Laura's 3rd-time-lucky diary

laura2481

wow, just checked my account and the moneys in. I've never had so much money in my account! Shame it's not gonna be there for long. Now, I need to get as much stuff sorted today as possible. Credit cards paid, accounts closed. Money transferred to savings account. All that...

tasha-debt

Can you do the ECDL testing on-line?

x

laura2481

tasha-debt wrote: »

Can you do the ECDL testing on-line?

x

I haven't been able to find anywhere. All the online stuff seems to be the 'coursework' as it were, but then you have to find a test centre for the exam and all the one in the area have either closed, or no longer offer the testing only... i guess because they would rather you paid them the full fee for the full course. :mad:

laura2481

To do:

1. [strike]pay HSBC CC[/strike] done
2. close hsbc CC
3. pay virgin cc
4. close virgin CC
5. [strike]pay santander CC[/strike]done
6. close santander CC
7. [STRIKE] pay ant money owed[/STRIKE] done
8. close Halifax current account, savings account and cc (they owe me 78p! and it will 'tidy things up')
9. [strike]move remainder money to savings account[/strike] done £1300 in account

tasha-debt

I know its money from your loan but will be nice to have savings lol.

I am aiming to have me debt down to a £14k number by March time.......
xx

laura2481

tasha-debt wrote: »

I know its money from your loan but will be nice to have savings lol.

I am aiming to have me debt down to a £14k number by March time.......
xx

Yeah, it will be nice to know that it's there for when I need, instead of thinking 'where is that money going to come from?' I KNOW its there. And to also have the chance now to do this ECDL course, which is looking like it'll be £500 once all the fees and exam fees etc are taken into account. Hopefully will have enough.. but we'll see. First things first clear off the credit cards and close them down so I don't have both

laura2481

laura2481 wrote: »

To do:

1. [strike]pay HSBC CC[/strike] done
2. close hsbc CC
3. pay virgin cc
4. close virgin CC
5. [strike]pay santander CC[/strike]done
6. close santander CC
7. [STRIKE] pay ant money owed[/STRIKE] done
8. close Halifax current account, savings account and cc (they owe me 78p! and it will 'tidy things up')
9. [strike]move remainder money to savings account[/strike] done £1300 in account

Got a few things crossed off today. Will close accounts as soon as zero balance statements arrive/show on computer. Had trouble paying Virgin card, maybe because I had paid the santander card and my bank didn't like making so many big payments in one day, so I will try again tomorrow. It's 0% so it's not adding any to it waiting until tomorrow. I shall figure out how to go about closing my halifax account, it's not really essential but would be nice to tidy up loose ends. Defintely need to close all CC's. Removes temptation and stops my credit record showing lots of spare credit sloshing around

Swinstie73

Hey Laura,

Good luck with consolidation loan, I'm the same as Tasha, I've had a couple and always spent again so please be careful. You should've kept going with the 0% cards though as remember you already probably paid a balance transfer fee. It would've been a good idea to put what you owed right now into a savings account you can't touch for a wee while, then pay them off the month before the 0% runs out, or to have divided the amounts owed by the months left and set up your direct debit to pay that amount each month out of your account, just so that you didn't spend it and/or didn't have to fork out those payments every month IYSWIM. Means you'd get a bit of interest too.

Worth thinking about for your Virgin one!

laura2481

Swinstie73 wrote: »

Hey Laura,

Good luck with consolidation loan, I'm the same as Tasha, I've had a couple and always spent again so please be careful. You should've kept going with the 0% cards though as remember you already probably paid a balance transfer fee. It would've been a good idea to put what you owed right now into a savings account you can't touch for a wee while, then pay them off the month before the 0% runs out, or to have divided the amounts owed by the months left and set up your direct debit to pay that amount each month out of your account, just so that you didn't spend it and/or didn't have to fork out those payments every month IYSWIM. Means you'd get a bit of interest too.

Worth thinking about for your Virgin one!

The only problem with that is you end up paying the loan and the credit card bill. I really just want to get everything simplified. I know it's a shame I've done it so soon after balance transferring but I really should have had the courage of my convictions and done this before balance transferring.
I really feel like it's credit cards have been the root of all evil for me. I just want them gone and buried. I can't add to a loan. I will have to start only buying what I can afford to pay for.... I especially can't afford to go backwards as i would liek to be debt free before starting a family. The number we had in our heads was around the time we were 35, at the latest. A 5 year loan would put that at being 35, so paying it sooner would mean being financially able to start a family sooner... assuming I'm emotionally ready. ever :rotfl:

laura2481

I've just set up a regular payment to one of my ING savings accounts (now called my pay loan early account) for £5 per month. Not much, but it's the most I could safely say I wouldn't miss at all. Over 5 years, that adds up to paying it off 2 months early. It's a start. I can add to that when I'm able