Waveydaves SOA / debt diary type thingy

aimme13

have you thought about working with kids? i know primary schools and nursery's are always keen to employ more 'male teaching assistants' some kids respond better to men but often its an all female environment. Very few men in the industry.

just a thought, but maybe its not your 'thing' its certainly not an easy job!

waveydave

frankiegirl wrote:

your house insurance seems high, have you checked around? i recently switched my home insurance to halifax as they have an insurance sale on and old insurance was 295 per year and now I am payig 162 per year saved 133 by switching

never though about the house insurance being high tbh so ill deffo have a look down that route

waveydave

aimme13 wrote:

have you thought about working with kids? i know primary schools and nursery's are always keen to employ more 'male teaching assistants' some kids respond better to men but often its an all female environment. Very few men in the industry.

just a thought, but maybe its not your 'thing' its certainly not an easy job!

I have but i think ill be hampered by lack of qualifications in that area - everyone seems to want an NNNB, nvq in child care etc - the fact ive raised a bright and intelligent 4 yr old, been involved in local peeps groups etc doesnt come into it as i havent the correct paperwork.

The other problem i have re that kind of work is start time. My wife works nights and due to her job (nurse) cannott gaurantee the time she arrives home in the morning - so to be sensible we have to say i cant start work untill AFTER my son is at school, which immediatly puts off shop work or teaching assistant type jobs.

Im confident ill get something soon and if i cant get a job i want then i will have to fall back to what im qualified to do (which i dont really want to do due to long hours etc)

Biffa

Just a quickie as at work, but what about applying to become a registered childminder, seeing as you're already at home looking after your own?

Contact your local council, as I believe childminders come under the Education department as they are inspected by OfSted.

That way, you could work from home, earn good money etc etc .....

Anywahy, must get on...............

waveydave

Does anyone know how the benefits system works?

Inparticular - Job Seekers Allowance.....

Reason being yesterday i phones up jobcentre + to apply for JSA again after trying 6 months ago. Yet again i got told there was a 99% chancei wouldnt get anything.

6 months ago i applied for JSA after spending since May 02 off work being a stay at home dad. I was told then that i didnt qualify for Income based JSA as my wife earns too much; and that i didnt qualify for contributions based JSA as i hadnt worked, and therefore not paid any contributions, for 4 years. I was advised by the woman on the phone that had i changed the child benefit from my wifes name to my name i would of been paid home responsobilities protection which would of paid my stamp up whislt caring for my son.

SO we went home and changed the child benefit over to my name straigh away and ive been paid home responsobilities protection since the begining of May 06.

Soooooo.... yesterday morning i phoned up to enquire about JSA again. I knew i wouldnt get income based but thought because i'd changed the child benefit over ( as explained to my by the previous jobcentre lady) i would qualify for contributions based this time. Yet again i was knocked back !!!! According to the woman on the phone this time Home responsobilities protection only pays the pension part of your national insurance !!!

So after all that babbling above what i actually want to know is - 1 Is this true ? , 2 - if it is true what have other people done ?, 3 - if it is true how do school leavers or those that are long term unemployed get help / JSA ?

I have an interview for JSA on friday morning but i have basically been told that i will not recieve any cash benefit via JSA but that i will have to go and sign on every other week anyway just so that i can build up my national insurance again. This of course begs the question if i am not getting any cash out of it how can i afford the bus or parking into town every week, stamps on letters etc - So does anybody know of any help in that department ?

Lots of question so sorry, and unfortunatly theres more to come lol

waveydave

And now for question number , about 2000, lol


Looking at my SOA i have several smaller debts to clear.

Carphone warehouse / 02 - £119.25
Norwich Union - £47.44
Masterquote - £54.27
Budget Insurance - £53.86
Shop direct financial services ( kays catalogue) - £168.63
British Gas - £127.25
Capital One (wifes) - £183.24

Would i be wise in tackling these first with money i could make on ebay ?
If i do choose to tackle these first what is the best way to go about it - should i contact them and pay in full ? should i contact them and ask for a reduction if i pay it all off on the phone there and then ? SHould i contact them and ask for statements and then make an offer of the actual amount owed minus unreasonable charges?

What way should i go about it ?

The reason im thinking of those above first is i have put in two claims for unfair bank charges this week and if they go through ok i will be using the sums gained from them to pay off lump sums ( and in some cases all of) from my larger debts

Thanks peeps

itswhat

answering mainly to bump it up the list!
however, I imagine those that kow about these things will be asking about APR's
Personally I would pay off British gas first, then the insurance, on the other hand it depneds on what they are actually for.

Having just paid a couple of smaller debts off, and got the zero balance statement for one in the post today :j I can tell you it feels really good to chip away at things.
Good luck with eBaying.

quantumleap

If you can pay off the smaller debts quickly then of course you should do that. In terms of a general strategy, it makes sense to target the debts that have the largest interest rate first as those are the debts that will cost you more the longer you have them.

waveydave

itswhat wrote:

answering mainly to bump it up the list!
however, I imagine those that kow about these things will be asking about APR's
Personally I would pay off British gas first, then the insurance, on the other hand it depneds on what they are actually for.

Having just paid a couple of smaller debts off, and got the zero balance statement for one in the post today :j I can tell you it feels really good to chip away at things.
Good luck with eBaying.

Thats what im thinking - although the smaller ones wont bring down the overall size of debt down very much it will reduce the creditors down quicker till im only left with the larger debts which i can then chip away at

waveydave

quantumleap wrote:

If you can pay off the smaller debts quickly then of course you should do that. In terms of a general strategy, it makes sense to target the debts that have the largest interest rate first as those are the debts that will cost you more the longer you have them.

none of the larger debts appear to have an APR rate now

They have all been passed on to DCA's and the amounts on them havent changed in over a year or so.

In the past we have had phonecalls / letters etc offering a reduced payment if we can pay it immediatly ( ie we can write of a £900 bill for £500) . Unfortunatly in the past we havent had the spare cash to do this. Does it work the other way round ? could i contact them and say if i pay immediatly will you do me a deal ?

oh and i know its probably naughty but have a look at my auctions - may be something of interest in the masses im selling