Ahh No Money

Plutos_2

Check my bank account today and I'm right at my overdraft limit - it turns out my phonebill was a fainty ridiculous £132 this month. What this means is that I unexpectedly have NO MONEY for the rest of the month (although I have got a freezer full of food, and plenty of credit on the oyster card so i can get round.

I knew this month was going to be a tight one (all bills were pretty high, I had a one off £100 that I couldn't get out of, and THE PHONE BILL) but this is too bad.

Any advice: I've recently started work so am working my way out of student debt. I've been making the minimum payments on my cards + a bit extra to make this happen. This is annoying!

Emmzi

How many days to payday?

Anything you can stick on a 5 day ebay or car boot?

jessicamb

Hi Plutos

Welcome to MSE. Its hard when you leave uni to start work - you think you will be loaded and all of a sudden there are about a million bills to pay!

Theres not much you can do about it this month but maybe use the budgeting spreadsheet to see what your real status is - and if you can try and save up for the one-offs throughout the year rather than having to take the hit in one month

amosworks

Use this time of hardship to motivate yourself to pursue more money-making activities. Have you sued your bank? Have you flogged your junk on eBay? Have you thought about a second job?

Busying yourself with these activities is a good use of your time, and also keeps you too busy to spend the money you don't have

Good luck, I know it's tough, but look for the silver lining.

nelly_2

My advice is............................ shut up!

On the phone that is

Plutos_2

nelly wrote:

My advice is............................ shut up!

On the phone that is

Very true. I think I'm going to contact them to see what on earth they've charged me for. It's never been that high before.

On the bank charges front: i've started to pursue natwest, and have a feeling they are going to owe me a lot of money. I banked with them before I became a student so had a current account as well as my student account. They gave me a £350 overdraft on my old account as well as my student one.

All this means is that some months I was getting charged on two accounts instead of one!

The trouble is that i ordered statements a month ago (The branch people seemed nice so i ordered them in there) and they have no idea where they have been sent. This seems like a tactic to stop people claiming their charges back. Unfortunatly I didn't do them under the DPA so I can't quote a "x days" timeframe to them. I paid £5 for the privilage so am a bit miffed.

I got my father to transfer enough for me to live on until payday (end of the month) but this has taught me that I need to be more responsible with my money. I really hate the thought that I've impoverished my parents for 22 years but continue to do so.

I think it would be a great idea to post my SOA (is it that?) on here. I'm not in a disasterous situation, merely one where my money is not being used in the right way. Hopefully this can change from now on.

Right now I'm off for a nice long run: good, free exercise. I went to the library to read the papers, autocar and the Spectator this morning, all mags that I probably would have bought for myself otherwise.

tawnyowls

Plutos wrote:

Very true. I think I'm going to contact them to see what on earth they've charged me for. It's never been that high before.

Even half that is a lot per month. Are you using a mobile or a landline? Have you taken a look at Martin's article? I've taken our landline calls down from about £150/month to less than £50 by switching.

Plutos_2

tawnyowls wrote:

Even half that is a lot per month. Are you using a mobile or a landline? Have you taken a look at Martin's article? I've taken our landline calls down from about £150/month to less than £50 by switching.

Thanks for that. You're completly right. It was a mobile contract with T-Mobile that allows 200 mins a month. I was going over this (moved away from home so I ring the girlfriend every day!) and getting charged the full 40p per minute.

I've just come off the phone from a chap at T-Mobile (actually helpful, if miserable!) and have changed to a plan that should only cost me £35 a month given the same usage in future months. This should save me £65 a month. I've also registered for the online site that lets you see how much you've used from your allowance.

Second moneysaving act of the day - cancelling mobile phone insurance. Something I should have doine ages ago, but have just sent the letter off. This will save me £5.99 a month.

Third: I have purchased a small pad to write down what I actually spend. I hope this will turn out to be a wise investment despite the massive 59p outlay!

Plutos_2

amosworks wrote:

Use this time of hardship to motivate yourself to pursue more money-making activities. Have you sued your bank? Have you flogged your junk on eBay? Have you thought about a second job?

Busying yourself with these activities is a good use of your time, and also keeps you too busy to spend the money you don't have

Good luck, I know it's tough, but look for the silver lining.

So right. Hobby for the next 2 weeks:

1) Get out all bank statements, credit card bills etc to definitively review financal position HERE

2) RECLAIM CHARGES

The manager of my natwest branch is contacting me on Monday so that is a start on the charges front. If not I DPA them.

Thanks for all the help! Great to see you got charges back!

In_Search_Of_Me

Also a good idea is to have a seperate bank account for DDM's etc so that cash left on your account is your cash & its avoids nasty bank charges...if you open Lloyds or A&L account at the mo you get 50...

Plutos_2

fishface-69 wrote:

Also a good idea is to have a seperate bank account for DDM's etc so that cash left on your account is your cash & its avoids nasty bank charges...if you open Lloyds or A&L account at the mo you get 50...

Thanks for that. I actually opened an A&L account a couple of months ago - its only their basic current account though (only with a solo card!). I think this was becuase I'd just moved house and I was not on the electoral register. I've also applied for a loan in the last couple of months and been refused (I thought I may as well pay off debt rather than just minimum repayments).

Since then I've got my experian report and its not too bad - 387, not great, but not disasterous. My postcode is not the best, and I've only lived here since the beginning of feb and been a simialar amount of time in my job so these are limiting factors. I have missed a payment in the last couple of months on one card, but kep the other up and have got a phone contract i've paid forever.

The question is to try for another account or to give alliance and leicester a ring now i'm on the electoral register. Eventually I'd like to switch (not necessarally to them now they are kicking people out who have claimed their charges back), but have £1.6k of natwest student account overdraft with them, and another £350 in the current account.

I'll look to get an SOA (what does that stand for?) up to give a better idea of all aspects of the situation.

Cheers

By the way in good moneysaving spirit I'd like to help this chap out:

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?p=88034#post88034

He's been charged £181 by natwest in a week and doesn't have enough to live on as a result. they are refusing to give him anything back.

I'm sure I've seen something about it being illegal for a bank to charge you if that would leave you with insufficient funds to actually live on. Is this correct?

I've been reading so much on this in so many places I can't remember where I read it, but it would be great to direct him to suitable information so he doesn't get fobbed off when he goes in.