Not sure what to do...all advice welcome!

nat2010_2

Sorry I meant £250/month car loan...the insurance for this car was £50/month so I'm saving a bit now with the new car but annoyed with my current insurers for increasing the premium from £36/month to £61/month for the rest of the term!

sproggi

With regards to your car insurance, were these accidents caused by a 3rd party? If so, contact your insurers and ask them to confirm that your insurance now shows non-fault.
My insurance was still showing joint fault last month, despite my accident being caused by a 3rd party back in March.
Although I have been paid out, it is not until my insurance company have recovered their costs from 3rd parties insurance, that they will remove joint fault.

TITEASCRAMP

The £200 you have been saving for the holiday fund, where is it.?
I agree with the others who say this has to be put on hold, but how much have you put into it so far?
Could this not go towards paying off one of your cc's?

nat2010_2

I have just £200 in my savings...I went on holiday last month with the holiday funds so the saving started again this month!

nat2010_2

I will check with the car insurers this week!

foxgloves

I hope you can get this paid off. It does rather put things on hold servicing so much debt, but hopefully once it's gone, you'll know better than to start overspending again. Agree with previous posts that there is definitely room for cutting your expenditure and throwing the extra money at debts. With that amount of debt, holidays just aren't really a viable option. 200 extra a month into the debts is enough to make a difference. Glad you are going to cancel gym membership. Go for some long walks if you need to exercise as that's free. Toiletries is high too. I used to spend loads on make-up & toiletries back before I discovered budgetting. You could use cheaper brands. Luxury brands will be an option again once your finances are on track. Don't be tempted to keep paying money you can't afford on holidays just to cover up the fact that you owe all this money. If you are really serious about getting solvent, then every extra penny you can put into the debt will see you nearer to your goal. Agree about selling clothes on ebay. I also used to give all mine to charity shops despite having debts to pay. Once I got serious about paying the debts off, I started putting them on ebay & it is surprising how that all adds up. Do you need to spend 50 quid every month on clothes? You probably don't. Buy something when it's needed, not because it's nice or you haven't had anything new for a while. If you keep in mind being able to get a place of your own, then this positive thought should help keep you on track. Good luck!

bennett310

Agree with the above, ebay as much as you can. This method made me about £3000 over 8-9 months, everything that wasn't bolted down was put up for sale! What's the hire purchase for? I'm guessing a new car of some sort.. look at selling the car if its worth this much, a huge dent from your debt. This worked for me and I'm quite happy to drive around in a banger until your situation improves.

As Regards telling your boyfriend about debt, I know this can be difficult, as it was for me when telling my girlfriend, but a problem shared is a problem halved. It will make you feel much better in the long run. Hope this helps.

nat2010_2

Yes, the hire purchase is the car. Apart from a few old clothes I'm not really sure what I can sell on ebay....I don't have my own TV, I need my laptop for work, I use my ipod & camera lots, obviously need a bed and bedroom furniture...everything else in the house belongs to my parents.

bennett310

Clear up any loose ends such as the HSBC credit card and your overdraft first as the APR is likely to be higher than the loans.

I'm sure someone on here will give you advice on selling your car if it comes to that, it was a hard decision for me but it took a good chunk out of my debt, it makes you realise that happiness is more important than expensive cars.

Tighten the belt on your outgoings and keep track of every £10 note you withdraw from cash machines, it becomes quite an obsession!

keep browsing the forums as I'm sure the good people on here will look after you.

nat2010_2

Yes, I'm going to tackle the credit card first then the overdraft then the student loan I think...unfortunately the HSBC loan is just too huge for me to be able to do anything about other than carry on paying the monthly payments. Maybe a few years down the line when the other debts have done I could save enough to pay it off a few years earlier, there may be an early repayment fee though.

I've just worked out on the snowball debt calculator that if I put £700/month (includes min. payments) into debt repayments I could pay the card off by Feb 2011 and the student loan by Dec 2011! At the moment I pay £483/month on the loan, CC and student loan. By using the £200/month holiday fund money plus and extra £17/month I could pay £241 Oct-Jan plus £50 in Feb then pay £344 to the student loan March - Nov 2011 plus £300 in Dec 2011. Can anyone tell me if student loans can be paid off early in this way?

I don't think I would get any money for the car, as it's on finance and I've only had it since March. I need my car for work occasionally and travel on the motorway a lot to my bf's so I'm not keen on going through the whole selling/buying, sorting out finance thing again, not to mention sorting insurance and tax again. Maybe I can do something about my current insurance though?