Stressed/Worried sick over money

GeorgeUK

You can have about 3 credit checks in a 6 month period before your credit score is affected. Just make sure you are registered on the electoral roll at your current address as this can have a large impact on your score.

Is it possible for you to transfer between your existing cards? No idea what the rates are but if you can clear a card you may get a balance transfer offer for existing customers which doesn't require a credit check.

TotallyBroke

Take the £5 drop of tariff from Orange now. Do not cancel the dd and get yourself stung by a £5 charge. Infact I would not have cancelled any of them. If you forget to pay it or can't get to the bank in time you will be hit with more charges and a worse credit rating.

My suggestion to you is, go through your bank statements and work out when everything comes out in the month. Write an excel spreadsheet (if you have excel) and put everything down. You can then see where you can juggle money about. So for example:

Date Payment In account Out account Balance
-600
30th Jan Payday 1000 400
1st Feb Rent 200 200
" Other bills 400 -200
6th Feb Petrol 20 -220
10th Feb Shopping 40 -260
20th Feb Car Loan 200 -460
etc etc.

It will then let you see how much money you can afford to spend on things like the food shopping or petrol so that you don't go over the overdraft and incur any charges.
Obviously this helps better if you did it as a family for yourselves. It could mean that your OH paid in full for the first weeks shopping and you bought the second. You would also see that in week 3 of that month you get £80 in as child benefit. So you could as a family spend more on food that week so in week 4 you wouldn't have to buy anything but bread and milk.
I do think it is unfair that your bills are not split 50/50 as like now your OH has not paid any council tax or water rates. So has infact saved money herself that could be used elsewhere as a family.

By sticking to just what is on your soa you are slightly in credit each month so you can do this on your own but will take a very, very long time. By getting your OH on board and splitting all income and outgoings you could all be debt free a lot quicker.

I also do not think you need to speak to a debt advisor at the bank. They will just get you to consolidate. They can not tell you anything that we have not already suggested and what you already know yourself.


The table I have done does not sit right in the post. The -600 would be an example of your account just before your wages were paid in so would sit under Balance.

brody77

Got a meeting with the bank tomorrow to look at my finances.
I have a feeling (I know, be positive!lol) that it'll be a waste of time, but if nothing else, it makes me feel like I'm doing something.

My credit score should (hopefully) be much improved by the end of this week.

Going to redo my SOA to take in with me, hoping I won't need to take statements as they can view all my bank activity anyway.

Anyone any advice RE lloyds tsb for my meeting?

TotallyBroke

Please be very careful with these bank meetings they will get you to consolidate your debts into a loan. Which in turn can get you further into debt.

If I remember from your post I had worked out you were only short £24 each month. I did also suggest that you speak to your wife and do a joint soa to incorporate the debts while still paying seperately.
Did you do that by any chance have you looked at whether as a couple you are breaking even or struggling.

GeorgeUK

Completely agree with TB.

Do not agree to anything or sign anything on the bank premises. Request time to think about anything they suggest. It is best to crunch the numbers first. Don't forget that one of the main aims of the bank is to sell - as long as they are going to make something out of it, that is their primary concern.

It may be to your benefit, but it may not be - do the numbers and don't sign anything on the spur of the moment.

brody77

Thanks guys.

Even as a couple we'd be struggling every month.

I'd just assumed getting a loan to scrap all the other debts would have been better for me due to interest etc on the cards I currently have?

Or are these consolidation things different from a normal loan?

Sorry for the daft questions, if I do nothing else in 2009, I want to be better with money!

TotallyBroke

It's not that they are different. It just meens you are borrowing for a longer period than needed and will ultimately cost more.

The level of debt you have is not massive and if you both combined forces, posted up a complete soa I would guess it wouldn't take you too long for you both to be debt free.

But get a consolidation loan and you end up paying 9%+ over 5years+ = A lot of money. Plus it can lead to temptation of spending again on credit cards etc and so you get further into debt.

Much better to concentrate on paying everything you can to one credit card debt. Then when it is paid they offer you better rates to keep your custom. That's when you start stoozing and using the cards to your advantage to balance transfer and reduce what it is costing you. Use the companies rather than them using you.

brody77

Well lloyds tsb wouldn't offer me a loan anyway, so don't need to worry about that!
They didn't even go through applications or anything, she just went to some screen that showed I wouldn't get a loan, credit card or even overdraft from them!
All because I "went over my overdraft limit".

So basically my trip to the bank did nothing but show me lloyds tsb aren't really into giving a toss.
Which I kinda already knew.

So, back to the drawing board.
On the plus side, got a possible job interview soon for a better salary.
Fingers crossed.

shrimpy_80

Hi Brody, just wanted to say good luck to you, HSBC did exactly the same thing to me, even down to calling me in for an appointment only to say they couldn't do anything for me! (um, thanks for that). That was last September and although it was horrendous at the time I'm now actually grateful to them for giving me the wake up call I needed. I now feel (largely due to this site) that I have turned a corner and am beginning to take control of my finances rather than being dominated by them. So keep going, you are in the right place and will find lots of help and support here. Best of luck to you x x

brody77

Thanks for that, really appreciate all the positive people on these forums.

I'm hoping things are gonna take an upturn - checked my credit score this morning & it's jumped up to 700 and something which now puts me in the "fair" category.
In 3 weeks it's payday & I have some overtime headed my way and we met the targets for our bonus, which is nice.

Just waiting to hear back about the job interview, fingers still crossed!

Only downer is that my car is way too small now (3dr Clio) - it was always an issue, but my daughter is 10 months now and getting her in & out of the car is getting harder by the day!
Really need something with 5 doors, a bigger boot & preferably a diesel as I drive on the motorway everyday & it's expensive with a renault (guzzlers!)

I don't know if I should look into changing or not, as only had the Clio for 14 months or so.