Tell me this can be sorted out?

jo5ephedward5

Hello people – I have had this lunch time how you say a light bulb moment!

I owe around 22K I’m 23 and trying to live on £12 a week after bills in central London – not good as you can imagine!

Basically this is how I stand:

Debts:
Nationwide Overdraft 1 - £1900 (maxed)
Nationwide Overdraft 2 - £895 (joint account with Flat Mate but i owe the whole overdraft)
Nationwide Loan - £135pm
Nationwide Credit Card - £75pm
Capital One Credit Card - £10pm
Black Horse Loan 1 - £155pm
Black Horse Loan 2 - £35pm
HSBC Managed Loan - £50pm

Bills:
Mobile Bill - £40pm
Gym - £35pm
Rent - £605pm

Had a letter form Nationwide to say Overdraft 2 needs to be reduced to £500 on 23 of this month!!
Also owe my girlfriend who has been amazing over £3K – I want to pay her this back ASAP…

As you can see my total outgoings total:
£1140 give or take a few quid.

I earn approx £1200 per month and out of the £60 a month free I need to eat, travel to and from work/uni, pay back my girl friend, reduce Over draft 2 by £500 in the next 7days, try and have a small (yet cheap) social life to stop me going mad also must address Overdraft number 1 as its not getting smaller and Nationwide will ask for it to be reduced next month as its up for review then!

I see my mobile bill is quite high though I can’t seem to get it lower and the gym can’t be cancelled until March as a 12month contract (the cheapest they offer) – having said that I do get good use out of it and it helps keep me sane.

What are people’s thoughts?

I know I could use Pay Plan etc but to be honest I don’t want to if there is another option, I don’t want them to screw up my credit rating that’s taken me 3 years to get back to average and I don’t want to be paying this off for ages as some stuff only has 2 years owing and others 4, at this point I would like to get a mortgage – finally I really don’t want Nationwide to take my debit card a cheque book off me – I had to fight to upgrade from a no facilities account for the past 5 years and now I get one I don’t want to give it back (even though I can see I screwed up etc)

Please tell me there is light at the end of the tunnel?

P.S:

I have to come to me:
£250 Grant from Student Loans (October)
£700 eBay all my stuff like Apple Lap Top, iPod etc (October by the time its sorted)
£?? Bank Charges form previous account (expected to clear Capital One Card and have maybe £1000 over the next 3 months back)

Obviously the above will get used towards the debts but not sure which ones!

Thanks for Listening

Eager_Elephant

Hi,

Your situation can definitely be sorted but first of all we need a true SOA, list your outgoings at the top and debts at the bottom. You are getting further and further into debt each month.

I am sure food and travel cost more than £60pm.

Mobile - when you say you can't get it any lower what do you mean? Are you on contract then you need to go across to PAYG. If you are still in contract then reduce to the lowest package, if you are already on PAYG put £10 on for the month and when it's gone it's gone.

Income - Is your salary likely to improve within the next few months? Caould you get a second job at weekends?

Why can your Ebay stuff not be done until October, get it on there now.

That should give you something to think about, any questions give me a shout

EE

bobbadog

Hi there - why is your rent so high?! Do you have a 1 bed flat to yourself? Share!!

jo5ephedward5

Hi thanks for advice.

Ebay stuff is going on tomorrow, then a week later bidding ends - always takes approx a week to get money in, then a few days from Pay Pal to my bank account - so I’m estimating first week in Oct.

Mobile is contract - was 18months and there is 12left, if i reduce it then i loose my only form of communication with the outside world, i have recently moved to London and all my friends and family live 200 miles away so i like to stay in touch...i will look into reducing the line rental tho…just have to tell people I can’t afford to communicate as much lol

Salary - i get a ay review at Christmas and I’m hoping for an extra £100-200 per month, also get around £500+ bonus in January and £1000+ in June

My Debt isnt actually increasing - the overdrafts are maxed - the credit cards are no quite and they have gone down (albeit by there minimum payment) for the past 2 months, the loans have not been topped up and i haven't applied for new credit for the past 12 months, i'm up-to-date with all thinks except my GF and the fact i need to get £500 for my overdraft this week (i will call the Bank and see if i can defer this by 30days tho, whilst i sell on eBay etc!)

Cant really get a second job as work full time Mon-Friday and in October I start university again one day per week (I have to make up my day out of the office then so evening job is out of the question) weekends wil be taken up by study/uni work.

jo5ephedward5

bobbadog wrote:

Hi there - why is your rent so high?! Do you have a 1 bed flat to yourself? Share!!

lol I do share - its £1200 between us inc. bills - thats cheap for 2 bedroom flat in central london!

the only way i could save money on this is to go in to a massive group house share with strangers and then i would be saving £150 per month ... however i would be living further out for that price so transport cost would go up as i would need to get a tube pass @ £100 a month. i currently walk most days and get a bus (80p) when its raining etc - i work in Zone 1 and live in Zone 2 so its not that ethical to live further out

climbgirl

The gym has to go I'm afraid, you quite simply can't afford it at the moment. Cut the mobile contract down to the lowest possible tariff as well.

Your rent is high, even for central London. I live in a flat share in Zone 2, my rent is £400 a month and mine is the dearest room in the house (nice house too, not a dump!). You quite simply can't afford £600+ a month at the moment.

One more thing, when you say you have a joint account with your housemate, do you mean it's in both your names or just in yours and you share the account? If it's in both your names and you are behind on the payments, then their credit rating will be adversely effected, which is hardly fair. I think you need to sort that out fairly quickly!

climbgirl

I'd also suggest you contact CCCS or Payplan for some further help. Even if you do cut your budget right down, move to a cheaper flat etc, there's not much room for flexibility in your budget. I think you need some help from them to sort your options if things like increased income or a second job aren't an option. Presumably your income will drop if you're going back to uni one day a week?

climbgirl

jo5ephedward5 wrote:

I know I could use Pay Plan etc but to be honest I don’t want to if there is another option, I don’t want them to screw up my credit rating that’s taken me 3 years to get back to average and I don’t want to be paying this off for ages as some stuff only has 2 years owing and others 4, at this point I would like to get a mortgage

Sorry for the numerous posts, but I've just re-read your first post and I think you're dreaming a little bit here....You owe £22K. This isn't going to vanish overnight, it's going to take a lot of hardwork and sacrifice to get there. There isn't much flexibility in your budget and any ideas people have that will make a difference to that (move flats, get a second job) you're just discarding.

The way the situation is at the moment, you don't have a lot of choice but to use Payplan or CCCS. Especially if you're not prepared to look at second jobs, moving house etc. Maybe you need to clear the debt first and then look at going back to uni? Living of £60 for everythign after debt repayments isn't going to be sustainable for long. Ebaying is a damn good start, but unless you've got £22K worth of stuff to ebay, it'll take more than that.

jo5ephedward5

Flat - I have 6 months remaining on my contract so can't move yet, i will look into it and i'm sure there are cheaper places but i cant get one for 6 months, it was one of the cheapest we could get at the time within walking distance of work

Gym - again its a contract so i cant get out of it untill March, i will then loose it but having spoken to them they said i cant do anything untill then - they have put me on the cheapest package they do.

The join acocunt is what we pay our bills from - Flat mate is awear of the situation and is cool with it, its not exceeding its limit and its not abused - Nationwide want to reduce it to £500 as its not got an income

Dam those contractural items!

david_hellier

Yes, it can be worked out.

As the others say you need to supply us with more detail, but according to my calcs with the figures you give you have £4.62 per week to spend on any thing. So in this emergency situation you need to not spend any more than this per week, otherwise you are overspending. I've included £20pm for each of your ODs so ignore your bank balance.

All I can suggest is you claim any benefits you are entitled to eg Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit. NB I'm no benefits expert. Or, you could get an extra part-time job and use this income to spend on food and paying some of your debts. It's important you budget carefully in order to stop over spend; that's where we can help, so let's have the honest detail.

The figures are:


income weekly monthly
self 1200.00
partner







total 0.00 1200.00
276.93 divided by 4.33

276.93 total weekly income

spend weekly monthly
rent/mortgage 605.00
council tax
elec
gas
water
secured loans
TV licence
fines
mob 40.00
gym 35.00
nwide 135.00
nwide cc 75.00
cap one 10.00
black horse 1 155.00
black horse 2 35.00
hsbc 50.00
od payoff 20.00
od2 payoff 20.00












total 0.00 1180.00
272.31 divided by 4.33

£272.31 total weekly spend

Start= income - spend = £4.62 per week

jo5ephedward5

climbgirl wrote:

Sorry for the numerous posts, but I've just re-read your first post and I think you're dreaming a little bit here....You owe £22K. This isn't going to vanish overnight, it's going to take a lot of hardwork and sacrifice to get there. There isn't much flexibility in your budget and any ideas people have that will make a difference to that (move flats, get a second job) you're just discarding.

The way the situation is at the moment, you don't have a lot of choice but to use Payplan or CCCS. Especially if you're not prepared to look at second jobs, moving house etc. Maybe you need to clear the debt first and then look at going back to uni? Living of £60 for everythign after debt repayments isn't going to be sustainable for long. Ebaying is a damn good start, but unless you've got £22K worth of stuff to ebay, it'll take more than that.

Thanks - my trouble is i'm a proud man - i messed up when i was 18 and promised myself when i got clear i'd never do it again - then of course i did it again!

I know i'm going to have to give in an get a DMP - its just hard to fully admit it (hope that doenst sound stupid!)

Uni is free - Government pay for course and give me £250 a year for equipment - plus i have to study part time as its a condition of my job - it also doent reduce my pay wilst i study - however it does preven t me from getting a second job, the only advantage to stopping uni would be the second job but i would loose my curret job and probably not make any where near this salary in another job.

I know it all takes time effort etc - just finding it hard to deal with

Joe