Stuck....

Gemmzie

I'm sorting (well trying to sort) my mum's finances and have come to a point where I'm stuck on what to do.

I'm basically using three cards at present

Egg - (limit £2500) - currently owe = £222 - 0% anniversary rate from Feb, currently 16.9%
Marbles - (limit £8k) = £273.42 - 0% until Oct 06
MBNA - (limit £2900) = £2830.00 - 0% until Oct 06

I have £1530 to pay off these debts which is currently sat in my ISA (best place for it?)

So what I'm wondering is, do I pay off Egg and Marbles and continue paying the one card? And what do I do in October? Do I need to introduce a 4th card?

Ideally, I'd like to get these paid off as soon as possible, as she also has two loans we'd like to consolidate or, possibly move to the 4.9% option using a credit card as a loan?

Any advice would be very much appreciated

*Edited to add*
We'd also like to keep the min payments to approximately £50 if possible

lynzpower

Hi there

Welcome to DFW!

Just wondering , why are you paying off your mums debts?

Loans are seldom the answer, if she has a few already, plus these cards, then unlikely her spending habits have changed. Paying the minimum wont get anyone out of debt quicker.

Whats her circumstances? Is she working

Lynz
x

Gemmzie

Because she's a working mum and not exactly, financially minded. Father is completely useless - the stick it on a sky high card and think about it late type.


The two loans are fairly recent, both of £7k - consolidating father's debts.

She works but can't afford to pay the repayments.

I owe about £1k of the cards myself but as I only work part-time, can only afford to pay £50 per month

nadnad

ok you need to post your SOA ie all your income and all your outgoings - bills etc and all the debt with APRs. that'll make it easier to work out whats the best action for you to take.

Gemmzie

I earn £200 a month

£43 goes on bills (phone contract & laptop insurance)
£50 pays for my car
£50 pays for car insurance
£50 pays for the credit carsds

So there really is no way I can pay more than £50

shazzer22

Is there any way you could work more hours? Do you have to pay any rent? Does the £50 you put as for your car cover petrol?

Sorry to be nosey but it will help to make things a bit easier to understand.

RVK2

As I understand it you are bailing out your parents by paying their debt? Mum took out a loan but couldn't afford the repayments? Sorry but I think they need to take responsibility for their own mess. If you sort it for them they won't learn from their mistakes and so it goes on... what a horrible situation they have put you in. I don't think you should be upping your hours at work, your parents should be doing that!

Hope it works out for you though...

nadnad

are you still at school is that why you're only on £200 a month?

you need to post your mum and dad's SOA if you want to help them - and if they truly want help.

you have £1530 and have said that £1000 of the debt is yours - so use £1000 to clear your debt and then after that the choice is yours as to whether you help them out further - I know you want to help but you're on a very small wage - and this debt has been run up by them. If I were you the help I wuld give them is not actual money - just the knowledge of how to handle their money - otherwise they'll will just continually get themselves in a mess. They need to understand what's happening.

So if your mum wants help then sit her down and work out everything - all the bills, the APR's on the debt, the balance on the loans, their income - post it all on here and we can make suggestions - whether they follow through with those suggestions is up to them.

lynzpower

I completely agree with RVK

Your parents are in fact adults and they need to sort this out themself. Maybe your daed needs to sit down and take repsonsiboity for what going on, not you. I really do feel for you, as you working part time are thinking to sub your dad and his sky high card habit, it just doesnt seem fair or right to me.

Good for you for being suppportive to them, and well done for saving your money, they could learn from you, but dont let them have what youve saved for.

Does your dad work hun?

lynzpower

Any more thoughts Gemmzie?

Sendin hug, cant be easy x

Gemmzie

shazzer22 wrote:

Is there any way you could work more hours? Do you have to pay any rent? Does the £50 you put as for your car cover petrol?

Sorry to be nosey but it will help to make things a bit easier to understand.

I'm a student and can't work more than 18 hours total for health reasons - will pick up as many hours as possible in the summer

The £50 for the car is to pay for it (it's on a loan from a family member)

RVK2 wrote:

As I understand it you are bailing out your parents by paying their debt? Mum took out a loan but couldn't afford the repayments? Sorry but I think they need to take responsibility for their own mess. If you sort it for them they won't learn from their mistakes and so it goes on... what a horrible situation they have put you in. I don't think you should be upping your hours at work, your parents should be doing that!

Hope it works out for you though...

Mum can afford the repayments but the loan should have covered all the credit card debts but didn't - it's my Dad that caused that problem (causes most money problems actually). Hence why we are now stuck - money left on cards and not enough loan to cover it

nadnad wrote:

you have £1530 and have said that £1000 of the debt is yours - so use £1000 to clear your debt and then after that the choice is yours as to whether you help them out further - I know you want to help but you're on a very small wage - and this debt has been run up by them. If I were you the help I wuld give them is not actual money - just the knowledge of how to handle their money - otherwise they'll will just continually get themselves in a mess. They need to understand what's happening.

So if your mum wants help then sit her down and work out everything - all the bills, the APR's on the debt, the balance on the loans, their income - post it all on here and we can make suggestions - whether they follow through with those suggestions is up to them.

The knowledge would be very useful, just need to get some numbers out of them.

Sorry if I was confusing. The £1530 isn't mine - it's mums, the remainder of a loan