please could you help - £19,000 of debts

bestrong

Thanks very much DvardysShadow, Miss Missy, moneytroubles,joeblack066, Tixy, domino9, saxysarah and gonzo127 for taking the time to go through my dmp. To read that I could be debtfree in 35 months is stupendous news for me. I thought I had donkeys years worth of debt to look forward to. I feel so much better already.

I receive £7.91 in tax credits. Sorry I forgot to include that.
I pay £15 per month for 2 mobiles to Three for my son and I. That is where the £30 comes from.
I want to switch from BT to Talk Talk for my landline but am worried about the huge exit penalty for leaving during a tie in period.
I am on a repayment mortgage and am tied in for another 2 years.
My 0% deal with Barclays ends in Feb 2011.
Re child benefit I am unsure what the correct amount is because I have not received it for 8 months as my son moved out twice to his dads. But I have been told it should be sorted out by April 2010 and I am expecting a payment of about £400.
The Council Tax is over 10 months.

We are defo cutting down on gas. I am sitting here without the heating on and I have a blankie!!
The £40 per month was £2 a day five days a week for my sons dinner money. but oddly enough this week he has taken sandwiches without complaint and I have only given him 60p per day.

The £13 per month insurance includes buildings and contents.
Re emergency fund I forgot that I save £8 a month with Tescos and I have about £48 in there at the moment.
A & L loan finishes October 2011 and will I be glad to see that day. The flags will be out that day!!
I cancelled my loan insurance yesterday. Also I am considering cancelling my mortgage insurance which I forgot to include which is £25 per month But I really question if that is a good move. Would any of you do that?
The mortgage figure will drop to £472.82 in May 2010 if I get the £400 from Child Benefit in April as I owe them £188.98 in arrears. The mortgage company phoned me up to say that in October 2008 a direct debit for £250 was refused but I didnt notice it and neither did they until now!! Any suggestions will be most gratefully rec'd. Thank you all you lovely people. But it is looking better already:)

bestrong

Sorry I said dmp when I meant soa. No I am not going down that road.:o

dancingfairy

I thought mortgage insurance was sometimes a requirement of having a mortgage? I would probably check it out as you don't need more hassles with your mortgage to be honest. IF it is compulsory you should be able to get it by shopping around rather than just going with your morgtage company - I am sure some clever person will give you more details on how to do this.
Regarding the 'missed' mortgage payment - I would double check that it wasn't paid - they may have made a mistake somewhere. Can you just make an extra payment at the end? what are they expecting you to do about it?
df

Numpty_Monkey

bestrong wrote: »

Thanks very much DvardysShadow, Miss Missy, moneytroubles,joeblack066, Tixy, domino9, saxysarah and gonzo127 for taking the time to go through my dmp. To read that I could be debtfree in 35 months is stupendous news for me. I thought I had donkeys years worth of debt to look forward to. I feel so much better already.
:T:A
I receive £7.91 in tax credits. Sorry I forgot to include that.
I pay £15 per month for 2 mobiles to Three for my son and I. That is where the £30 comes from.
I want to switch from BT to Talk Talk for my landline but am worried about the huge exit penalty for leaving during a tie in period.
How long have you on the B.T contract? sometimes its worth taking the hit for early cancellations you save money in the long run;)
I think Talk Talk are on a cashback sites (Topcashback have it at £24 cashback) it will be on other sites
if your not sure about cashback sites just ask:cool:

I am on a repayment mortgage and am tied in for another 2 years.
My 0% deal with Barclays ends in Feb 2011.
Re child benefit I am unsure what the correct amount is because I have not received it for 8 months as my son moved out twice to his dads. But I have been told it should be sorted out by April 2010 and I am expecting a payment of about £400.
Hope you get it, it gives you a few more options of what to pay off

The Council Tax is over 10 months.
Ask them to let you pay over 12 months, most will let you if you are struggling with money

We are defo cutting down on gas. I am sitting here without the heating on and I have a blankie!!
Look into swapping to a cheaper tarrif/company...use cashback sites:D

The £40 per month was £2 a day five days a week for my sons dinner money. but oddly enough this week he has taken sandwiches without complaint and I have only given him 60p per day.
I bet your son preferred the packup to school diners:rotfl:

The £13 per month insurance includes buildings and contents.
Re emergency fund I forgot that I save £8 a month with Tescos and I have about £48 in there at the moment.
Money for Christmas and emergency's :cool:
A & L loan finishes October 2011 and will I be glad to see that day. The flags will be out that day!!

I cancelled my loan insurance yesterday. Also I am considering cancelling my mortgage insurance which I forgot to include which is £25 per month But I really question if that is a good move. Would any of you do that?
Thats debatable, check to see if you can get cheaper insurance for both, and if they were mis sold (PPI miss selling)

The mortgage figure will drop to £472.82 in May 2010 if I get the £400 from Child Benefit in April as I owe them £188.98 in arrears. The mortgage company phoned me up to say that in October 2008 a direct debit for £250 was refused but I didnt notice it and neither did they until now!! Any suggestions will be most gratefully rec'd. Thank you all you lovely people. But it is looking better already:)

I've left a comments:A

Are you on a water meter? it might be cheaper, you can try it out for 12 months I think

HTH
Are you on a water

bestrong

Thank you very much df and nm for your kind suggestions. NM I am delighted to hear that you live in a monkery in deepest Yorkshire. Do you get to have your own tree?
DF I bet you're light on your feet.

I need to check out cheaper deals for my home phone, mortgage insurance and about getting a water metre. That will take a few days and then I will come back and update my soa. Also re my overdraft not being free, as someone pointed out earlier, of course its not. I pay £25 per month for my Premier account. I have thought about switching to Halifax for some time to get the £5 per month deal. So I will look into that. On a moneysaving note I have just made 2 shepherds pies to use up my sprouting spuds and 11p reduced bag of carrots from Tescs. Mmmmm tea sorted tomorrow night and one for the freezer. Thank you one and all of you lovely supportive people for your helpful suggestions over the past few days. Sleep titexx

JA1000

Are you defitinitely tied in on your mortgage to a repayment or is it just the interest that is fixed?

Definitely play with the snowball calculator, you have a lot of small high interest debts which you should be able to clear quite quickly so you will see the wood for trees.

As an example, my MBNA was due to take 75 years on minimum payments to pay off, by throwing in an extra £20 per month saw that reduce to 4.

Petrol does seem high, from your car tax amount you have an economical car so to spend this much each month is a lot of mileage. Is this correct?

bestrong

Re tie in on the mortgage it could just be that the interest is fixed for another 2 years. I will find out tomorrow.

Petrol is high. I do mileage for work but I get paid for that.

timmmers

On a different tack from the prior very sensible and knowledgable suggestions...how about trying to raise some cash to rid yourself of some overdraft and/or smaller millstones?

I would have a declutter, find stuff worth selling that wasn't being useful around the house...hit the carboot or local paper small ads with them. If you raised anything from dead money lying around in the form of unused items it would reduce interest in some area, or provide a little emergency fund for rainy days at least.

I would also take a few clicks into the comps forum here at MSE, use that internet connection that you pay for to enter as many competitions as you can ...and you WILL win something in time, quite possibly lots of things as most of us who lurk there do. Apart from being a free hobby it can really boost a dark day when Postman pat brings you a parcel no matter what the prize is, a great majority of prizes people on here win are aimed at ladies ( things that you'd be wishing you could afford but can't at the moment), lots of things are also suitable for pressies at Xmas etc and in the time from now to then I'd be amazed if you couldn't fill your needs for most of your gifts. Since Xmas I could have actually survived at a push on the food prixes I have won...and i am surrounded by various prizes that will become gifts or be sold ..and I hae an all inclusive holiday and weekend away to fit in some time too...a break away is common for comp.
Nice hobby, free...and the compers share intelligence so finding enough to enter is easy here on MSE You have nothing but time to lose, and you never know you could actually win some decent cash like a good few MSErs already have this year.

the total value of prizes I have won since Xmas is around 2 1/2 grand ...not all things I can sell sadly....but can you imagine coming even close to that filling out surveys or even doing some part time job ?

t

DVardysShadow

dancingfairy wrote: »

I thought mortgage insurance was sometimes a requirement of having a mortgage? I would probably check it out as you don't need more hassles with your mortgage to be honest. IF it is compulsory you should be able to get it by shopping around rather than just going with your morgtage company - I am sure some clever person will give you more details on how to do this.
Regarding the 'missed' mortgage payment - I would double check that it wasn't paid - they may have made a mistake somewhere. Can you just make an extra payment at the end? what are they expecting you to do about it?
df

Are you confusing Mortgage Insurance [usually optional] with buildings insurance which is always compulsory with a mortgage?

schoolrunmum

Hello Bestrong-just wanted to congratulate you on yr light bulb moment....things can only go up from here, you'll feel so much more positive to be finally tackling the debt!
Why not pop over to the daily chat thread and say hello? We don't bite,and it's a good place to let off steam/get ideas for debt busting....hope to see you there, SRM xx