Light bulb moment

skint_manc

edited....

Lydia.42

Good morning to a fellow 'early morning non sleeper, worrier, please let me get some sleep before the alarm goes off' person.

Well done for posting. I'm not the best person to advise as i am still learning myself, but more savvy people will be along soon when the birds are awake!!!

My first thoughts would be to look at your gas and lecci bills, as they seem quite high. We pay approx. £46 per month for both together - myself and OH work strange working patterns so have heating on quite a bit as we are often at home during day.

I would also phone all your credit cards asap, and cancel the PPI. Make this your priority for today. Don't let them talk you out of it. Just think of the extra money that will be available to go towards your balance and not straight into their pockets.

Next i would just pay the minimum on all cards (you say you pay £50 a month on most). With the extra money freed up from this and dropping your PPI, if you budget carefully, you should be able to stay within you balance/overdraft at your bank. Once you do this you will stop the spiral of bank charges. I've been here myself and it's so hard to see a way out sometimes.

Take a look at Martins Budget planner at the top of the page. Fill this in, and you'll be able to see that when you stop paying PPI, bank charges, etc hopefully there should be light at the end of the tunnel. It's hard to take these first steps and not think of the over-all picture that can keep you awake at night, but with everyone here being so friendly and helpful - hopefully we can help you stay positive.

Take heart - more people will be along soon, and once you get the bank charges sorted, they will probably advise snow-balling your credit card debts, and other great ideas.

Take care

L

Chortle_2

definitely cancel the PPI - today! Its no wonder you're balances never seem to go down, the minimum payments probably barely cover the PPI payments and interest!

While you're on the phone to the card companies re the PPI, ask the APR's.

Complete Martin's budget planner, as accurately as possible, (once you've done the above! They're your priority)

And re your bank charges... If you haven't got the bank statments for the last 6 years, send them the following letter. I posted this on another thread last night. It'll cost you £10-£11, (including sending the letter first class recorded post) but it will be worth it. I got my statements within a week, and worked out that they owe me over £2000 in charges!

[font=Verdana, sans-serif]Data Protection Act Disclosure Request[/font]

[font=Verdana, sans-serif]Dear Sir/Madam[/font]

[font=Verdana, sans-serif]Account Number; xx-xx-xx xxxxxxxx
[/font]
[font=Verdana, sans-serif]Please supply me with a complete and exhaustive list of transactions and charges relating to the above current account, since <date>. Alternatively, a complete set of bank statements for that period would be acceptable.
[/font]
[font=Verdana, sans-serif]I am aware that the information commissioner allows you to make a nominal charge for this service, and you may take this letter as my authority for you to deduct this sum from the above account, up to the legal maximum of £10.00.[/font]
[font=Verdana, sans-serif]
Please be aware that this is a formal request under the Data Protection Act (1998). As you are no doubt aware, you are afforded 40 days to comply with this request or you must request an extension from the Information Commissioner. If you are of any doubt that this information is covered by the act, may I respectfully draw your attention to the case of Durant v FSA, where the judge ruled that bank statement information is indeed personal information and thus covered. In any event, this information is requested with a view to prospective legal action on my part and therefore would be covered under the same act.[/font]

[font=Verdana, sans-serif]I look forward to hearing back from you.[/font]

[font=Verdana, sans-serif]Yours faithfully

[/font]

Littlemiss-lotsofdebt

I worked at a College for 4 years and know that we used to pay travel expenses for our students, could you look into that and see whether the one your daughter attends could help out?

Also, definitely cancel your PPI! I've saved about £75.00 a month just by doing this so its well worth sorting out.

I have pretty limited knowledge so I'm sorry I can't help any further, but just wanted to say well done for having your lightbulb moment and you have come to the right place for support and guidance.

lots of luck & love xx

peterg1965

There will be loads of people along to give great savvie advice to you. My initial opinion is that there looks ot be loads of scope to drastically reduce your outgoings, maybe by £100's. A few 'ideas':

a. Get rid of all PPI's. Be robust with these CC and loan companies and do not take no for an answer.
b. Have you ever changed Gas/Elec suppliers? If not do so, your bills look quite high to me.
c. Insurances: HOUSE/BUILDINGS - have you claimed on these lately (ie last 3/4 years?) Even if you have lok around at switching, who is your current cover with and how much are you paying?
MORTGAGE COVER - Is that actually providing you with anything, look at small print - you could consider getting rid of this.
LIFE COVER - how much is your cover for and how much per month. Check out cavenish.co.uk for cheap term cover.
d. SKY get rid of this is your are out of contract, buy a feeview box for £30.
e. Broadband is far too expensive. If you are out of contract migrate to a new provider. Madasafish are £13.99/month at the moment.
f. CAR - is it worth more than your loan?? Can you get a car allowance from work if you need it for this? If it is worth more than your owe on it consider downsizing to a smaller more economical car - diesel? how many miles a year do you drive?
g. Does your daughter have a part time job to pay for bus fares?
h. Can you claim working tax credits/childrens tax credits??


Hope this helps, if I can offer any more advice please PM me. Well done for posting and I am sure people will offers loads of encouragement/help/advice.

Pete

Murtle

If you are bad on the phone and get talked into things, write on a piece of paper what you want to say and on a seperate piece your reasons why!! Then phone them up and follow your own script, if you feel under pressure then look at the piece to remind yourself why you are doing it. If under too much pressure, just tell them you'll call back. Like all hard things unfortunately it takes practise!! Keep trying, you'll soon be waffling away to cold callers keeping them holding on when they want to get off

x x

lynzpower

Hi there

Cant offer much else but to say your internet is quite high. I get mine with tescos for 17.99 ( plus those clubcard points!!) but there is cheaper than that out there. You should be able to save a tenner a month = 120 per year! :beer:

indesisiv

Hi,
I know how you feel with the phoning and cancelling. I did as Murtle suggested a while back to cancel all mine. You'll be very amused when you get off the phone after hearing some of the things they say to you to keep you.
I just stuck to my guns saying I can't afford it - got them down to a years cover for next to nothing before I said to them that unless it is completely free then I can't afford it. Shame they couldn't quite afford the next to nothing quote from them LOL.

Good luck and don't let them talk you out of cancelling it.

Steve

Bestthingsinlifearefree

Hi Skintmanc,

You have made a good start with your statement of affairs.

Is there any space on your natwest or barclays 0% deals to transfer some of the OUCH 29% balance accross from the debenhams card on to these.

Or to get a low interest balance card ie any thing to get of that 29% rate.

Could you sit down with your son and say mum needs help from him ie explain the situation and see if he could / would pay £300 - £500 a month to help you out even if it was a 0% loan to you if that makes sense.

ie if your son worked hard paid of the debenhams card for you and then you paid him back at 0% it would save you loads of interest and he would get all his money back.

Have a meeting with the kids (they are adults now) explain your finances to them and the situation and ask if they have any ideas to help mum.

You need to cancel all those PPI insurances on those CC if you can.

Just a couple of suggestions from a quick look at your post.

The gap between your outgings and incomings is not impossible to bridge.

I think you can do this.

It is all the high interest rates that are hurting you.

Maybe throw every spare penny at the debenhams one ie "snow balling"! then at the next highest interest rate one.

29% grrrrrrr that makes me so angry that anyone, bank or shop can charge that rate ..its a disgrace that a high street shop can legally rob people with a rip off interest rate like that.

Anyway keep posting. You CAN do this !!!!!!!!!!

I wish you well.

Murtle

blimey, I didn't realise that snowballing hadn't been mentioned!! Was always the first starting point!! Start snowballing, so pay the minimum on all the repayments, and all your spare cash throw at the one with the highest APR, so very important to know the APR's for them all. Sorry just building on the post from bestthingsinlifearefree.

So on these ones

Halifax Visa - £1,839 - 0% Bal transfer till Nov '06)
(£36 min payment but am paying £50 per month on it)

Barclays Visa - £1,372 - 0% Bal transfer till Sept '06
(£27 min payment but am paying £50 per month on it)

You'd use the additional £14 from the halifax and the £23 from the barclays to paying off your highest credit card. It might seem strange as you feel you are getting somewhere when the money goes off the card and it gets smaller, but honestly it does work. There should be a link to a snowball calculator somewhere, it's great to play with, as you can actually see your debt being paid off, it's a shock initially to see how long it will take to pay it back BUT it then becomes a challenge to know the date down. As you'll see in people signatures - their Max debt, their current debt and their debt free date!! They get to change it when they manage (however) to throw money at their debt. It might sound weird, but there's a lot of people addicted to paying off their debt on this site!!!

Good luck

x x x

xela_17

Murtle wrote:

So on these ones

Halifax Visa - £1,839 - 0% Bal transfer till Nov '06)
(£36 min payment but am paying £50 per month on it)

Barclays Visa - £1,372 - 0% Bal transfer till Sept '06
(£27 min payment but am paying £50 per month on it)

You'd use the additional £14 from the halifax and the £23 from the barclays to paying off your highest credit card.

I've been itching to suggest the same thing all the way through reading this thread and then Murtle beat me to it!