Sick and Tired of being in Debt!

AJLondon

****another update****

Just received a call from Tesco Finance and they have approved my loan after receiving my paperwork the other day. The monies 9265 will be in my account in the next two-three days..

I do have 14 days to cancel the loan..

If i go ahead with this loan this is what it pays off.

O/D 5650.00
My Folks - 2250.00
CC - 1300 (which will leave me with 700 left on CC.. but I will have additional monies from this month to pay more off..

Decisions decisions!

planning_ahead_2

AJLondon wrote: »

****another update****

Just received a call from Tesco Finance and they have approved my loan after receiving my paperwork the other day. The monies 9265 will be in my account in the next two-three days..

I do have 14 days to cancel the loan..

If i go ahead with this loan this is what it pays off.

O/D 5650.00
My Folks - 2250.00
CC - 1300 (which will leave me with 700 left on CC.. but I will have additional monies from this month to pay more off..

Decisions decisions!

If you take the loan make sure you cancel the OD and CC asap - pay CC before folks if possible. But it is important to not run up more debt after taking the loan. Only you can know how committed you really are to becoming debt free;)

TurnaroundSue

Hi AJ, it might be worth snowballing and seeing what that throws up at https://www.makesenseofcards.co.uk and in that you have to put in all your debts and interest rates. They will then ensure that you are paying off the debts in the right order, whereby you pay debt no 1 off first and then minimum repayments on the rest. Once debt no 1 has been repaid you add this amount to the minimum amount on debt no 2 and so on and so forth. It will also give you your debt free date which might not be as long as you think. It might also show that you can repay this before the end of the new loan that you are thinking of taking out.

You are really in the right place. I would certainly encourage you to start a spending diary and see where your money goes each month. I think that getting rid of debt this way instead of the consolidation route makes you change your spending habits and change the way that you think about money.

Keep posting and good luck - I will follow your journey as you travel along the road to becoming debt free.

AJLondon

Guys

On Friday I have made matters a whole lot worse... I am afraid to say I turned to online gambling to try for a quick fix and ended up in even more debt..

Following on from the last post. I checked my account on Friday morning and the Tesco Loan for 9250 had been paid into my account. This cleared my OD of 5650 and i immediatley changed the od limit back down to 100.00 and with the rest I paid off my folks the 2500 i owed them and paid 800 off of my cc. This left me with 1200 on my cc. I left 300.00 for me for the month in addition to any extra from my payday which was due today.

I had approx 450 left over so thought I could spare a little to have a quick gamble with. For anyone else reading this, and please take a look at George UK's diary posts too.. please do not follow me into online gambling. There is a saying that its a mug's game and believe me i was a mug for falling into the trap!!! :mad:

Anyway after 4 hours of winning some and then big and losing it all and trying to get it back I had lost approx 5500!!! and my overdraft was back to 5000OD.

I know it was a stupid mistake and please be as harsh as you want to be. I am an idiot..

So that night i was off out after finishing work late to a friends drink up who recently lost a member of their family. So got a cab 20.00 and stopped off on the way and took out 100.00 on my credit card. got there had a couple, got home and had 55.00 left on me..

Saturday morning woke up and checked my online banking and my 5000OD had been changed to 700OD and a "0" balance!. (part two to follow)

AJLondon

When I saw the 0 balance I knew i was in trouble!. Sat spent the day doing nothing.. didn't spend anything else..

Sunday, bike had a flat tyre and pedals making horrible noise.. took to bike shop and they told me would need unit replacing and tyre and wheel.. will cost me 76.00... only had 55 quid on me and knowing the situation with my bank account knew i had to get hands on some money for the month.. so took out 300 on cc. Paid bike off.. and while waiting took a chance on a slot machine in the bookies and won 170.00 !!! which paid for my bike.. but knew my balance on my cc would now be 1700.00

This morning (payday) woke up and checked my account, my wages 1650 went in and my balance was still 0.00 with 700.00OD.

I had no choice but to go to the bank. I decided to come clean about everything. I asked what they could do. Put ALL my cards on the table. Looked first at a complete consolidation... most they could offer was a loan for 25,000 over 7 years at 23% apr... would of paid back nearly 50,000 so was not an option. Looked at other options but the same problem would of remained.

AJLondon

So asked for my bank account to be changed to just a reward account (no charges monthly) and requested 0 overdraft which was done straight away.

I then asked them to check the records and with my paycheck going and some monies I did withdraw from the gambling site outstanding my balance was 2550OD. Now as I had just changed my bank account to a 0 balance i would now be charged 5.00 per day... so looked at another (3rd) loan for 3000 to pay off the overdraft... which was accepted. I had no other option so went with it over 7 years at a high APR. So i immediatley had 450 in my account in credit.

I took the monies I won from the bookies and the amount left from the cash machine when I drew out 300 (kept 50.00 in my pocket) and paid 400 into my account.

So i was now 850 in credit.

The reason I did that was to pay House Mortgage/Bills/TV/Net 650.00 which comes out tomorrow. Also cc payment 35.00, Mobile 45.00 and personal insurance 43.00.

Leaves me with 77 quid in my account. In addition I run a blog and advertise on there and someone offered me 50usd on Friday for 6 months so took it ... that will clear tomorrow which comes to approx 43.00 quid more which will equal 120.

Out of that 120 I need to pay the mrs 81.90 as we are off to Butlins for a weekend in March for a family members 30th. Owed her for 4 months so wanted it done..

So leaves me with about 70 quid for the month (including 50 quid in my pocket which i never handed over to the bank).. so will have to use cc at some stage..

So I am in a right mess.

So I am faced with 3 personal loans (2 over 5 years = low apr approx 12%) and one new one over 7 years with a high apr and my credit card.

Good thing is that the new 3,000 loan first payment is end of march so the 83.00 wont come out till then.

What a mess!!!


Problem is I am afraid of applying for a 0% BT for a credit card when I have applied for so much credit in the last 4 days...

I will be on here trying to earn/save money and really need your help!

Friday was my lowest point/Blackest Day and to be paid today and nothing to show for it was a nasty shock that i never want to face again.

My plan is to get rid of my debt and try and save some money for an engagement ring.. I need your help!!!!

AJLondon

Just to confirm here is the prospect I am faced with for the next three months:

Wages (approx) 1650.00
House Stuff 650.00
Halifax Loan (1) 395.00
Halifax Loan (2) 83.00(starting March)
Tesco Loan 203.00
Personal Life Ins 44.00
Mobile 40.00
Halifax CC 40.00

Equals end of Feb 278.00
end of March onwards 195.00

Its going to be a struggle...

theoretica

Oops! To say the least.

Can you tell us exactly what you spend your 'money to live on' to see if we can reduce it- a few posts ago you were saying you could survive in a quiet month on £100 and I really think you should aim to put NOTHING on your credit card. You say you have £70 pounds for the month- you need to change your money attitude from 'so I will need to borrow' to 'so I will need to tighten my belt'.

OK you may have problems if you need to buy an £80 travel card or something a month, but it is perfectly reasonable to spend nothing this month on drinks, sandwiches at work (take packed lunches, they are cheaper) taxis and generally things lumped under 'a life'. If you need a socially acceptable excuse blame the US holiday or Christmas. Every penny you spend should be unavoidable.

Oh, and hand your credit card to your OH and ask her to only give it to you if she agrees it is a one off crisis. Or freeze it into a huge block of ice in the freezer.

AJLondon

I know and I will... I just thought i would apply for a 0% card and got refused.. so its at least 6 months to struggle away trying to earn extra money with OT at work and whatever I can make with ideas from these forums.. Also will try and get more advertising on my website (which is free by the way).

I cycle to and from work so no cost involved. I also take lunches to work.. It just this month I will need to use some cc money as I can't survive on what I have but will do what I can to make it happen..

I need to tell her the situation but need to wait for a bit and sit her down.. i don't want her to leave me or kick me out... she has every right to... but i am in a mess and need yours and her help to keep me on track...

I have been impressed with GeorgeUK and what he has managed to achieve...I wish I could do what he did, but its going to take me forever!

AJLondon

Guys,

I know I have made even more of a mess than when I posted on here last week. But I really do want to get sorted. I have a feeling that this could be the most drawn out situation on here... but I am determined to sort it..

I need to clear my debts and at least get engaged to the woman I love...She deserves everything and at the moment with my debts I can't give her anything!