Please help! first time poster in a pickle!

zootsit81

Hi

Im really need some advice for getting out of debt. Im a graduate who was a little to care free with his money at Uni and as a result seem to be up to my eyeballs in debt. My problem is I have borrowed form a number of sources, and dont know whether its a good idea to consolidate the money in to one loan. I know the general consensus is to avoid this, and it will tie me in for a number of years, but at the moment I have so many people asking for money I cant pay it off any quicker anyway

Heres my situation. I have:

2 overdafts at £1800 each
2 credit cards totalling £1000 at 15 & 20 %
1 gradate loan for $4000 at 7 %

The main problem is since I have graduated 2 years ago my overdrafts are only interest free up to £1000 , and 14% thereafter. With the debt spread out like this, im paying such small amounts theyre not making much difference after interest. So, I was thinking about rolling it all up into 1 loan of £9600 at 7% and paying it off over 5 years. I know ill be paying interest on it, but ive been in the same situation for 3 years now and havent made any ground. I think with the 1 loan at least I'd feel in control.

I know some people may suggest putting it all together in a loan , apart from the 2 overdrafts at £1000 and paying them off bit by bit at the same time, but I dont know if I could afford to pay 3 parties at once

PLEASE can anyone give me their views on what would be the best way to proceed, especially if youve been in a similar situation!!

thanks!

lynzpower

hi there :wave: welcome to Debt free wannabe
your best bet is to do an SOA ( statemetn of affiars) lets see your incomings & outgoings. See southern scousers sticky first time posters.

out of interest What was the grad loan for?

postingalwaysposting

welcome :hello: everyone here will do the best they can to help you and please remember every little step helps in the big picture....as lynz said post you soa and then we can make some suggestions/cutbacks/ideal things... we wont bite, we are here to help

Starry-eyed_surprise

:hello: Hi zootsit81. Welcome to the DFW boards. You are in the right place for advice:)
Just a thought but do you have a graduate account? Martin Lewis has an article on them on the main site. I have one with LTSB which gives a free overdraft facility for three years after graduation, effectively, that's 0% interest 'loan'. It won't solve everything but to borrow a phrase 'every little helps'...:money:

zootsit81

Hi there thanks for replies. Hers an SOA, please note, I returned from travelling a few months ago, I have just started work and will be living in London from September so some things like house bills are an estimate based on friends experiences:

Income pcm after tax = £ 1125

Outgoings pcm :

Rent = £375
Council Tax/Bills= £100
Loan Payment= £113
Train fare = £100
food shopping £100
money owed to £100 - I owe £2500 and plan to pay them £100pm
parents after
travelling
Social £100
snack etc out £40
clothes £10
mobile £25- i do get some linerental back after 3 months ,
equating to about £10pm
odds and sods £25 -

£1088 total

other debts = 2 x graduate overdrafts £2000 each, first £1000 on each debt free for next year, anything over this = 15%

graduate loan £4000 - 7.9% I originally took this out when i grduated 2 years ago to help with debts but added to it just before I went travelling so its stil at 4k. I pay £113pcm

egg card £700 at 15%
barclay card £350 at 20%


As you can see I can just about cover my monthy outgoings, but the overdrafts and the credit cards are the problem . They total £5000 and ive got no chance of effectively paying each one off each month seperatley

My plan was to take second loan, hopefully from my 2nd graduate account for £5000. If I can keep the payments at roughly £150pm (presuming a similar rate of 7.9%)I can pay both loans off each month, around £260 I could be free of both in 3 -4 years.

But my salary doesnt allow for this so I dont know what to do. There's no chance of a pay rise, certainly this year anyway, but i need to stay in my job as its really good for the line of work Im trying to break into. As you can see I dont spend much on social, £100 pm goes nowhere in London in fact. So what can i do?. Im really scared as i cant see any way to pay this back on my salary.

Emmzi

If you can't live rent free with parents, it's looking like a 2nd job in a pub to me?