First time poster needing debt advice

lynzpower

Wiggy

I think the issue is here that you wont be able to pay yur creditors on payday. Its of course important to pay the rent, and your insurances, but your secure homes will have to be looked at, as you can do the whole she-bang much cheaper.

1) telewest. Ive got bt landline (12), all my evening calls & weekend calls to landlines for 1.5 hours for FREE with Primus 2 package. Ive got a freeeview box ( £23) and tesco broadband (18+ clubcard points) So monthly, roughly its £30 as the freeview was a one off. If you are racking up mobile calls, be aware, you simply cant afford them. You could ask on the phones board if there is a pre-dial no for mobiles in which case the calls will be lower cost. You could call on your phone to the mobile & ask people to call you back too, Ive done that, most people have packages on their mobiles with free landline calls.

2) gym. It might be for 2 of you, but honestly you cant afford it. You could go to a council gym ( many very snazzy these days, and not packed) or of course, free keep fit stuff like walking, running, cycling, keep fit videos ( loads in charity shops & boot sales) Not saying forever, but until you can afford it.

Securehomes- If you are paying them £20 a month to budget for you, theres 240 a year that you are paying them to do something that you can easily do yourself.

If you set up a seperate bank account with a free overdraft ( eg smiles not bad witha £500 free overdraft) then you can have all your bills going out of there. If one month its higher, one month its lower the OD will help with that, but of course keep an eye on it. You can have one account strictly for the bills and nothing else.

Seriously, £240 is a lot of money for them to be doing something that im sure you are perfectly able to do yourself.

All the best with it.
Lynz
x

ktkrunch

Look under securehomes scale of charges - almost 40% APR for short term loans! I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole.

tyllwyd

I'm confused about the securehomes thing as well - you are paying them a fee, but I can't see anything about them paying you interest if your account is in credit.

I'd set up a separate joint bank account, start paying the same money into that, and it soon builds up enough to cover big bills and at least you have complete control over your own money.

tyllwyd

Have you sorted anything out to cover your problem in the short term? If your overdrafts are being reduced faster than you can cope with, is there any option of taking out a loan to soften the blow? (I know that loans are expensive in terms of interest, but at least a loan over a couple of years would help you budget to pay it back, and not be at the mercy of banks and what they decide to do about your unauthorised overdrafts).

silverelephant

Telewest Cable Services £120.00

Yeah telewest is for TV, Broadband & Phone

Mobile Phone £75.00

Em - what I don't get is if you're paying £75 a month for your mobile why the @*&% are you using your landline for calling mobiles??? Surely for that amount you are getting quite substantial minutes included per month????

I know we're living in an electronic society now but that's over £200 per month :eek: for "telecommunications" - are you awake 24/7 lol

wiggyuk

I have contacted most of the companies I have debts with and made arrangements to pay them as follows

Securehomes I am £160 in credit so they will take it of this months bill so I will have a extra £160 this month

LloydsTSB Debt £985.39 Payoff £60 per month
Alliance & Leicester Debt £794.81 I will contact them monday and they will arrange for me to withdrawl the majority of my wages and then close the account and arrange a payback scheme I will suggest £60 a month
Adrian Flux Debt £334.57 Payoff £50 per month

Does anyone have any spreadsheets or anything like that, that will help me keep on top of these debts. I have downloaded the budget spread sheet from the site but was wondering if any of you guys could send me the ones that you use too