Heeeeelp

evab_2

Hi all,

Am in tears writing this but know its our own fault.

We have just spent too much and now are in that cycling of accruing charges because we're regular over our overdraft and then it all starts again. Am so annoyed with myself because just before christmas we moved to the seaside, made £34,000 on the house sale and paid off all our debts. It was bliss.

We just kept on spending, even though my husband didn't manage to get a job for a couple of months. Now owe £2000 loan and as of today -£3300 on overdraft (bearing in mind I got paid already today, the bank refused to pay my rent £450 and I owe £240 in childcare fees - child care vouchers don't cover full amount) And thats before bills go out (£300) and food and petrol until 15th of month when my husband gets paid.

I know I need to speak to the bank but am so embarassed, need to also face landlord and childminder. We're also just about to move into our own home again in a couple of weeks.

I have already taken action in the fact the I'm starting a second job that pays very good wages, but am waiting for CRB check to return and doesn't help my cash flow. We have also sold lots of things at a car boot sale and on Ebay and Amazon.

Any ideas, or just a hug would be most welcome

Imelda

Hi Evab,

First of all hugs and welcome!

I haven't got much advice to give at the moment, could you post a SOA? There is a helpful sticky by southernscouser which will tell you what info you need to include. It sounds like it is just a temporary cash flow problem, so hopefully we will be able to help you out.

Snaggles

Sending you a very BIG <<<<HUG>>>>, I'm sorry, I'm just leaving for work but please stick around as I'm sure there will be some good suggestions for you. Have a good cry, then wipe the tears away, make yourself a cup of tea/coffee, take a deep breath and think 'Right, today is the day things start to change for the better, I control my money, it DOES NOT control me' .......just don't say it out loud in case the neighbours think you're having a funny turn! Oh actually s0d it, say it LOUD and PROUD!! All the best, please don't lose heart, you will get through this xxxxx

ps Why don't you pop your SOA up so we can have a look and see if there are any suggestions we can make

evab_2

Hi thanks,

Sorry am being thick newbie this morning but what is a SOA? Is it my outings?

Snaggles

Statement of Affairs - have a look at the sticky thread for newcomers by Southern Scouser (it's up at the top of the Debt Free Wannabe forum board), this tells you how to do it. Good luck xx

evab_2

Ok here we go

Incomings:
My wages £1040 per month
Husbands wages £940 per month
Child benefit £62 per month
Chilcare vouchers £242 per month
Not able to get tax credits at mo because they over paid us!

Total income £2284

Expenses

Rent £450
Loan £109.46 (22 months to run APR 15.9%)
Water £35.37
Mobile phones £40 per month (need mine for work)
internet £17.99
TV licence £10.99
Car insurance £35.57
Landline £10.40
Gas 14.00
Elec £46.00
Council tax £97.00
Life insurance £35.03
Petrol £140 (get some back from work)
food £250
odds & ends £50
childcare £320


I'm sure that's all no credit cards or store cards.

Total expenses £1661.81


So really we should be ok but its that charges that are crippling us!

leni

You know you can reclaim the charges - think the website is consumerrights.com

tesuhoha

Right, I'm no expert but I can think of one thing you could do to get rid of the bank charges in a couple of weeks. If youve got a good credit rating, which you probably have, you can open two credit cards, one at 0% say in your name and an Egg card say in your husband's name, (you can delay applying for the 0% one by a couple of weeks after you apply for the Egg card if you like so you are not both applying for a card at the same time. look on this site for Martin's advice on 0% fees free cards.) Then once you receive the Egg card you do a Super Balance Transfer for the amount of your overdraft. (There are other cards that do SBTs but I dont know what they are. SBTs are when you can balance transfer money out of a current account.). Now you will probably have to pay a balance transfer fee on this but it will be better than the charges you have been paying. Then once you have your first statement from Egg (usually online statements) and before you are charged any interest you do a BT to the 0% card for the whole balance. BTW once you get the cards activate them and then destroy them, they are purely for paying off debt. After that, you can tart for 0% cards until your debt is paid off completely. Dont be tempted to use the cards for purchases but they can be very useful to you for paying off debt cheaply.

Kal

leni wrote:

You know you can reclaim the charges - think the website is consumerrights.com

consumeractiongroup.co.uk is what you're thinking of

moozie_2

Right, let's take a look....

evab wrote:

Expenses

Rent £450
Loan £109.46 (22 months to run APR 15.9%)
Water £35.37 Are you on a meter? Could it be cheaper if you had one?
Mobile phones £40 per month (need mine for work)
internet £17.99
TV licence £10.99
Car insurance £35.57 Is this the cheapest you can get? Quidco is a referral site that you could use to get money back at renewal time.
Landline £10.40
Gas 14.00
Elec £46.00 This is fairly high. Have you checked your provider recently through any of the comparison sites? Martin has articles on this.
Council tax £97.00
Life insurance £35.03 What does this cover you for and can you get it cheaper?
Petrol £140 (get some back from work)
food £250 How many do you feed on that? Worth looking at the old style board for ideas on reducing it.
odds & ends £50 Are you sure only £50 go on odds and ends?
childcare £320


I'm sure that's all no credit cards or store cards.

Total expenses £1661.81


So really we should be ok but its that charges that are crippling us!

I think you may find a spending diary useful to see where you 'extra' but disappearing money go to. We were in same position with overdraft in February. We opened an Alliance and Leicester account which gave us a free overdraft and put all our DDs and SOs through it then dealt with the previous overdraft as a debt and paid off some each month until it was clear. No further charges were incurred and it became a much more docused way of dealing with it.

Hope this helps - you can do this!

moozie_2

This it the link for advice on reclaiming bank charges: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/