Its only one card...how hard can it be?

edinburgher

And breathe!

Glad you're sticking with it - I've applied to go back to Uni too (not for a degree thank God!) and expect that my debts might not disappear quite as fast as result.. Ah well, at least I'll only have £650 in fees to pay, not so bad compared to some

scubaangel

edinburgher wrote: »

And breathe!

Glad you're sticking with it - I've applied to go back to Uni too (not for a degree thank God!) and expect that my debts might not disappear quite as fast as result.. Ah well, at least I'll only have £650 in fees to pay, not so bad compared to some

I always planned to go back to uni at 25 but having now spent 3 years since I quit the first course trying to decide what to do with myself still have no idea what I want to study nor where. If I was to go back fulltime I'd have to start looking at applying this year but even though I earn very little I cant see me having the motivation to actually stick to a full time course and work part time to pay my expenses, so the OU is the way forward.

Started doing OU short courses a couple of years ago because I was temping and doing a frankly mindless job (had great fun arguing with my colleagues about ''foreigners stealing all our jobs'' though, amongst said colleagues were a Jamaican, Irishman and Italian, all of whom had moved to England as adults.....) and wanted to do something to keep myself awake at work (night shifts) and my brain active.

Decided last Christmas to stop catfooting about and aim myself at 'something' so currently have a degree plan to work towards as well as a Diploma having gained enough points for a Certificate. Just dropped out of my first 'long' course with them as I was getting poor marks and had no motivation or interest in the topics, but I did choose a subject I'd hated at Uni first time around, feel awful about the money I've wasted though.

Still waiting to hear from the OU about my finance application, should really chase that up next week.

scubaangel

Head vs brick wall time again, work have decided I need to get on with the next level of my professional development, which is a relatively short but intense course costing almost £1k, because I'm doing it for work they're going to pay the course fees and contribute around half of the cost of the study materials, leaving £180ish for me to find - at the moment I have £70 waiting in the bank to come off the card, I'm pretty sure I can get the rest of the cash I need together before the end of next month when the course starts, so am going to put off paying for the materials as long as I can, then when I have all/most of the money to pay for it put it on the card and pay it off on the same day (its a cashback card albeit a low rate of cashback) ideally when I make that payment to the card I'll have a bit more to take off the balance of the card too.
Hmm will def have to think about that one while I'm doing my best to sort the money out.

scubaangel

Well as I needed the course materials asap (its a hell of a lot of reading!!) I bought them on the card, and by some miracle managed to have £60 left from last months salary which has allowed me to pay off the amount I'd spent, sadly not reducing the amount but at least meaning it hasnt increased.

cashless_wonder

I was in a VERY similar position to you, I had £1,400 left to pay off on my Credit Card with less than a month till my latest interest free period was up . . . I also had the safety net of cash stashed in an ISA. After 24 weeks of Payment A Day and bringing it down bit by bit I had that left to clear & the last odd few quid of an old overdraft.

I did 2 weeks of very painful soul searching and a lot of maths, comparing various transfer fees & APRs after interest free periods compared the interest rate I was getting on my savings. It was a no brainer in the end . . . the ISA got dipped into !

EGG has a nasty habit of hiking interest rates, your 7.9 % could become like the stunning 17.9% I enjoyed in my last months with them until the Co-Op rescued me !

The result ? I have now have to top up the 2k I took out of my ISA but I'm debt free 5 months ahead of plan and I now know I have the discipline to save as I used to spend.

Trust me knowing you have a safety net feels good, knowing you owe no-one nowt feels even better !

savingholmes

Hi scuba-angel - do you do the free daily scratchcards, bingoport and cashback sites like quidco - as they all offer opportunities to bring in a little extra cash for limited outlay/effort

scubaangel

Yup saving, I do all of the above, but the majority of the overpayment cash is coming from mystery shopping profits (after the taxable portions are taken off). Thankfully it's looking like I can do most of my christmas shopping using gift vouchers I've saved over the last 12 months or so which will make life easier, and I've applied for a bar job at the pub at the end of my road (when it reopens as a pub/Indian restaurant) have an interview middle of next week so fingers crossed.

scubaangel

Paid off the £175 from the course books today, and am expecting a handful of ms payments this month which should allow me to pay off another chunk later.

Also had some good news about my second/parttime job which I havent been able to get to for the last 12 months. My transfer to a location (and day) I can get to is apparently in progress, ideally I can start attending in the next month or so. It won't be making any major difference to the numbers - we get paid the equivalent of 1/4 day per evening we work, which at my current level works out at about £6 after tax lol, once I start going to do weekends I'll obviously see it suddenly becoming more worth while financially, but certainly cant hurt, and as its in a different town to my home town I can add that to my mystery shopping area before hand.

Not heard back from the pub yet but the place doesnt look anywhere near ready to open so I'm not too concerned.

scubaangel

Well, am back sort of, paid off another £50 extra in the last few weeks but not been working at it too hard, as instead I have been arranging Christmas, should be a simple task with no kids and just the oh to organise/bully in to doing as I tell him, unfortunately the price of getting him to come up here for Christmas (and possibly New Year depending on work demanding my presence) is that I have to go to his Christmas do in Surrey on a Friday, followed by a Saturday night out in London with his mates for his birthday.

*sigh* I offered to pay for a hotel for us coz theres no way in the world that he'll be wanting to leave his own birthday bash to go to the house he rents hours before closing time. But London in early December = 2 night min stays and not too many deals around (at least not a suitable places according to him) so £175 on later we have a friday and saturday booked at a travel lodge...but we'll only be using the room on the saturday.

On the plus side (sort of) I'm travelling down by train so intend to check in on the Friday as I pass through London leaving behind my clothes for Sat night and sunday so I can give off the illusion of having the ability to pack light when I arrive at his place of work.....

But the good news in that is that the entire thing - hotel, train tickets and replacement railcard as mine had expired has cost a shade over £200 and was paid for in cash from my bank account and not on the credit card. But in a most likely misguided attempt to start making some more in roads in to the card balance the last week or so have been spent mystery shopping like a crazy person, still not heard from the pub and its looking to be nearly ready to open which is a real shame, and the transfer has apparently stalled once more.