How do you do it? Please help (SOA now included)

Luis

Thanks to everyone who has posted so far.

I agree that saving £100 per month is unnecessary, but when I swapped to A&L in January I took up the linked 10% savings account which lasts for a year, and at the time it seemed like a good idea to bang £100 per month away. The only consolation is that in january 07 I will have about £1300, which I can either clear the card with or throw at the A&L loan. I think I might use it on the card though, as that has the highest APR.

I am tied to BT until Feb next year, but have reduced to their smallest packege - I think I will end up in credit soon, and hopefully they will reduce my payments.

Thanks for the tip about having a weekly buget. I think I will start that from September, that's got to make a difference.

With regard to overpaying on loans etc - how does one do that please? I would like to do this when my wages go up - even if it is only £25 per month, that's got to make a difference surely?

moozie_2

Luis wrote:

With regard to overpaying on loans etc - how does one do that please? I would like to do this when my wages go up - even if it is only £25 per month, that's got to make a difference surely?

Hello Luis and welcome

With regards to the overpayments, you can go to the bank counter with your CC bill or use online banking. Your B/card seems to be your highest debt so it would be a good idea to put all your extra pennies on that.

In answer to your original question about how the febt free dates are brought forward, it's with hard work. Although I have a loan that ends in February 09, I want to be debt free a lot sooner than that. I've been doing mystery shopping, ebay/amazon sales, using referral sites such as quidco and pigsback and saving on lots of unecessary spending! At the end of the month, before my new salary comes in, I put what ever is left in my account to the credi card. Last month that was £300, this month it will be around £2 :rolleyes: Every little help, literally.

Good luck with it all and I'm sure you will get the hang of it soon

all_hours

Luis wrote:

Thanks to everyone who has posted so far.

I agree that saving £100 per month is unnecessary, but when I swapped to A&L in January I took up the linked 10% savings account which lasts for a year, and at the time it seemed like a good idea to bang £100 per month away. The only consolation is that in january 07 I will have about £1300, which I can either clear the card with or throw at the A&L loan. I think I might use it on the card though, as that has the highest APR.
.....

With regard to overpaying on loans etc - how does one do that please? I would like to do this when my wages go up - even if it is only £25 per month, that's got to make a difference surely?

You'll need to look at the terms of the loan to see if overpayments are possible.

You're right you should pay the highest apr first - the snowball calculator gives the order and a debt free date -
http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

If you have a loan that you have to pay off in one go - you could look at getting a flexible loan or super balance transfer credit card to pay it off - then overpay on the transferred debt.

What's the apr on your overdraft?

Luis

Thankfully the OD is 0% til Jan 07, which is why I don't want it to carry on past that date, as I think it then goes up to about 13 - 15%.

I have been reading on here about the mortgage pig. I think I will get a debt pig. I am definitely going to have a weekly budget, because I know that this is one of my weaknesses (spending with my eyes shut I call it).

So my priorities seem to be to clear the card and the OD, then have a pop at the A&L loan if I can. I will check the terms and see if that is possible.

Erm - super balance transfer CC? Que?

all_hours

Luis wrote:

Erm - super balance transfer CC? Que?

It's a card that you can use to transfer credit into your bank account to pay non credit card debt. Here's an article about it

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1085355871,12390,

**purplemoon**

Luis wrote:

Thanks to everyone who has posted so far.

I agree that saving £100 per month is unnecessary, but when I swapped to A&L in January I took up the linked 10% savings account which lasts for a year, and at the time it seemed like a good idea to bang £100 per month away. The only consolation is that in january 07 I will have about £1300, which I can either clear the card with or throw at the A&L loan. I think I might use it on the card though, as that has the highest APR.

Your £100 per month would be worth far more to you by using it to pay off your highest APR debt now rather than waiting until January, as by then the interest accrued on the debt will far outweigh any interest you make in the savings account. Martin's advice is NEVER to save if you have debts incurring interest (unless the interest charged is LESS than that earned, e.g. low LOB cc's)

Have you tried applying for a 0% BT card to transfer your Barclaycard debt to? Take a look at Martin's credit card article to find the best BT card available at moment.

If you're struggling to give up smoking how about switching to hand-rolled tobacco? I did that and slashed my fag bill from £120 per mth to approx £24 per mth before giving up! You can buy filters to use in them so it's just like having a "real" fag, but at a fraction of the cost!

Check out the utilities and phones boards for cheaper options there too. Have you checked to see if switching suppliers would save you money?

Good luck!

Verbatim

Hi there Luis,

just wanted to add my good luck and best wishes.