Finally, my lightbulb moment has arrived........

moosetastic

thats what we thought too

Anyway, just to update, I have decided that my bonus money next week of £325 is going to pay off one of the debts ive got, not a holiday as we wanted. We've decided this because once Dave is working, we can use his first pay packet for a holiday if we need one. What advice do you give about what to pay off first? Do i get rid of one of the smaller debts (the catalogue perhaps and get rid altogether) or do i put it onto my egg card, or tsb card? my egg card is 0% until november on purchases and 0% till feb on balanace transfers. my lloyds tsb is 15.9% so do you suggest i pay some of that off?

ive also had my statements back from lloyds tsb for me claiming my bank charges back, and it comes to a grand total of £1052.50!! :eek: (edit, i added it up wrong! )

kathfisch

moosetastic wrote:

Anyway, just to update, I have decided that my bonus money next week of £325 is going to pay off one of the debts ive got, not a holiday as we wanted. We've decided this because once Dave is working, we can use his first pay packet for a holiday if we need one.

:T Good for you :A You've made the right decision, not an easy one I know so well done you :T You'll enjoy your holiday more when you can afford it a bit better

moosetastic wrote:

What advice do you give about what to pay off first? Do i get rid of one of the smaller debts (the catalogue perhaps and get rid altogether) or do i put it onto my egg card, or tsb card? my egg card is 0% until november on purchases and 0% till feb on balanace transfers. my lloyds tsb is 15.9% so do you suggest i pay some of that off?

Strictly speaking you should pay it off whichever debt charges the greatest interest, but you could pay off one or two smaller debts (catalogues perhaps) for the psychological boost :T You might find that the catalogues are the highest interest chargers anyway, they're usually horrendous rates!

moosetastic wrote:

ive also had my statements back from lloyds tsb for me claiming my bank charges back, and it comes to a grand total of £1072.50!! :eek:

That's a good lot to be claiming back, will really make a dent in one of your debts :T Have you had a look at https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk for info about claiming charges? They're the experts - lots of helpful info and a forum to ask questions etc.

Best of luck with everything

moosetastic

thanks kath!! xx yep im a member of that forum, got the template letters and things from there, so i guess now its a bit more serious, and im gonna have to really read up on it all!!

the catalogue one would be great to pay back, ive got 2, one at £30 per month (£380ish), one at £20 per month (£190ish). if i paid one of these back, id add the money of the payment to the other one to get them both paid off quicker, and then concentrate on the bigger fish!!

I know what you mean about the psychological boost, definately!!

Saying that though, seeing £600+ on my lloyds tsb bill would look fantsatic as well!! hahaha ............................... but the temptation would always be there to spend on it again. at least if i pay a catalogue off, its gone, finito, bye bye and see ya! :rotfl:

moosetastic

update -

i have sent my prelim letter to Lloyds tsb to reclaim my £1052.50 worth of bank charges!! hope this all goes well, and will definately pay off as debt when i get it!!

moosetastic

hi everyone, hope everyone had a good weekend

Just to update, I got my pay rise and and my bonus money, had £1240 deposited into my bank account today for my wages which I'm well chuffed about :j

Need to sit down now with the OH and work out whats going to be paid off with this money. Had a slight snag last week as my landlord informed me he is putting the rent up on Saturday by £5 per week, another £20 / £25 I'm gonna have to find from somewhere. I have informed the council though, so hoping they recompense me on my HB and I wont feel the strain of it too much.

Any advice on what to put the money towards, I would appreciate it

In other news ........... :rotfl: ........... Ive had the usual reply from Lloyds TSB to my prelim letter, so just waiting for the 14 days to elapse before sending my LBA letter, that £1052.50 looks even more tempting right now!!

moosetastic

well, ive just paid my Studio cards bill which was £204.17!!!! GONE!!!!! :j :j

woohoo, it feels so good!!!! :rotfl:

moosetastic

hiya, well, having a bit of a crappy day, thought i would share it with you all.

had to send in my tax credit renewal before the end of august, i phoned them last week to get it sorted,

got reply today, and it turns out that we have been overpaid, and now they are gonna take £45 a month off of us, and so, from next week, my tax credits will reduce from just over £60 per month to 14.......... ................

this is a lot of money to someone with one income coming in, I really don't know how to feel now............. it was only yesterday I was saying to my OH that I was feeling more relaxed about things, but now Im not, stress levels have risen yet again, just feel ilke its never ending.............


sorry everyone............

bikerqueen

oh that's rubbish. so we need to find another £12 per week? paper round?

moosetastic

seriously dont know what to do now. need to think of some way to earn some extra money. ive signed up to pigsback, and online surveys, but its taking an age to get anything from them.

Because im on light duties at work because of the stress, I cant do overtime (which would be about £70 for a saturday). I could get another job, but wouldnt it hit me on tax and things, plus the little bit of WTC I'm getting would probably stop?

Why is it that when things just start to go right, something always happens to smack you back down again........ my OH doesnt want me to talk about money problems in front of him, says its pressurising him to find work, and making him guilty that he cant get a job. ive agreed to not talk about it with him, but its driving me mad, not being to able to say how im feeling, the worries ive got, the stress ive got bottled up in me. hope you lot dont mind me babbling away on here

Ali-OK

Hi

Have read through the thread and ((hugs)) to you. Also wondered if you'd re-considered changing your Plat current account to the Classic Plus. You would save the £15 a month fee, particularly with the recent bad news you've had on rent and tax credits.

I used to have the Plat Plus account, but changed to the Classic Plus in April and haven't missed any of the "benefits" it gave. It's an easy one step phone call and they'll do it over the phone for you. You keep account and pin numbers, just get sent a new debit card (OK, so it's a manky blue/green mix compared to the nice silver coloured one , but it's a free account if you're in credit)

If you need a fee free account with a free O/D, have you thought about applying for the A&L Account? With the Referrer Scheme you could get an extra £50, plus 12 months OD at 0%.