Hello!

IWILLSORTMYDEBTSOUT!

Thank heavens I've found this site!

I will tonight prepare an SOA for you lovely lot to shower with advice on the best way forward. I estimate my debt to about £25k although I'm exactly sure. I'm not looking forward to what I'll find tonight _pale_

silverfoxdude

Welcome, weyhey, another one for the gang!!

You sound positive, get as much info as you can give, and there'll be loads of help for you

IWILLSORTMYDEBTSOUT!

One quick question one of you will probably know the answer too, at present I'm not on the best of terms with my loan or CC debtors, if I ring and simply want to know my current balance will they give me just that and not ask awkward questions which I'm not yet ready to answer?

silverfoxdude

I would imagine if you simply said you are making plans to sort out your finances, and you can only do that with the information your asking for, and tell them, you will be in touch within, say 14 days or something, then theres not a lot than can protest about.

lottie26_2

good luck IWIILSORTMYDEBTSOUT you will find lots of insparation on here

ceegee

Whenever I phone up my cc company* I get an automated message/ robot thing telling me what my balance is. If you are nervous about talking to them, could you set up internet accounts with them and check that way? Shouldn't take too long, I imagine, just a few clicks, as they like to say.

*Morgan Stanley

Clumsy_Girl

If you don't want to phone the companies you could get a copy of your credit file - there are links on here for a free trial that you could use.

Good luck!

IWILLSORTMYDEBTSOUT!

Hi, thanks for the repsonses and kind words so far. It's reassuring to know that I'm alone and that there are like minded people who can help.

Right, after totting up each of my debts here are the results:

AA Personal Loan: £10747.45
Egg Personal Loan: £10542.30
MBNA Credit Card: £1324.66 (Credit Limit £1000.00)
Argos Card: £456.30
Alliance & Leicester Account: £326.14 (Overdraft Limit £250.00)
Barclays Bank Account: £1743.09 (Overdraft Limit £1620.00)

TOTAL AMOUNT OWED: £25139.94


After completing my monthly diet here are the results:

Rent: £216.50 (Still live at home with parents)
Mobile Phone Bill: £10.00
Food Shopping: £43.30
Pet Food: £10.00
Drinks for Home: £31.35
Drinking Out: £40.00
AA Membership: £3.75
Car Maintenence: £16.67
Car Insurance: £65.42
Car Tax: £13.33
Petrol: £151.55
Pers Loan Repay: £506.67
Credit Cards: £62.82
Saving Scheme: £25.00
Pet Costs: £10.00
Cinema Trips: £27.00
Other Fun: £40.00
New Clothes: £30.00
Magazines: £5.63
Haircuts: £3.50

TOTAL MONTHLY EXPENDITURE: £1312.48

TOTAL MONTHLY INCOME: £1076.79

DIFFERENCE: -£235.69

CASH IN POCKET: £20.10

NEXT PAY DAY: 27 January 2006

Now as you can see this is bad, bad, bad! For a bit of background this debt has run up due to some quite bad addiction problems I had a while back which I'm thankfully now completely free from. I have no savings whatsoever.

I've tried to be as honest as possible with my income / expenditure so feel free to ask questions / suggest things whatever you want.

loubie_lou

Hi, I will sort my debts out! My suggestions are:

1) Cut your drinking at home out.
2) Do you need to do do food shopping when you are paying rent at home?
3) When is your Car Insurance Due? See if you can get that cheaper elsewhere?
4) Do you own your own pet? I see your paying for pet food and insurance?
5) I STRONGLY suggest you get under your MBNA card limit and A&L overdraft limit ASAP because this will not be doing you any favours whatsoever.
6) Get rid of the cinema trips. There are plenty of good rent a free dvd scheme on this site. Maybe invite the mates (or partner) round for the evening.
7) Ditch the magazines.
8) Maybe stop the savings for a while (unless its not important)?
9) I'm sure your clothes last you more than a month, maybe you should stop this (unless the clothes are for work)?

Sorry if that's harsh but I think you need to live off the bare minimum (but still have fun at the same time!!)

I'm sure other posters will suggest other things but good luck!

LL

moggins

I can see loads of places there where you can make cuts without it being too painful. Without wanting to come across too harsh why do you have a savings scheme? Any interest earned is overtaken with the interest charged on your debts. Start paying that towards your debts instead. The cinema spending seems very high too, if you're a movie buff have you considered one of the cards where you pay 9.99 a month and can see as many movies as you want for that, that's another saving of 17 pounds a month. Magazines as well? I used to have a serious habit but have gone cold turkey and haven't bought a mag in months, I'm going to use my Tesco clubcard tokens to pay for a Prima subscription though.

Is your food not included in the rent you pay to your parents? Or is that money you pay for lunches out etc? Have you thought about taking packed lunches to work?

IWILLSORTMYDEBTSOUT!

Hi, thanks for that. In reply

1. Stopped, I can manage without the Vodka (was cheap Aldi stuff anyway)
2. Yeah I still need to get some food, parents refuse to get New Year Diety Salad stuff.
3. Trying to sell the car although insurance is a nightmare due to having a car stolen and another badly damaged in a crash. Am going to sell the car ASAP as it drinks fuel and is group 18 insurance :eek: )
4. I do own my own pet, Dave the dog, (short of a sack and brick he's staying!)
5. I know it's doing me no favours at all but after all other expenses there's no way I can get under the limit.
6. Cinema trips now cut!
7. Magazines ditched!
8. Will cancel the Savings DD!
9. I've cut the vainness of needing some new clothes every month.

One thing I've forgotten about is the APR's on my loans and cards, will check and update tonight.