Newbie in need of advice

mjh1977

Hey Ceri - it's free so spending hours on here is kind of a moral virtue.

I take your point re 'bloody boilers' - ie unpredicted expenses. I suppose it just reinforces the importance of getting the right loans and repayments that meet your needs, and take account of the peaks and troughs of your spending. Not very helpful - sorry.

You're right about the not getting into further debt thing. I used to be blase about a 1500 overdraft; now I freak if I go below zero. It's all relative.

M

Chortle_2

Re the PPI - if you're really worried, esp about the illness side of things, (and as someone who's been in the unfortunate position of being diagnosed with a chronic illness out of the blue, and suddenly been unable to work... I can understand why you'd worry about it, its too easy to think 'it will never happen to me...') it is normally much, much cheaper to take out a permanent health insurance policy (PHI).

PHI policies tend to pay out a set amount of your salary if you're unable to work due to sickness - normally 75%. That's more than enough to cover ALL your debt repayments, including mortgages etc normally, as well as most of your day to day expenses, which PPI wouldn't cover.

Might be worth looking into. (Although, despite your reasoning, I still don't think a consolidation loan - even without PPI is in your best interests, but at the end of the day, I can't stop you, no matter how much I want to :rotfl:)


A debt £9/10k should be easy enough to clear via snowballing (I've managed it on £41k of debt!!!) - and should take no where near 10 years to pay off. I just don't understand why anyone would want to be in debt longer than they'd need to be!

If you can't meet minimum repayments atm, (and without your SOA, its hard to comment really, but we've been through that!) then you're best bet is to cut back even more - and I know you think you can't, but I'd be willing to bet that there is some room for manouvere in there!

When you start snowballing, it doesn't feel like it's going down very fast, as to begin with, you're only really making the min repayments, or slightly higher. But the longer you do it, you'll be overpaying more and more, and it starts reducing really quickly. It just takes a bit of faith and some commitment.

Whatever you do, make 100% sure that you know exactly what you're getting yourself into, and make sure that you're getting the best possible deal, that'll cost you the least amount of money overall, and get you out of debt as early as possible - so that you do have spare cash to take your neice/nephew out without sticking it on credit!

CLAPTON

on the issues of PPI do you know how much of your payments are going on PPI; even if you feel you need it you could get it much cheaper if you obtained it independantly of your cc or loan provider.

just taking your loan figures....if i undertsand properly £10,000 at 9.9% costs £177 per month for 10 years which includes PPI
without PPI the repayments should be £131 per month so you are paying a amazing £46 per month or looked at another way if you used all the 177 to pay the loan off you could pay in off in 7years 2 months.

just a thought

skintchick

Hi Ceri - one thing that occured to me is: have you got a spare room? If so you could get a lodger. The money is tax free under teh Government's rent a room scheme (up to around £350 a month).

I do it and it is such a lifesaver! I know you might not want to share your ouse, but I didn;t either ( had loved alone for ooh, ten years!) and now I really like it, having someone around to chat to.

Just a thought cos it's like free money!

lynzpower

I would say, be very wary of taking out a loan if you potentially will be on JSA in a few months. I was temping when i took out my consolidation loan with PPI some years ago ( still paying that baby off- fab!) and I fractured my knee in a skiing accident. ( why was I skiing when I was skint? Good question eh?) PPI woudnt pay out as i didnt have a perm job, it didnt pay for temp contracts or set contracts ( eg mat cover etc)
Be very careful. I had to be off my leg for 3 months, meanwhile my payments went on my credit cards. A spiral of financial hell.

Ceri_2

skintchick wrote:

Hi Ceri - one thing that occured to me is: have you got a spare room? If so you could get a lodger. The money is tax free under teh Government's rent a room scheme (up to around £350 a month).

I do it and it is such a lifesaver! I know you might not want to share your ouse, but I didn;t either ( had loved alone for ooh, ten years!) and now I really like it, having someone around to chat to.

Just a thought cos it's like free money!

I do & I don't. I have a mortgage on this house, but my mom has a 50k stake in the house (only way either of us could afford to move). We moved here last year after moving 200 miles away & the spare room is our friends & family room for when they visit. Plus I know for certain mom would never go for renting a spare room out even if we had it as "spare".

I do think it is a good idea & if I lived alone I could seriously consider it,

Ceri_2

lynzpower wrote:

I would say, be very wary of taking out a loan if you potentially will be on JSA in a few months. I was temping when i took out my consolidation loan with PPI some years ago ( still paying that baby off- fab!) and I fractured my knee in a skiing accident. ( why was I skiing when I was skint? Good question eh?) PPI woudnt pay out as i didnt have a perm job, it didnt pay for temp contracts or set contracts ( eg mat cover etc)
Be very careful. I had to be off my leg for 3 months, meanwhile my payments went on my credit cards. A spiral of financial hell.

I did query this when I spoke to them & they said even as a temp as long as I was in continious employment for 6 months then I would be able to claim. And since this temp job is at least 6 months....

But does not appear I am going in that direction......will post in next few mins re this

Ceri_2

CLAPTON wrote:

on the issues of PPI do you know how much of your payments are going on PPI; even if you feel you need it you could get it much cheaper if you obtained it independantly of your cc or loan provider.

just taking your loan figures....if i undertsand properly £10,000 at 9.9% costs £177 per month for 10 years which includes PPI
without PPI the repayments should be £131 per month so you are paying a amazing £46 per month or looked at another way if you used all the 177 to pay the loan off you could pay in off in 7years 2 months.

just a thought

What companies should I be looking at & what are the policies likely to be called?

Ceri_2

Firstly I want to thank everyone who has posted. I had hoped for a little bit of help & got tons, so thank you all :j

I got my Egg statement this morning so I can now give an accurate SOA.

I know you guys will say cut back on food, but pleaase remember I live with my mom who is supporting me as much as she can (well she paid my mortgage when I couldn't earlier in the year), but there are things she likes to have a little money to one side for. So we have a spare purse & food money goes in there each week & should we need anything in the week we use it. It also builds up for if we want to go out one in a while & with my sister coming to visit for easter I am gonna need that back up!

Current incomes is net is £246 a week, so basing this on a 4 week month that is £984 a month.

outgoings

food 80
mortgage 400
bills 120
bhsf 12 (birmingham saturday hospital fund, like HSA, gives you money back on things like dental, optical etc & also pays out if you stay in hosp)
royal london 10.83 (endowment policy that matures in dec 2009)
tv license 11.03
direct line 9.98 (car breakdown cover)
petrol 50
sky 7.5
mobile 10

hair 15
me 30

barlcaycard 70
mom 50
Egg 107


983.34


The bills break down as follows
gas 20
elec 20
water 15
c/t 50 (my half!)
phone 8.5 (landline)

113.5

Ok I know that only comes to 113.50 but we are waiting on the new Council tax bill to come in so over estimating at the moment.

We are on powergen dual fuel and not planning on changing at the moment. our last quarterly bill for both was £262, but this did cover the time we had no boiler & had a convector heater going as the fire also packed up.

Not sure what else I can put at the moment. Hope this helps with advice!

Ceri_2

Debt free date per snowballing, is AUGUST 2010

not good. This will hopefully come down when I re mortgage next year to get a better deal & when my endowment policy matures - not till december 2009 though