. I also paid my car finance for the month £119.78 and my car insurance £89.25. Also bought some batteries for £3.

28th December

I spent £20 on a ticket to watch Oldham in a classic 0-0 draw, money well spent there I also spent £17.20 on pre/post-match drinks and a meal afterwards. A little more than I was expecting to pay!

In general I've spent way too much, shocked reading back on it how much I've spent. Not pleased with myself.

Silaqui

Glad you got the bank account thing sorted then. Big spending over xmas! Still at least you did pay a few essentials off. I guess what you need to do now is just start cutting out those little bits, you seem to spend quite a bit on food and snacks - greggs, boots, fast food comes up to about a tenner on its own! Especially when you're at work, are you able to take samdwiches/something microwavable?
Remember to save a bit of money to spend on the old orange squash on NYE

HallamLad

Yeah I'm glad too, have been warned if I do go into the minus again in the next 3 months they will terminate my account with no chance of having the decision turned around so best keep above the limit. Doesn't help when they don't update the account for a couple of days!

I'm sorted for food for the next couple of days at work, got some meals in the freezer to take in with me so I shouldn't spend anything at work now.

I have two weeks off after new years eve so I've been looking for some extra work during that time, just waiting for someone to get back to me.

Paid off a few more items today as well, phoned Sky up first and arranged to have the direct debit setup, they can't take it next month as it's too close to the pay date so are taking double (£75) on the 4th Feb.

I have paid £40 to Capital One and £10 each to Barclays, Alliance & Leicester and NatWest.

I also received a letter from a company called Harlands regarding my gym membership, the direct debit was cancelled so they've slapped on a £20 admin charge! That's cost me £46.95 in total. Which reminds me I should get myself down there shortly and work some of the xmas festivities off me!

That should be it for spending in 2008 apart from the night out! Sick of spending!

HallamLad

I've been doing a bit more phoning around to get a better picture of where I am now and what I need to do.

First of all I found out that I owe £5,569.13 on my car, got roughly another 3 and a half years left to pay. If I settled my finance today it would cost me £4,964.25. My car insurance is due to run out on the 7th May and my final payment will be on the 27th March, not had any incidents so I'm expecting my payments to go down by a big amount! :j

HallamLad

Happy New Year Everyone! _party_

Not had the greatest of ends to the year. I've got a bug from somewhere and spent most of yesterday in bed trying to keep warm! Not surprisingly I spent new years at home.

Feeling quite a bit better today although I'd quickly swap it for a hangover but I guess it's saved me quite a lot of money!

I phoned MBNA up a couple of days ago and managed to get them to reduce my APR from 29.9% to 22.9%, a big result! Not phoned Capital One yet but will give it a go tomorrow.

I spent money at work on the 30th. Ended up spending £3.32 at Spar on food and a further £3.49 at Boots on food. I also spent £2.16 on some cough medicene at Boots joking to the chemist at the time, "this isn't as bad as I'm making it out to be." How wrong was I?!

HallamLad

Finally seem to be shaking this bug off, went down to my mums yesterday for a meal but I could barely eat anything, had another terrible night but today feel a bit more mobile.

Was supposed to be going to Huddersfield tomorrow to play and watch some football but I'm not going to be well enough, another £30-£40 saved!

Yesterday I spent £5.86 on some stuff to keep me going, don't think I could drink another drop of Lucozade though.

Got a coin sorter for xmas so tried it out today with all my loose change, got £7's worth that I can bag so will be putting that into my account when I'm fit enough, also got £24.22 in my paypal account from ebay sales so transferred that to my bank account as well. Having problems with ebay and paypal recently, just seems so complicated to use!

HallamLad

Found out why I've been having problems with ebay and paypal, my account had been hacked! Whoever tried getting into my paypal account but managed to list a miniskirt and a ghd hair straightener set! Nice how people work, hope they have a miserable new year!

Has anyone got and ideas on how I can reduce this debt further? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

HallamLad

With the start of the new year this is the state of my accounts and what I want to have cleared by the end of the year.

CREDIT CARDS

MBNA £2,369.53 - Credit Limit £2,500 - APR [STRIKE]29.9%[/STRIKE] 22.9%
Capital One £935.00 - Credit Limit £1,000 - APR 21.9%

DEBIT CARDS

NatWest £1,578.54 - Overdraft Limit £1,600 - APR 0%
Barclays £497.05 - Overdraft Limit £500 - APR 12.9%
Alliance & Leicester £239.71 - Overdraft Limit £250 - £5 monthly charge

In total I owe £5,619.83 on my accounts and that's the mimimum I want to have taken off my debt. I'll still have car finance and finance on my laptop to pay but I will be able to save up for a deposit on a house and hopefully start doing something with my life.