Advice from those who have done it?

MerseyLad

My SOA is now further below dated 17/05/2006 - thank you.

Now includes actions Ive taken on Page 2 - please check to see what you think. Thank you.

Hi there,

Firstly a brief background.

Im 26 and live in Liverpool. Ive got to the stage now where I really am at the point of breaking, and as I guess a lot of people say...Ive known its been coming, but have turned a blind eye to it.

I owe the following: [note: at this moment in time Im not exact about the APR's]

£7000 to MBNA @ approx 14.9% - Monthly Payment £100
£5000 to Cahoot @ approx 12.9% - Monthly Payment £90
£1750 to Capital One @ approx 15.9% - Monthly Payment £40

I also have 2 loans....one had about £4500 on it at 5% and the other is £7000 at 9.9%. These two loans cost me £298 per month. The lower one is until 2009 and the higher one until 2010.

The depressing thing is my current wage in my job. Its basic is only £14000, and therefore, as you can see this means that a vast chunk of my monthly outgoings are on these debts.

For the last couple of years I have cut down the usage on the visa's, but occasionally been stupid and paid for one off larger items [that i cant afford on my wages] such as a holiday or my football season ticket - always with the intention of paying extra a month to pay it back - but as with alot of people - not actually doing it.

My monthly basic take home, is a measly £950 per month. My monthly outgoings are approximately £750.

Luckily as yet I do not own a house, although my girlfriend [of a long time] will be looking for us to do this in the next 12-18 months. She is aware that I owe money, but I just cant bring myself to tell her the exact amount. She thinks its about £11k....but obviously its not....and with my monthly outgoings taking up so much it puts me in a right pickle.

Im currently looking to move jobs, and in the final stages of interview for a new job - although obviously this isnt guaranteed - its a possibility and will be a basic of £20k start off. Which would ease things somewhat.

Its the visa's that are doing the damage [as always] and I am adamant these will be either given to my girlfriend, or cut up.

The limits on the cards have a slight lee-way so i do have room to move things about a little bit.

The MBNA Card has a £10k limit [why do they give you these mad limits?]
Cahoot is £7500
and Capital one is £5000....so i have room to move bits about as you can see.

Im weary of the balance transfer charges, and I know MBNA charge these.
Ive even asked them could they move this onto a fixed rate loan, but they came back and said "Yeah, but risk based pricing means it will be at 13.9%!!!"

I havent applied for any Visa's for about 12 months since getting knocked back from Halifax because they said [and rightly] that I had too much credit at present.

I have never missed any loan or visa payments, and Id consider my credit rating with experian etc to be spot on in that respect. Its just obviously that I owe considerably more than my gross annual wage!!!

Im a whits end, and Its starting to play on my mind daily now...and thats not good.

Can anyone recommend anything?

I'd love to put in the work an earn an extra £100 a week...either selling things via ebay, or maybe even doing something I enjoy, such as writing about Football or what have you. But I have no idea where to start with it, and although I write snippets locally and for websites - I have no idea if I could earn even a little amount from this or not, and where I would begin.

Im just

BlondeHeadOn

Hi Mersey Lad,
Just wanted to say welcome on board, you have come to the right place. I'm sure all the DFW money experts will be along very shortly with loads of help and advice. There's masses of help available here, but I'm still a leaner so I'll leave it to the experts.
All best wishes
:T

Avogirly

Hi there!
Give us your SOA, including all APR's etc and then we can go from there.
My initial other piece of advice is to tell your girlfriend exactly how much you owe. Trust me, I've been in exactly the same situation and honesty is definately the best policy.
Good Luck
xXx

JAMIEDODGER

hiya merseylad and welcome to DFW board!!!

now you have listed your debts....can you also list all your outgoings a month, food, entertainment, petrol, insurances etc....

then we can see if there are things you can cut down on, even the slightest overpayment can make a difference to your debt free date.....try https://www.whatsthecost.com for the snowbal calculator...paying off the highest interest debts first.

be honest with your girlfriend...if she knows about the debt and your willingness to pay it off, then she will understand that the two of you wont be able to do expensive nights out etc, if she doesnt know she wont be able to understand.

well done for posting and good luck!

MerseyLad

Avogirly wrote:

Hi there!
Give us your SOA, including all APR's etc and then we can go from there.
My initial other piece of advice is to tell your girlfriend exactly how much you owe. Trust me, I've been in exactly the same situation and honesty is definately the best policy.
Good Luck
xXx

Whats SOA?

tyllwyd

MerseyLad wrote:

I'd love to put in the work an earn an extra £100 a week...either selling things via ebay, or maybe even doing something I enjoy, such as writing about Football or what have you. But I have no idea where to start with it, and although I write snippets locally and for websites - I have no idea if I could earn even a little amount from this or not, and where I would begin.

If you have got a talent and an interest, I think you should definitely follow this up. Have a look at the magazines/newspapers you usually read and see what kind of thing they publish. (Even a letter might pay something like £10, you never know unless you check!) Then you could have a go at writing a feature, or an interview, and see how far you get. Have a look in the library for books with advice on freelance writing/journalism, there are loads out there. Or you could even have a go at starting up a fanzine for your team, something like that, although obviously that would take a bit more investment. If you already write snippets locally, do you have any contacts who might be willing to commission something from you?

Avogirly

SOA is a statement of affairs which lists all your incomings and outgoings.

List them here and then all the DFW lovely's will come and advise you whether you can reduce any outgoings so you've more money to throw at your debts.
Also as Jamiedodger says, check out the snowballing thing, so you know which debt to hit first. Good Luck
XXx

Kevicho

A friend of mine started writing for a local free gig magazine and he eventually was hired by a proper paper

try and get your work out there, and if it is good you will get noticed (although no harm in giving some people a friendly nudge from time to time)

fizzel81

welcome to you, i posted for the first time yesterday, it was the first time i had truely sat down and realised even with being on a b&e debt management scheme that things were still not looking good for us we are now hopeing to change to payplan and included everything which for us means no more visa cards etc, it was hard to post i expected people to be very judgemental and basically tell me it was my own fault for basically being stupid, however ive recieved such a friendly welcome and some great ideas that hopefully the future looks brighter for us, welldone for comeing on here i know it kinda takes guts but you will recieve some fantastic advice

lynzpower

hi there merseyboy!

Sit down and tot it all up, and then come back to us. I suspect your still living at home are you?

Tell your girlfreind. If you are moving in together, its something she will need to know, and like SO many of us on here, when we tell our partners they are much more supportive than we think they will be. At the very least, you could bide your time a little more before moving and letting a bad situation get worse.

Well done for posting on here, you wont regret it, and hang around, and soon you will be passing on your wisdom to others, I guarantee it!

CarolinaChiquita

Hi MerseyLad,

Just wanted to say a quick hello and that you are in the right place to get some spot on advice!

I posted my SOA last month and have already shaved a good bit off it (I've ebay'd like crazy ... Though I was lucky as I had some Limited Edition stuff that sold really well/I've been working loads of overtime where its available and I've cut back on things I don't need ... It was the gym with me ... you mentioned you have a season ticket ... could that go perhaps?)

I'd definately tell your misses too - I was in the same boat -, Mr Chiquita knew I was in debt but didn't really know how bad. When I told him it was a huge relief - I hadn't realised but my not telling him was affecting our relationship anyway as I was always so worried about the debt. In the end he helped me out by paying my credit cards off for me and now I owe him the cash but interest free which is a huge help! We were going to be looking for houses in May this year (I still live at home!), before I told him he couldn't understand why I wasn't that interested but he understands now and will wait until I'm sorted out (Fingers crossed it'll be by the end of this year!)

It's good looking for a new job but make sure you don't end up doing something you detest - you have to balance the salary with quality of life and if you are stuck doing a job you hate with a passion thats no good for you either.

Ooh this turned out to be a bit of an essay!! Sorry for rambling on ...

Good luck

Carolina x