Help!?!?!

perkisc

Hi Andy and welcome
You really need to look around and see if you can get a better APR on those credit cards 24% is much to high. Look for intro offers Virgin are offering 0% for 16 month at the moment or look for fix for life balance transfers.

Good luck

:beer:

andy_skellington

i dunno if they are secured. They are from Lombard Direct and the Halifax. The Tv payment I have included within the loans as its only got about 18 months left at £16 a month.

Im not really clever with this whole money thing in general but trying to read up on it just now and it just scares me. Im more of a happier person not knowing the ins and outs of it.

Got way too much other beep going on in my life at the moment : (

andy_skellington

Well a wee update from myself here and a quick(?) question.

Gave up smoking completely now (which was sneakily taking money from me each week) and also now take food to work. All I spend is 50p a day for coffee in work : )
Dont think I can squeeze any more saving from my monthly income as its pretty bare now!

The thing is though, I am getting an extra bonus for the next two months and all in all its looking about £700. Plus the usual extra at the end of the month I would have about £1300ish. I was going to wack that all into debt and get rid of one credit card and put the rest to reduce the other but there has been rumours in my work of "restucturing". Now I be worried about job loses in the near future and I was wondering if I should put that money from the bonus etc into my bank and just keep it there incase I lose my job? Would love to see the debt go down but dont want to be stuck if im made redundant and have NO back up whatsoever. Hell I dont even know what happens if I did lose my job. Any advice on how you can survive?

Any advice would be great guys as I get my first instalment on the 15th of April.
Thanks

hypno06

Hi, and fab news on the not smoking etc - really great progress :T:T:T

As for the bonus etc, if you pay it off the debt, how much does it ease your budget/SOA by? If it brings down the amount you have to pay out each month, then it may still be worth doing.....

If you put it aside, it will only last you a month - so it doesn't buy you much time, but if you pay it off a debt, your budget is eased for ever.

That is the way I am working - my OH is constantly at threat of losing his job, for one reason or another, and so I concentrate on getting the debt down, so that the pressure is off us a little bit if and when the worst happens.

But of course, there is no "one size fits all" answer!

andy_skellington

Well it could clear my TV and my credit card so thats about £50 extra a month. The remaining could take my egg card down from £2000 to £1800 (currently 45 a month) but not sure how much £200 would take off it. Less than a fiver I think. So say £55 in total.

I just dont like the idea of being made redundant and then being up the creek without a paddle. I have only been working at my job for 5 years so dont think redundancy would actually amount to anything much.

Its nothing definate just now though, just talk, but in reading all of the job losses etc im putting 2 +2 together.

And I feel magic about the no smoking, although I seem to be constantly dry mouthed...

Shoe_Gal

Sorry to butt in - and be so irrelevent! but when I was a child I thought a skeleton was called a 'skellington' - and your name made me smile

Good luck with everything, am having a 'down' day myself today so i know how you are feeling

And you cheered me up - without even trying!!

Shoe Gal x

andy_skellington

You know I didn't even realise that i had spelt it wrong!!
So thanks for cheering me up. This debt thing could sure make you a skeleton pretty quickly if you get me.

Im just a massive fan of the Nightmare Before Christmas film.

h4ppiness

Hi Andy, you are doing exactly the right thing - you have made a decision to take control of your life and that's exactly what you are doing - nice one mate! I think your idea of starting with the small debts first is dead right too - you need to be able to see the progress, and how satisfying will it be to get one down to 0! This might be easier said than done, but when I was strapped for cash, I took a part time bar job, and I used that money to get me through week to week leaving my normal salary to go towards bills and debts. Bar work suited me down to the ground because it was a bit like having a night out but you got paid for it. It would only work though if you could resist the temptation to spend all your wages on beer!! Good luck mate - you're half way there already!

andy_skellington

Well since alcohol has been a MAJOR cause of all of this in the first place, it would be ironic if helped me to get out of it. I would consider it but I have a pretty busy evening schedule as it is with my college and taekwondo. If things get desperate then I may have too though!

RAS

Andy

if you clear the barclaycard you may be able to get a balance transfer as an existing customer. if you could get some of the egg card transferred to 6.9% (which is their offer to current customer, I think) it would make a big impact on your monthly outgoings.

But seriously think about keeping a couple of hundred back to help you if things go pear-shaped.