Help me get debt free ! (UPDATE )

Pressleyno1

Hmmmm, what can be claimed back with this bankchanrgeshell.com ?

I'be been charged quite a bit for not having sufficient funds in my account to cover direct debits. Also late credit card payments, and un authorised overdrafts. Quite a bit, I wanna know more on this and how much it would cost me,

As for the train Idea, its Edinburgh to Bristol. £40 on the plane for 1hours flight. Not too shabby really.

Pressleyno1

Just to add, I've applied for an evening job, 6pm - 10pm, a few nights a week. So hopefully that should give me a few extra pennies I can put straight into helping my debt.

Bloke_with_a_simple_life

A few observations:

1. THat £2000 loan which starts to be repaid in March - looks as if it was to cover purchasing Christmas presents. When is the loan due to be fully repaid? What are your plans to make sure that you don't need a loan for next Christmas?

You need to save up a bit before hand AND cut back on presents - £2000 is too much to spend on presents quite frankly - that's 2 months worth of wages!

2. YOur football season ticket - that is a payment due to be made between June and August if you want to renew for next season. If you want to go next season (Tynecastle I presume?) you need to start putting £60 - 70 a month aside from now!

In addition - the extra costs associate with European and Cup Games at home - start a small fund now to pay for these tickets - they won't be included in the season ticket.

3. Agree with the Skype comment - why pay extra for broadband and not fully utilise it? Why do you need to use a mobile to phone your GF .. why not both of use use a land line - much cheaper off peak! Have you compared the cost of off-peak phone calls from your phone supplier with the cost of the calls from O2? Bet you haven't!

4. For Bristol - agree that EasyJet or FLyBE is best / cheapest option - though how do you get to/from Edinburgh airport? Taxi or do you park you car? I think you should consider reviewing your travel options - why is bus not feasible? Why do you need a car? Do you both work and live in the sticks? Bus passess and travel around Edinburgh is relatively cheap - £30 per month or so for a bus pass - check https://www.lothianbuses.co.uk.


Lastly, I think you need to sit down with a calendar and start to budget your finances. Look at what needs to be paid where and when - look at when your income is due to come into yout bank account (is it weekly or monthly?) - get in touch with the companies and family you owe money too - see if you can change the monthly repayment date to be set to a couple of days after you get paid and get the Direct Debits set up to come out of your account immediately after you get paid - this is a strict budgetting discipline and may give you very little left in your bank account - but that is yours to last the month.

Good luck

Pressleyno1

Thanks for the reply....



I had no money in at christmas, had bills to pay etc, found it quite hard so opted for a loan. It was a good christmas for sure, I bought other suff for myself aswell. To be honest its one of the stupidest things I have done and hope I never need a loan again. As for this year, well I don't know. I think the idea of putting say something like £5 a week away would work. But I'll need to sort all that out as I try to restructure my accounts.

Season ticket - I goto college every couple of months, which means student card, which means £150 season ticket ! However, don't think Hearts will be at tynie next season, moving to Murrayfield, 67,000 seater, so I doubt theres gonna be a need for a season ticket !

I'm not going to Europe this season, rubbish I know but I can't afford it. I'll goto the home games however, so I'll need a few bucks for them. I've also stopped going to the away games this season aswell. Can cost well over £50 !

Goods point on the landline, I've never actually thought of that even though we both have handsets for around the house. Odd eh ! Would like to know more about this skype.

Yeh get a lift to the airport, so that's alright, then she picks me up form down there. As for my car, I'm not too sure. I like to have my car, I like to drive etc, apart from in Edinburgh. I've done park and ride a few times, but that really depends on where about in town I'm working. The car though, I just don't know. I could get rid of it I suppose and get a lesser car, or just the bus all together but that one would need much thought.

As for the budgeting I've been doing so for a week now. I've workied out that if I deposit £150 a week into my bills account it covers the cost of bills when they come in etc, its really quite tricky to get it all balanced out. But this way I also save some to help get out of my overdraft. Its gonna be a case of trial and error for the first wee while, so I'm just gonna have to see how my first few months go.

I've went through my paper work tonight, and have found that i have paid a massive £225 in bank charges over tha past 3 years. Young and stupid is the reason for this. But I'm really interested in this claiming back form the bank, I'd appreciate it if anyone could advise.

My dad has also said he is due a tax rebate next month and said he is willing to help out. I think my mum has some money aside for me too, so hopefully I can get some debt paid, even though I don't like taking their help. If i was to get £200 from them each and then I managed to claim back the bank charges thats over £600. So I need to look into all of this.

Good luck

Callisto

Pressleyno1 wrote:

Goods point on the landline, I've never actually thought of that even though we both have handsets for around the house. Odd eh ! Would like to know more about this skype.

https://www.skype.com

You can download it for free and talk for free from your pc to someone else's pc (as long as you both have Skype installed and running or the call can't get through). You will both need a headset (earphones with an attached microphone - I bought one for around £8, but you may be able to buy one cheaper).

Don't use Skype for calling from your computer to a landline or mobile as you will be charged for this. It may be worth it for some kinds of calls, but you'll need to do research on it first! HTH

Pressleyno1

Ok, some bad news on the credit card front. I applied for the HSBC credit card, for the 0% for 9 months and I was rejected. No reason, but it'll be to do with my poor credit. So i'm stuck with my 12.9% of £800. Bit of a blow like.

HLK

Callisto wrote:

https://www.skype.com

You can download it for free and talk for free to from your computer to someone else's computer (as long as you both have Skype installed and running or the call can't get through). You will both need a headset (earphones with an attached microphone - I bought one for around £8, but you may be able to buy one cheaper).

Don't use Skype for calling from your computer to a landline or mobile as you will be charged for this. It may be worth it for some kinds of calls, but you'll need to do research on it first! HTH

I actually use skype without a heaset - just plugged in the mike that came with the PC - so check if you both have one before you fork out more cash,. You could have this up and running in 10 minutes - it's better than the phone as it leaves you hands-free - no batteries to run down and ou can do am text chat at the same time ( handy for swopping address links for PC ) - so as Callisto says - just download for free.

cornerclose

Pressleyno1 wrote:

Hmmmm, what can be claimed back with this bankchanrgeshell.com ?

I'be been charged quite a bit for not having sufficient funds in my account to cover direct debits. Also late credit card payments, and un authorised overdrafts. Quite a bit, I wanna know more on this and how much it would cost me,

Try this thread
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=115112
lots of info there.

For your broadband you could try Tiscali 1 MB unlimited download, £14.99/month.

Pressleyno1

Not got a mic/headset, and she doesn't either. I think we'll try the landline approach though, allowing me to reduce my phone bill !

Still p1ssed off about being rejected for that card. However I'm getting my credit report from experian.co.uk soon so I should check that out.

My mate is graduate finanical advisor, so I've been talking to him. No figures, but I might tell him all, see if he can reccomend anything. But I think everyone on here could be finanical advisor's aswell ! so no much change

Pressleyno1

cornerclose wrote:

Try this thread
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=115112
lots of info there.

For your broadband you could try Tiscali 1 MB unlimited download, £14.99/month.

I've looked at that, but specifically wanted to know if I could claim over direct debits I've missed therefore getting charged. £225 !!!!!!!!!

I'll have a look at tiscali just now, it'd be a saving of £3 a month, £36 a year, not much but I'm sure its better than paying an extra £36 a year.

I'm fully determined to get out of this debt now. I'm willing to sacrafice all pleasures - apart from visiting the lady - to get out of this mess.