New year, New me (finally)

thrifty_fifty

Ooh, I'm going to try this penny on the floor hunting today. Mind you OH walks so fast I probably won't have a chance to spot any.Sounds like a good idea though.

thrifty_fifty

Robbing bar stewards Barclaycard. I have a direct debit set up to pay twice the minimum payment, and haven't spent on the card since feb. Got my statement this month and thought the interest looked high, and yes it was £28 last month and £34 this month, the interest rate has gone up from 15% to 18%, and with no letter to tell me about the change, and nothing on the statement. Did you think I wouldn't notice that you cheeky crookers? Think again! You can shove it right up, and you can refund me my phone call too. They messed with the wrong girl, I've got some serious PMT going on today, and let me tell you, they are going to feel to full brunt of it.

Trying to scupper my chances of getting debt free? I don't think so!! This is war.

If anyone else has experienced this, I'd be happy to hear from you.

thrifty_fifty

Ok so scrub that one then, they did tell me on the last but one statement, they didn't send a separate letter they put it on the statement in the same text font as everything else and didn't even highlight it. Well more fool me. Because I didn't check the statement properly, my 30 days to keep my old interest rate and close the account has now passed.

Well lucky for me though that the dress I was going to buy looked awful on, so the £50 i didn't spend on that, is now going to Barclaycard, in addition to the £100 that would normally be direct debited on 18th July.

More fool me for not filing things and taking more notice, but I wonder how they would have notified me if I had gone to paperless statements? I've now started to download and save the statement files for each month off their site, and the PDF has none of the information that the paper copy does.

Well all you money grabbing bullies, you're going to see your profit margins drop dramatically over the next year, because I was a good customer. Yes I racked up £2k worth of debt, but I also paid over twice the minimum payment every month (good), paid by direct debit (also good), and have not spent on the card since feb (v good in my book).

I guess I now fall into that category of undesirable customer (ie they cannot squeeze me for interest).

That dress looking rubbish on me this morning was one of those kind of sign things, and this is just another kick up the bum telling me I need to push just a little bit harder towards to end of becoming money savvy again.

There will come a day when I have shed loads of money sitting in the bank, and i won't even need to use a credit card, but will do to make large purchases where I don't want to carry the cash around, and even then they won't make any interest because I'll pay the card off straight away.

When to going gets tough, I can bunker down good, and they better be prepared. No more interest for you.

The way I see it, I'm spending less and less, not spending on the cards, and paying the same amount off each month. There will come a point where the amounts will start tumbling down. So I'd better get looking for that new better paying job, so I can screw them over even more each month, by paying even more money off, and giving them less and less money. HA, HA, HA, HA, HA!

Oh and PS Barclaycard and Virgin card, when this hell is all over, you can send all the fab new product letters to me you like, and do you know what? It will have cost you postage fees, and will have saved me money in heating, as I'll use them instead of firelighters to get my open fire stoked in the winter. And if toilet roll runs a bit low, I can always divert them to alternative uses.

Soon I'm going to have a nice house with a small mortgage, no debt, and thousands in the bank, and when I do apply for a credit card to make large purchases, virgin and barclaycard and go swivel.

Oh and I know Mr Branson doesn't own virgin credit card anymore, but because it still bares his brand name, I'll not be flying by virgin atlantic or purchasing anything of the Virgin Brand so long as I live. So There!

thrifty_fifty

There, take that Barclaycard! Another £50 on top of what I normally pay off you. I'll adjust my direct debit next month so this one gets more money thrown at it than Virgin now, as the interest rate has just changed. If I get that new job then Barclaycard will be paid off in full by september. Yay!

You lot have had years of creaming free money off me in interest. Well now I'm going bad !!! on you all. Happy new year in 2011 Virgin and Barclaycard. I can safely say what with my contribution and that of a few others on this forum, that it is going to be an annus horibilis for you both next year, and about time too. Lets have you lot feeling some of the misery we have, in being stung in interest rates.

thrifty_fifty

I've changed DEBT FREE WANNABE into DEBT FREE WARRIOR ON MY SIG. Sounds a bit more like I mean it. Wannabe sounds like I'll try, Warrior sounds like I'll go down fighting in my quest to be debt free.

thrifty_fifty

Ooh and I just remembered that on thursday I can downgrade my contract with Orange from £15/month to their £5 package. I hardly use my phone apart from the occasional text message. And when I'm able to start going out to restaurants again, I do like their orange wednesdays so pizza express and the cinema will be back on the menu again.

thrifty_fifty

Queue attack of the DFW blues. Only gets me once in a while, but today got me again. I really wanted to pay more of the virgin card as it has the higher balance. I know I've made good progress, but I just can't wait until this is gone. The whole current state of the economy, the hard cuts that are going to come into effect under the new government and just this ruddy debt have really got a hold of me this evening. It's like a big grey cloud hanging over all the time. It will be really nice for the good times to roll again. I'm probably just being a silly baby, but I was just getting really excited about starting to make a bit of an impact on this lot, and bam they hit you with something else.

I think that godfather quote sprang to mind, which was also v funny when Silvio from the Sopranos used to say it 'just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in'. But hey guys, you know how this diary swings, this is lady time talking, it's late and tomorrow will be a new day.

scrooge2008

thrifty_fifty wrote: »

I've changed DEBT FREE WANNABE into DEBT FREE WARRIOR ON MY SIG. Sounds a bit more like I mean it. Wannabe sounds like I'll try, Warrior sounds like I'll go down fighting in my quest to be debt free.

Love it, Debt Free Warrior, sounds invincible. How about addding an avatar to match your new signature?

Keep up the great work.

thrifty_fifty

Avatar? Know that was a movie, but apart from that what is it, and more importantly how do I get one?

thrifty_fifty

Well as predicted, the morning brings with it a whole new perspective. Didn't sleep too well last night, I was too warm. This house needs to be cleaned but already it feels too warm to start moving a hoover round the place.

Anyway, I digress, I should look at the interest rate rise with Barclaycard in a positive light. I'm obviously doing all the right things to become debt free. Why else would they hike the interest rate or offer me the chance to keep my old rate but to close the account? They're not making enough money out of me, they want to bleed dry those who cannot afford to pay more than the minimum every month. If I did that then I'm sure I would have been able to keep going on like this for years.

Well like my signature says there are only 11 more paydays to go until this lot is gone, and then I need never worry about any of them again. And when I do need to make large purchases, I know that I won't take out a loan for them or rack up my credit card, I'll save up and pay cash. No problem. The hold they have on me gets less and less with each passing payday. Just thinking about it, this is going to be so cool, peeling them off one by one, and finally shedding the skin of the old me. Barclaycard will be gone this year, so will the overdraft, that's two achievements already.

Next year in march/april I will have pleasure in calling up virgin and paying off the final amount and cancelling, and finally in april/may, walking into the bank and paying off my loan early.

And on the subject of irresponsible lending, oh got through only yesterday a 'guaranteed' loan offer from his credit card company.

'need a new car, fancy that holiday, or just want to do a few home improvements?' hang on a minute, isn't that how we all got into this mess in the first place? And how is the new government going to bring around a recovery, when they are still allowed to sell loans etc using that kind of selling point?

OH and I had a good laugh at that 'oh darling all our dreams have come true, now we can decorate the house we are renting for our landlords benefit, we can take that holiday that we really want but can't afford, replace the car with something more shiney, and maybe even get a bigger and even shinier tv'

That stuff may have worked on the old me, but not on this sister. We're wising up to you guys, and you're not going to rip us off anymore.

We are awesome DFWs afterall. Do I hear a yeah?