Help please...Advice on getting my debts sorted

leekster

Hi, Im hoping you guys might be able to advise me on the best way to sort my debts out. I currently have to following debts...please bare with me.

Halifax Loan £10500 taken over 5 years in Feb 2004, with PPI £256 a month

Yorkshire Visa card £6600 owing
Halifax visa £1750 owing (I have cancelled the PPI on this one)
CITI visa £2000 owing
Barclaycard £1400 owing (I have cancelled the PPI on this one)

I just about manage to pay the minimum payment on them every month as well as paying my phone, broadband etc.. I live with my parents.

I just would like to reduce my debt and currently dont see the end of the tunnel!! Any advice would be gratefully recieved. Thank you.

Broken_hearted

Start by doing your own statement of affairs, you don't need to post it just writing it down helps.

CLAPTON

to receive best advice, you need to post your SoA so the details of income and expenditure can be seen
also for the credit cards can you say the monthly repayments and the APR
have you tried to cancel PPI on the loan? usually it is very expensive as they add it to the loan and then charge you interest on it for the five years.

If you browse the bulletin board you will see examples but the general format is

: statement of income:

: statement of expenditure
this should be quite detailed but excluding debt repayment
: a subtotal to save us all having to add it up

: statement of all debts including:
for Credit cards show: outstanding amount, monthly repayment , APR
for loans/HPs show outstanding amount, monthly payment, APR and number of months still to pay;
say whether you are paying PPI on the loans/Credit Cards

a subtotal of the total debt and of the total repayments, to save us having to add it up

also add a brief details of your situation, partner, any children, rent or own property, value of house and mortgage, any special circumstances that are relevant

leekster

Thank you for the information. Broken down it is as follows :-

I currently recieve £230 a week wage & roughly £50 a month fuel expenditure

Yorkshire Visa £200 a month £6600 outstanding (with PPI)
CITI Visa £60 a month £2000 approx outstanding (with PPI)
Halifax Visa £40 a month £1750 approx outstanding (without PPI)
Barclaycard £40 a month £1500 approx outstanding (without PPI)

Halifax Loan £256.44 a month took loan out in feb 2004 (£10500) with PPI. outstanding would be approx £9000. I have wrote to the halifax complaining about mt PPI. they said I could apply out a new loan without the extra £1000 on top which I was quoted first time I called, and settle my current loan with that and not have PPI on the new loan.

Total debt amount £597

I also pay £30 a month for phone line, broadband and digital tv.
£50 a month on mobile (in process of changing plan to reduce cost)
£16 a month to dell for a sat nav/pda which I use for work
£40 a month car insurance (recently changed car, was paying £60)
£10 standing order into my firt direct account to try save something, even though its only a small amount)

Total £146

Total monthly debt outgoings = £743

I then have general living costs, board, fuel, food, car tax, etc which just about costs me the remainder.

I currently live with my parents again now and have no dependants

Thank you for your advice so far, if there is any other information you require please let me know.

skintchick

CAn you break down your living costs so we can see exactly what you are spending where? It will help us advise you.

leekster

Living costs are as follows :-

Fuel £80 a month
Board £50 a month
Food for work £40 a month
Car tax works out at £9 a month
Going out £60 a month
Magazine subscription £4 a month


as well as the others stated in previous post.

Thanks

xela_17

As far as I can see your incomings and outgoings are like this:

Incomings = £920 (4 weeks wage) + £50 (fuel allowance) = £970

Outgoings = £743 (debt) + £243 (living costs) = £986

Therefore you are overspending by £16 a month. This is not so bad and you could cut this by reducing your going out budget from £60 a month to e.g. £40 a month.

EDIT: Just noticed your ccs (for some reason thought your debts were all loans. You haven't mentioned the APRs or the limits on each. If the APR on one is too high, then you could try transferring some of that debt to a lower APR card (if it has room). This is called the credit card shuffle. Or you could ring your cc company and ask for a lower interest rate.

tigerlily

From what you have put there are a couple of things which stand out to me.....
£60 per month on going out........rather alot, personally I spend £10 at the most now, no boring life just spending wisely.
£4 Mag subs....to cancel would bring in £48 per year...everylittle helps.
£40 food for work.......I spend about £20 per month, which includes am +pm coffee +snack aswell as lunch, all of which I take from home.
Most of the time its not worth having savings if you are in debt as the interest gained is way way lower than the interest you are paying on debts, effectively saving is costing you money. Keep ONE credit card locked away for emergencies ONLY instead.
Cancel ALL the ppi on your loans/credit cards, this can be obtained cheaper by following the advice on this site.

skintchick

Yeah, the food for work is horrendous - more than I spend a month on total food!!! You can so cut that back. Also the going out money is excessive - I go out maybe once every couple of months and spend at most £40 and that's an expensive night, so you can cut this down.

southernscouser

Cancel the other 2 credit card PPI's! Don't let them bully you into keeping it!

Also have a look at this thread about possibly getting rid of the PPI on your loan!

babyblueblue

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I was in a state three years ago with debt. I had to contact a solicitor and his advice was a protected Trust Deed. It lasted for three years. I had to workout all my outgoing, mortgage, council tax, food clothing etc. I was left with £200 a month that was paid every month for three years. I finished on January of this year, so i am now debt free. So don't despair find out more about it. I should have been paying over £800 a month but with the trust deed I only had to pay £200 for three year.

Take care

Tracy