please help with my situation! details provided.

cryforadvice

hi everyone,

I am hoping to receive some opinions as to how best to improve my financial situation!

I don't know much about all of this, having found that the debt has accumilated over a period. I am now faced with a situation where my monthly repayments are more than I can reasonably afford.

The breakdown of my situation is as follows and I have £6,400 in a savings account (earning practically no interest, obviously) to contribute to the debt. I need to know how best to use it. i.e / e.g what to pay off / where to then possibly refinance etc.

a/c

bal


repayment/month


notes

Credit Card 1

2151


25


comprised of £1k balance tranfer, 1k purchases, £151 cash withdrawal

Credit Card 2

4,800.00


104


comprised of purchases and circa £500 cash withdrawals

Loan 1

4,488.40


135.23


approx 4 years remaining

Loan 2

4,777.42


107.58


approx 4 years remaining

Loans Combined

9265.82


242.81


combined figure s for the two loans

SUB TOTAL

16,216.82


371.81

less

6,400.00

TOTAL

9,836.82

Any opinions very gratefully received. I would like to then see my bank manager, armed with knowledge gained.

If any more information is required to answer the question please just ask, and hopefully I'll know the answer!

With thanks.

RAS

Hi

Can you do a full SOA as per here http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html If you click format for MSE you can insert it into here easily.

That show income and household expenditure as well.

cryforadvice

ah, I have filled it in, I think the interest rates are correct, but am not certain so have rounded them up, if anything. I didn't know about that link, thank you!

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household.........
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1600
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1600
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 400
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 50
Electricity............................. 50
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 50
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 50
Mobile phone............................ 40
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 30
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 40
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 50
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 100
Other travel............................ 315
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1235

Assets
Cash.................................... 6400
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 6400

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
cc1............................2150......25........18
cc2............................4800......104.......18
loan1 .........................4488......135.......7
loan2..........................4777......107.......7
Total unsecured debts..........16215.....371.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,600
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,235
Available for debt repayments........... 365
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 371
Amount short for making debt repayments. -6
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 6,400
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -16,215
Net Assets.............................. -9,815

10past6

Car parking............................. 100

:eek: why so expensive?

Other travel............................ 315

What's this for?

Entertainment........................... 50

This needs to be reduced

cryforadvice

Train fare and car parking at the train station.
i live in a commiuter town, whereas if I lived in London and could save the travel/car park, the rent would be higher. So it balances out according to my previous calculations. Station is too far to walk too, car parking essential. train fare is a rip off, but a fixed price.

topbadger

If you've got £6,400 in a savings account, then pay off your credit cards with it. If they're on an 18% APR then it's a bit of a no-brainer! Then you'll find that you'll have a bit more left over for living on - or increasing the payments on the loans.

Good luck with it!

cryforadvice

one of the CC's s only 25 per month though. So would it not be better to repay the big CC bill (£104 /month) and then keep the smaller one (£25/month) and then use the 1600 or so that's left over towards one of the loans, and then consolidate the 2 loans with a lower loan? i.e circa 8000 consolidated loan, instead of circa 10,000 combined loans?

angelicmary85

Hi Cryforadvice!

Welcome to MSE!

Just a thought but could buying more than one ticket for your train journey reduce the cost? Sometimes buying a ticket from one station to another then another ticket from that station to another can save heap! I seen a video of Martin talking about it and how it can cut costs

10past6

cryforadvice wrote: »

and then consolidate the 2 loans with a lower loan?

It's never a good idea to have a consolidated loan

Jesthar

cryforadvice wrote: »

Train fare and car parking at the train station.
i live in a commiuter town, whereas if I lived in London and could save the travel/car park, the rent would be higher. So it balances out according to my previous calculations. Station is too far to walk too, car parking essential. train fare is a rip off, but a fixed price.

Hmm, don't suppose it's close enough to cycle? Depends if you have a bike, I guess!

Other than that, I'm amazed at how low your gorcery bill is (are you sure only £30? Excellent if so!)

Your car insurance seems quite high, though - have you checked around for a cheaper quote? Your landline bills also seem quite high, but does that include internet? Would a cheaper package be an option?

Aside from that, topbadger is right - you could pay off one of your CCs (the biggest one) and still have a 'safety net', plus and extra £100 to pay off your second CC (which is the next target as it has a much higher interest rate and is therefore costing you more than the loans - read the 'Danger - Minimum Repayments' article to understand why you should pay of CCs as fast as possible ), as you won't be earning anywhere near as much interest as those debts are costing you.

~Jes

cryforadvice

well my utilites are £200 per month, so I randomly put £50 into each of 4 separate utilities on the form. They are pretty much fixed as I share services with others and that's my contribution.

train fare's an interesting thought, and one i will look into!

And perhaps now the sun is shining, I could buy a bike!

thanks everyone, you're all very kind indeed. It seems as though paying off the CC's is the way (even though one of them's only £25 per month). Which leads me to the only point I'm still stumped on, which is why it wouldn't be better to consolidate my two loans?! Is this a rule of thumb?