Had enough, time for change....

daz2010

OK I'll start by accepting I'm the cause of my debt.

I'm 26 and have grown as an adult to be too easy with credit, finance and overdrafts.

I'm fortunate enough to earn around £25k which is plenty for my standard of living but I have consistently spent above my means for years and it's time to stop.

Since uni I have gradually managed to amass 4k on a credit card and 1.5k of overdraft.

I had a 7k bank loan for 4 years (car) which I have been paying off at £150 per month.

The interest on my credit card and bank account are around £100 per month. These two costs have made it more and more difficult to make more than minimum repayments which has put me in a hole.

However I plan change, and as my £7k loan reaches its end tomorrow I have started a movement to becoming debt free.

I used this site and found that Barclaycard give 16 months interest free on balance xfers and so applied and got accepted with 4k xfer. With the extra £150 in my account from the loan and not having to pay £100 interest on it that's £250 that can now be used to pay off the 4k debt. luckily 4k into 16 months is £250 and so if I just put my credit card in a box for 16 months and let the direct debit do it's thing the credit card situation is now sorted.

That leaves the overdraft. I am going to start making some cuts to try and clear this within the next 8 months, at £200 per month. All I need to do is save (or not spend) £50 each week. Should be more than doable.

By reducing some of my services I hope to be cash positive soon.

So that's my situation in a nutshell, it's going to help having the support of you guys when I feel an ebay urge, or the feeling that a need a new guitar etc. I appreciate I'm not in the worst position ever, but it's not great either at my age, and so just want to sort it out.

Hello to all.

Kepp

Hi and good luck in your DF journey

lornz23

Well done for posting! - good luck! :-)

Oneday77

Good luck. What you may want to consider is pay the £250+ Spare each month into your overdraft rather than your cards.
Then at the end of each month call the bank and ask them to reduce your limit by that amount.
After it is clear you will be saving OD interest, see you have money in the bank and then stick it all towards the CCs
Also rather than box the card cut it up

Getting debt free is a wonderful feeling, I will find out one day lol. However it is a slog so any psycological advantage ie cleared OD and positive cash each month helps no end

nicnoo99

Good luck - maybe you should post an SOA on here if you want advice on where you can cut down expenses?

I agree regarding paying off the overdraft first to avoid interest. Definitely something to consider

daz2010

I suppose that is actually financially the most sound move.

Unfortunately I have just set up the direct debit for £250 each month to keep me on track and I know it sounds weird but I think I need to see that credit card getting knocked in asap as it has been hanging off of me for all of these years.

My interest on £1500 overdraft is around £10 per month, this is due to the first £1000 being interest free and so over the course of 4-5 months it would only be a saving of £50 which would still be great..

hmm...

I've just been through my grotto (office) and collected up probably £200 - £250 of stuff to ebay, all things which I barely use of care about so that's money for the pot this month.

I have an accountants bill that will be rearing its head in January for £350 and perhaps a small amount of tax owed (maybe £100) and so i need to ensure that by January I'm also in a position to pay that and not from a CC either.

I suppose this is where black in the BA would make sense and perhaps I could challenge myself to cover those bills with auction money making them effectively cancelled.

You speak a lot of sense people.

daz2010

I've also just remembered that when i tool my loan out there was a promotion that provided you never missed a payment you'd get 50% of the interest back, this is circa £500.

I haven't missed a payment and so unless that automatically appears in my account it's something I'll chase up. As I dont trust banks I imagine I'll need to dig out the paperwork for that loan and fight for my money, but it's there! Fingers crossed, that would change things a bit.

curlytop12

thats great news about the refund of interest,go for it!