A Payment a Day Part 2!

Paulgonnabedebtfree

EDITED AT TOP TO SAY NO PAD TODAY SO [EMAIL="DON@T"]DON'T[/EMAIL] READ ON IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR AN AMOUNT.
I know this is a PAD thread but I've finally decided to ease the financial pressure on myself - temporarily at least.
I have an unpaid (now late) tax bill here, van maintenance and servicing due soon, and not quite a big enough overdraft facility to pay the DDs that will be going out in a few days time. I am also unable to work due to the weather. I also have a £240+ bill from my accountant (he saves me loads of hassle so worth it).
Through the letterbox has just dropped some credit card cheques from one of the CC companies with whom I have an account. I have zero balance with them currently. The cheque offer is 0% for 6 months with 3% BT fee. Interest is payable on the fee during the promotion but that is quite small really.
Now, I ask you, what would you do in such a situation?
My instinct is to deposit a cheque into my bank account to an amount that would bring my balance up to zero plus cover the DDs that will shortly be going out plus an amount to cover the tax bill and accountant's fee plus an amount to cover a highish interest debt on another card that is on standard rate (about 19%). Assuming I can work again reasonably soon, the van maintenance will be funded from my earned income.
The total for a cheque as itemised above would be around £3,609.70.
So the transfer fee would be about £110. Don't know the interest on that but even assuming 25%, over the 6 months it would be around £14. I can live with that.
So it's a gamble but IMO, doing nothing would be a bigger and more expensive gamble. Hopefully I will only be frozen off work for a few more days. In spite of the doom and gloom, the work is still out there in my line of work. It's up to me to knock on doors to get it. Fortunately, my work is regular repeat work so I don't have to chase after it all the time.
So I will have about £3,600 to clear by early August and about £1,800 to clear on another one that is 4.9% till 31/5 and then goes up to 14.9% (pretty good as CCs go IMO).
Those can be my short term goals. Attack the 4.9er with everything in my arsenal. Switch my attention to the 0%er before the time runsd out. At the same time, put money aside for £900 tax bill on 31/7.

I feel quite despondent about needing to do this but I've done the maths and it is my least bad option (I seem to have a lot of those).
In order to help myself feel a bit better about this, I am going to increase the amount of debt I started from on 1/1/09 by my two tax instalments and my accountancy bill. Although they are business items, I do tend to pay them by personal means. Both the tax money and the accountancy bill were owing before the start of the year but the amounts hadn't been calculated so I didn't include them in my starting debt level. I need to see that I'm actually getting somewhere.
I'm also a bit behind on my 4 grand a year challenge too. No excuses. Being frozen off work can trigger my low boredom threshhold. Also, the personal percentage of three new tyres was a bit over £30. I will update my sig later on today to reflect the changes.
Damn this weather. I am well behind with my work and I want to earn some money.
It's not all bad though. My customers owe me about £1,100 between them. However, my money isn't much good to me when it's in their bank accounts (assuming they actually have it).
Sorry to go on a bit but I'm a bit distressed by having to take this action.

tomtombeanie

hi everyone! snowy here as well! :j

didn't manage to post PAD for yesterday and fell asleep on the couch after two lovely gin & tonics! anyway, it was 1.01, so along with 1.02 today - total PAD 2.03. yesterday was also a no spend day!

glad you & your son are both ok greenbynature. i hate driving in the snow. i used to live in new england where they usually get a lot of snow in the winter, so i should be used to it but this country (at least where we are in cheshire) just isn't equipped for it (and there's no reason why we should be, it comes so rarely) - our local roads don't look too bad today in fairness but the pavements are a nightmare!

i think it was mcjordi who changed quidco payments from paypal to bank account - thank you! i had no idea you could do this, so have just changed mine . that will probably delay this months payment (nearly 15 pounds!) but at least i won't be charged to receive it in paypal any more...

hope your duvet day helps london andy - and to everyone else who's poorly today (memory rubbish but know there are others!)

keep safe & warm everyone. xx

ElizabethJH

Just £1.09 to MBMA today - Still am not online at home so haven't managed any payments over the weekend!

tomtombeanie

oh paul - sorry things are so tough. it sounds like you've thought through all your options so if you do go ahead and use the cheque, it's not like your increasing your debt to have a wild week in vegas or something...

you need to keep your head above water, what a shame the weather is against you. good luck xxx

mcjordi

tomtombeanie - i thought that it was only after £50 it would go into bank account under this was paypal
but found it can be any amount into bank

no PAD for me today

ltm07

Hi all! Another £10.96 towards overdraft today! GL All!!

debt_cruncher

Hi everybody

No snow here but we are supposed to get it in NI tomorrow.

PAD of £10.00 to halifax card.

Catch up with you all tomorrow.

DC

Private_and_Confidential

I can't belive how rubbish I've been lately.

I failed to do a PAD on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

So, to make up for it, I've made a PAD today of £186.33.

Why so much? Well, I've justy confirmed with the Local Taxation Office that I do not need to make a Council Tax Payment this month so that's £144.00 spare, and I rounded down my bank account ot the nearest hundred.

Total PAD today = £186.33 to HSBC CC

They're coming down... slowley but surely.

bigbeff

Afternoon all

Cancelled my gym membership because I haven't used it in 3 months - what a waste of money! Going to start running again instead. Put the £23 off my credit card instead - shouldn't miss it!!

Oh and going to put some things on ebay tonight I think! I am feeling motivated this month.

39forever

Hello again!

Just catching up with the posts! Didnt realise the snow reach across the country!! I know, I should watch the T.V.!!

Greenbynature glad you and you OH are ok! I did that once - skidded right across the main road - scary!!!!!!

Paul So sorry having a bad time of it - sounds like you are pretty clued up re: your options. Take heart - it can and will get better! Can I ask what your job is - i'm intrigued!

Keep safe in this lousy weather everyone.

Bye for now

39 xx