DMP, what happens.....

all_hours

total debt 1085.19
+ 2% transfer fee = 1106.90
3% minimum payment = £33

Your currently paying £120 including the £30 to GUS.
If you put all these on a 0% card and assume you pay a 2% transfer fee and have to pay 3% of the balance this would reduce the minimum payments to £63 including the GUS.

Ask lloyds what they offer on transfers - some are 0% for a set period - they have other offers where you pay 4.9% for life of the balance - I think they charge a transfer fee for both.

Catalogues that offer 0% interest usually have much higher prices than elsewhere - that's how they can give you the 0% interest.

all_hours

Bobby81 wrote:

right in last 5 min i have saved 28 pound a month, cancled child trust fund for a little while and canceled 7.99 for pc world. Hubby is phoning his credit card people the 10000 one to find out what offer they have for him and then transfer all payments on to this. I REALLY want to cancel sky and got for basic package but hubby sais we are on a 1 year contract.
We are also phoning our bank and asking for a 1month payment break on our big loan, we have never missed a paymentfor last 2 years so hopefully that will be ok which gives us a chnace to pay off the two credit cards next month the 70 pound and 90 pound one and then will close them down.

I think you can still reduce to the minimum package.

In 5 years when you've paid off all your loans you'll have over £900 a month free to save for the kids.

Bobby81

there isnt much money left for us to live on though is there? If we could just conslidate our two loans the 407 and 180 payments, we would maybe save 100 pound and we could manage, but our credit rating is cr**, no missed payments or anything on it but have moved around a lot and also not on electoral roll register until dec they said.

all_hours

Bobby81 wrote:

there isnt much money left for us to live on though is there? If we could just conslidate our two loans the 407 and 180 payments, we would maybe save 100 pound and we could manage, but our credit rating is cr**, no missed payments or anything on it but have moved around a lot and also not on electoral roll register until dec they said.

It depends what you mean by live on - I've updated my first post to amend the insurances and the child trust fund and you still have a very healthy budget for food, sky TV and £90 left over. Do you mean nights out and holidays?

If you consolidate it won't save you money - it will cost you more in interest in the long run and that's money you could use to replace the child trust fund payments you've paused or pay for future holidays or put towards a deposit for a mortgage.

You could cut your food budget - try to reduce it by £30 a month for the next few months. Take a look at the old style forum

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=33

Do meal plans for the week and only buy what you need to. Cook from scratch as much as you can. If you must buy ready meals - buy them when they are on offer/in the reduced section and freeze. Take packed lunch to work. You said your OH is away for 6 months - at those times you should be able to cut down even more.

Keep an eye on the vouchers forum for money off coupons for nappies and other baby products.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=38

At the moment you're paying £120 off the cards and catalogues. If you get the loan break and pay off the small ones and what you can of Next then switch the remaining debt to 0% you can keep paying the same amounts and in less than 7 months you'll have an additional £120 to spend.

What's the interest rate on your overdraft? Have a look at the past few bank statements to see how much your overdraft is really costing you.

Bobby81

I forgot to write that down, its 18.4 a month. To be honest wit you, i just want to cry today i feel like all weekend all i have had in my head is pound signs and its giving me a serious headache and making me miserable, i need to sort this out asap. You have given me some really helpful advice to be honest, we are going to cut the food bills, my hubby is going away in april to irac or 6 months and i know i can pay so much off when he is away.

all_hours

Bobby81 wrote:

I forgot to write that down, its 18.4 a month. To be honest wit you, i just want to cry today i feel like all weekend all i have had in my head is pound signs and its giving me a serious headache and making me miserable, i need to sort this out asap. You have given me some really helpful advice to be honest, we are going to cut the food bills, my hubby is going away in april to irac or 6 months and i know i can pay so much off when he is away.

You're doing well - you've already made a few changes - it gets easier once you've made all the changes you can.

When you pay off the credit cards the next month you'll get a statement with a few £s interest - you need to pay that off and wait for the statement which shows £0 balance before you cancel the cards.

After you get the cards organised the OD should be your next priority. I put in a payment of £40 per month - so it means the balance will only go down by £20. One small thing you could do is get any Direct Debits you can changed to as late in the month as possible. Also you could pay just the minimum off the transferred credit card balance and leave the rest in your bank account instead?

For your insurances - there's an insurance forum - you could ask on there about any savings you can make on what you're paying.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=21

Bobby81

One small thing you could do is get any Direct Debits you can changed to as late in the month as possible.

What do you mean by this??

all_hours

Bobby81 wrote:

One small thing you could do is get any Direct Debits you can changed to as late in the month as possible.

What do you mean by this??

If you have any direct debits going out in the first 3 weeks of the month - see if you can change the payment date to the end of the month. Some companies set their own dd date and you won't be able to change - others let you choose when to pay in the month.

You might be able to change the date of the loans and electricity bills etc.

It means your overdraft will be at its biggest for a shorter period - as interest is charged daily it could save you a few £s each month.