my first diary post

Apolonation

Today I've decided to try to get a grip with my finances once and for all. I'm single and have little outgoings but about 6k of debt. For all my life as far as I can remember I've been in debt and I just had to give up any idea of ever having a decent credit file or ever owning my own house as a result. I'm in my late 20s, earn about 21k a year and live with my parents still. I think finances are a deep rooted problem with me and impact other areas of my life without me even realising it these days.

I hope to be debt free one day. First thing I'm going to do is make a list of what I owe and then try to work out how much I can afford to pay back to have the debts wiped away as quickly as possible. I have one CCJ which im paying a small amount off each month not sure if I should pay that first or last? Will update soon thanks for reading

willsmum_2

Hey Apolonation!

Welcome aboard! I am new to all of this too! First thing you need to do is complete an SOA at which point the fantastic people on here will be able to give you some really sound advice!

You have made the biggest step confronting your situation and should be very proud of yourself!

I have subscribed to your diary and I look forward to enjoying your debt free journey with you!

Good luck!!

WM x x

Apolonation

Thanks willsmum its really nice of you to visit my blog, just to update on how things went, today was a good first day or I should say few hours. Also really well done on your credit progress nice one on getting your debts down by thousands already.

{if anyone that knows about credit and finances is reading this... and doesn't want to read blog but can spare 2 mins to answer my questions please scroll to end of this post where I have asked a cpl of questions!}

I got my credit report and these are my main debts: -

I may have some other small ones I can't think of but these are the main ones I think.

1. CCJ of 3,000 paying a token amount back each month.
2. Debts from 2 accounts with one company totalling 1,000 pounds.
3. Debt of 100 pound with another company.
4. Student loan debt of about 3000 pound I think I'm just paying interest on this through my tax at the moment.
5. Debt of 3,000 pounds from a current account I haven't used for 4years, but on my credit file this isn't shown as defaulted yet and
is marked as 3 payments late. Even though I haven't been in contact with bank for a number of years.

No.5. is from an account I havent used or had access to for about 4 years. The bank have it as still live though, and only 3 payments late although its been years. I did contact credit file people before and ask them to get it removed as it was open over six years but the bank wrote back telling them the last transaction was about 3 years ago (that was a year ago) so it just stayed as it was. It's still there on my file, but I don't really want to rock the cart by speaking to them so will leave that until last I think.

PROPOSED ACTION :-)

I thought the best thing to do is tackle the debts that will be easier first - so have asked the company that has the two debts (number 2 above) if they will take 60% of what I owe as final settlement and they are thinking on it and going to write to me. If they will I should be able to get them paid in February. The other small debt of 100 pound I intend to pay in January. Instead of paying small amounts of all my debts I thought to just try to smash through the smaller ones with the money I would usually spend on non essential items when I get payed.

So... if they agree to my 60% payment for the 2 debts that the same company have,

My plan for the next few months will be: -

1. Pay back 100 pound debt.
2. Pay about 600 pound back of 1000 combined debt to clear and settle 2 debts.

So that's two things on the go which is nice. And potentially three debts satisfied on my credit file within the next two months or so. It's nice to feel I'm finally doing something about this:rudolf:.

For too long I've ignored these and my credit file is ruined as a result. I thought about going bankrupt at one point when I was out of work but think it's best to pay if I can. The way I am with money I spend it so fast so am just going to pay the two debts above as quickly as I can before I get the chance to spend any money! I spend my money so soon in the month I won't really be much worse but my money will be spent on paying something off instead of being wasted.

One other debt I can think of is a student loan of about 3.5k pounds but thats just taken out of my salary each month (and will take about 20 years lol or more to pay off at this rate I think but I think I'll leave that until last as the rest are on my credit file)

Things have already improved a fair bit this year. About 4 months ago I paid off a 500 pound debt, so that is something I don't have to worry about and it's nice to see that settled on my file. Also I had Experian take off a 8 year old 4,000 pound bank loan that I took when I was 18 - now that's gone, hopefully I wont need to worry about that, so the file is shrinking which is a good thing. The bank never contacted me about that 4,000 pound loan after a few years and were bought out. When I tried to speak to them to pay it back in installments they told me it was in their archives and they couldn't take any payments unless in full, it was about 2 years later I had experian take it off my file.

So it's been a good start, I was prompted to start this by something I read in a book I hadn't picked up for a while it was a chapter about lions and bears, well that was the images the chapter used anyway, talking about debts as predators, the book also talked about the power of a good credit file, and how we shouldn't let the thought of something being so bad, i.e. sorting our finances out put us off from doing just that and getting our finances sorted. It mentioned that some top executives in the best of clothes have credit files that are just terrible - and it really inspired me to get my credit file fixed and get these debts from around my shoulders.

When I think how free I would feel if I was completely debt free, with a great credit rating - that is something worth working hard for. With some hard work, planning and Gods help I think this should be doable
.(in red to remind me why I'm doing this!)

Here's three questions I'm going to try to get answered, if anyone has any ideas please let me know!

Q.1. Do all CCJs paid or unpaid get wiped off your credit file in 6 yrs? If they do, apart from the big benefit of having it taken off my file sooner do I benefit at all by paying off the CCJ?

Q.2. I am paying a token payment towards a CCJ at the moment, once I have my other debts clear - should I contact someone about this and ask to increase repayments? Or can you only pay CCJs in one go? If So I guess I'll have to try to save the amount in full then contact them.

Q.3. Once I've settled all my debts and my credit file reads satisifed for all of them, will it still be impossible for me to get credit? I want to get credit to build my file back up I never intend to go back to reckless spending of my youth that got me in this horrible state of credit unworthyness!


11 years of having no credit and always having these companies hanging over me... feels good to be doing something about it.

Thanks all for reading any tips or thoughts etc really welcome,

Going to watch a DVD now to relax!

Good night

Apolonation

Kind if wishing I hadn't called this thread my first diary post.. as all the others have such nice names... can I change it?

Apolonation

Good news company accepted 60% offer so that will be my first priority now to get that paid to clear two debts from my file.

willsmum_2

Hi Apolonation

If you don't mind me asking, which debt has the highest interest rate and what is it?

Under normal circumstances it is best to clear the debt with the highest interest rate first.

WM x x

Apolonation

i'm not sure to be honest i just got this info from my credit file

Apolonation

hmm feeling a bit less motivated about everything today not sure why, well I have a sneaking feeling it's probabally a combination of some of the following!

• Having knocked 40% off two debts as mentioned earlier so I can hopefully wipe two debts out within two months I find by reading on the boards that if I hadn't made a 1 pound payment at some point last year the larger of the two debts which is about 500 pound could have been wiped out as its over 6 years old! Oh well...
• I've realised that even once all the debts are settled, from what I can see by reading on here, it's 6 years from the date they are settled... so first time I can start thinking about rebuilding my credit with a poor credit card or something is probabally six years from now. I think this as I have a CCJ so would guess would have to have that wiped off and all the defaults off my file even if they are all settled before I'm considered for a credit card etc. I want that to try to start building a decent credit file, so I can eventually get credit worthy again.
• Also been reflecting on how I have zero assets and this debt and no money and am likely not to have any spare cash from my salary as I pay these off for a long time...
• Almost 30 and still living with parents.. in a small house! Can never seem to find a livable 1 bedroom flat for less than 700 pound per month whenever I look and with council tax and bills etc that'll probabally mean 1k a month outgoing on a place to live and bills... I should prob be spending that money reducing my debts but that means staying here longer...

I need to get my life back on track!

Negative post! naughty me... will be more upbeat next time I post!

willsmum_2

Me again!

Have a look at the Up Your Income board. There may be ways on there for you to earn some extra money and pay off your debts a little earlier. There is some seriously good advice on there!

WM x x