Finally decided to get my life in order and get debt free!!!!!!!

bigt1888

Outstanding Debt

Credit Cards

Barclay Card (Platinum) £2,728.60 (6.8%) £49.00 pm
Barclay Card £1,162.37 (19.9%) £26.00 pm
Citi Bank £4,0000 (26.9%) £120.00 pm
R.B.S. £2,617,00 (1.87% pm) £58.00 pm

Personal Loans

N. Rock £16,834.45 (5.7%) £217pm
R.B.S. £10,201.60 (3.91%) £318 pm
Mortgage £94,963.29 £717 pm
Barclays £3677.49 (13.5%) £160 pm (car loan personal not finance)

Finance

Black Horse £9,000 £156 pm
Santander £600.00 £69 pm

i have spoken today with barclaycard regarding the credit cards and they say that they can put me on a non standard repayment plan which will reduce my payments to £31 and £14 and cancel all interest on the cards until the balance is payed off which i thought was a good option (what do you think?)

citicards have also offered to reduce my payments to £69 with the same deal of no interest provided i give the my SOA

this would of course help with my monthly payment and go some way towards a solution

RAS

Hi

We still have not got everything we need to have sorted out eh best options and since you have spoken to Barclays, there may be no options left.

Barclay Card (Platinum) £2,728.60 (6.8%) £49.00 pm
Barclay Card £1,162.37 (19.9%) £26.00 pm
Citi Bank £4,0000 (26.9%) £120.00 pm
R.B.S. £2,617,00 (1.87% pm) £58.00 pm

What was the limit on each card?

even now, if you have spare capacity on the RBS card, it would pay you long term to transfer any amount that you can from the Citi card to the RBS card.

You have to spend on the RBS card(something that would be paid by the debit card) and then credit exactly that amount ot the CITI card. In that way you owe the same amount but reduce the APR overall.

WASHER

It would certainly help reduce your overspend each month reducing your credit cards payments and freezing interest. It will affect your credit rating so do not apply for any further loans or cards etc.

Do you have an overdraft? If so, please amend your SOA.

Any ideas on the Caravan? Sorry to bring this up again, but without selling the caravan you are not going to make much of a difference to your monthly outgoings.


RAS is right, I would have considered balance transferring the highest APR onto barclaycard but this probably isn't possible since you have spoken to them, and they would have probably made a note on file.


WASHER.x.

bigt1888

all the cards are just about maxed out

the caravan site fees are paid upfront until next april so selling up just now wouldnt make much odds. and i have arranged a few hires over the summer to bring in some extra funds.

the only loan i havent confirmed is the caravan loan which i will try to find out if it is finance or a personal loan

if it is a personal loan then i owe more than it is worth and dont have the option of handing it back so i think it best to try and get as many hires as possible until spring

what did you mean raz about already speaking to barclays as i only sounded them out with no obligation?

WASHER

Do not click on the above post - spam reported

calleyw

Hello,

I don't normally post here.

I saw you mention virgin. Do you use them for telephone and internet?

My bundle for landland and Interent is £23 ish before calls.

We also have virgin mobile sims these are £10 each and we get 300 minutes and 300 texts. Not sure what they offer now a days. And you can transfer the number. We only use the landline for 0845 etc type numbers. Might help shave off a few quid.

I know it does not change the total amount paid. But is your council tax over 12 months. It helps with monthly budgetting.

Also pop over to the oldstyle board for help with grocery bills. There is a thread somewhere about feeding a family of 4 for a £100 a month while making sure you get all you vitamins etc. Linky here and here is a link to a the same thing but laid out on a website. It might just help give you some ideas you don't have to follow the plan.

All the best.

Yours

Calley

Thrifty_Pixie

OK, forgive my harshness because it's all well meant, but back from la-la land...
---
Stats:

£100pm

‘holiday costs are for the site fees and upkeep of our caravan which is our only form of relaxation every weekend and i consider it essential as it covers all our holidays’

£156pm

‘the loans are all unsecured and only one of them is related to the caravan with monthly costs of £150 remaining balance approx £8000 caravan value approx £8000’

'the caravan site fees are paid upfront until next april so selling up just now wouldnt make much odds. and i have arranged a few hires over the summer to bring in some extra funds.'

---

Total expense of keeping caravan = £256 per month

Your shortfall = £573 per month


To make this even vaguely feasible 'a few hires' over the summer won't cut it. You need to make AT LEAST £256 per month REGULARLY.

If you were serious about not increasing your debt you would see that selling the caravan now and taking the initial hit on lost site fees is the most effective move you could make to address your spiralling debts. And they are spiralling, let's face it. Increasing by £573 per month? Not only that but £3072 per year for caravan holidays is pretty damn steep in the first place.


I'm afraid you cannot afford the caravan anymore. The sooner you see this, the sooner that £256 can go towards clearing your debts instead of increasing them. You are making excuses and we can't help you if you're not serious about this.

And please take this as a friendly wake-up call and not an attack

gjs6385

You are making excuses and we can't help you if you're not serious about this.

I think the fact that the OP has filled out the SOA sheet etc and effectively 'admitted' that they need to do something to sort their finances out is a big step.

Me and my gf have been living together for 3 years now and we entered into a DMP with Payplan last year which has relieved a lot of stress, we now have one monthly payment going to them and it is much easier to juggle what you have left i.e. put money aside for car maintenance etc.

What we did was each set up a basic bank account with Nationwide (no credit check and they are shortly introducing a debit card to these accounts) and you can then set up as many separate savings accounts as you like which makes it easy to put money aside.

At the moment our debts actually seem to have gone up but I think this is because some of the CC companies are still charging interest!

I think just take time to digest the information and I can understand your reluctance at getting rid of the caravan as it may raise uncomfortable questions from your kids which you are hoping to avoid.

However, the way I would look at it and maybe say to your kids is that you need to stop going to the caravan for a while but you will go out as a family at least once a month - it doesn't have to be expensive maybe just a walk down to the park or something. Kids can make entertainment anywhere so they will forget about the caravan eventually.

Good luck in becoming debt free.

A fellow debt-free wannabe.

magical28

Hi Bigt

I just wanted to jump in and offer some advice about my expereince with Barclays before you agree anything with them.

They are very sly and can easily lead you to believe that they will help you when actually, down the line, it costs you more.

They managed to get me to agree to a payment plan direct with them (not through CCCS like the rest of my creditors) and promised to freeze interest. Before agreeing I took advice from various sources and discovered they lie and cheat you and they never freeze interest just keep 'reviewing your situation'. I decided to let them go down the collections route and now I am dealing with there DCA who have accepted my payments and have frozen interest.

It will help your monthly outgoings to reduce the payment but you will never pay this debt off as the interest and 'lower payment charges' will be more than your paying. Also, your credit rating will be affected massively.

Just be very careful, is all i'm saying. Take advice from MSE, CCCS and Payplan before making any decisions on your own.

Thrifty_Pixie

gazsharpe101 wrote: »

I think the fact that the OP has filled out the SOA sheet etc and effectively 'admitted' that they need to do something to sort their finances out is a big step.

I'm not denying that he has had 'a' Light Bulb Moment (which is to be congratulated in and of itself), but if the OP is not considering the more painful sacrifices to even be an option, then I doubt it is his 'actual' Light Bulb Moment...you know, the one where you enter DMPs, IVAs, cut down all expenditures, cut out holidays...get serious about wanting to make a change. That is all I mean

As I said, I'm not here to be harsh for the sake of it, but when there is a glaring chance to help someone's situation with minimal aggro to their day-to-day life (which, I'm sorry, but a holiday isn't), then I am not going to !!!!!foot around the subject and tell them that buying value beans is going to suddenly find them £500+ per month.

Meant with the best will in the world