Help required in debt dont know what too do

mrcorsa

hello everyboby me and my partner have decided too add up our debts and try and sort the mess that we are in i've read alot of posts here and figured it was our time in needing ALOT of help.

below is a list of our income and debts

Monthly Incomings:

Benefits £1093.52 (4 weekly)

Monthly Outgoings:

Gas - £26
Electric - £30
Water - £30
TV License - £10.99
Sky £37
Phone - £40
Food - £300
broadband - £20
extened repair protection £5.81
mobile £19

Total : £518.80

Debts :Mine

MINT LOAN BALANCE £7,990 - £228 MONTH 10.5% APR

BARCLAYCARD BALANCE £4500 19.9% APR

MINT CC BALANCE £800 APR UNKNOWN AT MO

STORE CARD BALANCE £743 ON BUYNOWPAY NEXT YEAR

HOME SHOPPING CAT - BALANCE £1029 (£917 ON BNPL NEXT YEAR)

TOTAL = £14,262


Partners Debt

BARCLAYCARD BALANCE £3500 22.9% APR

CAPITAL ONE CC BALANCE £1991.64 27.2% APR

STORE CARD BALANCE £1780 26.49% APR

STORE CARD 2 BALANCE £241 25.6% APR

MANY HOME SHOPPING CATALOGUE

CATALOGUE A BALANCE £1380
CATALOGUE B BALANCE £1393
CATALOGUE C BALANCE £566
CATALOGUE D BALANCE £1063
CATALOGUE E BALANCE £273

TOTAL = £12,187


TOTAL FOR BOTH OF US = £26,450

thats all the infomaton i can think of at the moment if anyone of you great money savers can help us any advice is gratefull

Mizz_Pink

Hello,

Welcome to MSE , there are lots of really nice people on here who will be able to give you lots of good advice. Pls be prepared that some luxury's might have to go like Sky as thats is what some people will suggest.

Some of your APR's are huge and Ideally these need to be transfered onto a 0% credit card though how you will get one on benefits I'm not sure. Then again you both have been given these cards and loans in the first place.

Do either of you work ? If not then I think this needs to be addressed otherwise I'm, not sure how you will improve things.

Food bill is quite high, is this just for 2 people ? If you are home all day then you can cook proper meals from scratch this should help gets costs down. Have a look at the BBC website for Recipe ideas.

Obviously all the store cards and credit cards need to be cut up if you havent done that already.

Well done for realising something needs doing to tackle your debts.

Mizz_Pink

Also your phone, Sky and broadband can all be lumped together, i'm not sure if its NTL or BT who offer this, it should reduce this bill of £97.

You also havent included going out, drinks at the pub, haircuts, clothes, birthday presents, prescriptions, car expenses.

magicmaria

Benefits £1093.52 (4 weekly)

£273.38 a week without having to work - how do you manage to claim all this??????????????

mrcorsa

we can't be employed cus of situation so our income is not changable
yes i know we have luxurys like sky and broadband but we dont use alot or any money going pubs or eating out so we do need some entertainment.
there is 1 child in the family so food bill includes them also includes taxi costs to and from local asda. £300 is the most we would spend £250 is adverage some times as low as £200 all depends on what is needed at the time

as of the moment come cards are not useable but others we have to use to buy essentials then pay the cash we get on the cards very hard to get out of this and never ending problem this is why we are asking for help

thanks for your comments so far keep them coming

wullieb1

magicmaria wrote:

Benefits £1093.52 (4 weekly)

£273.38 a week without having to work - how do you manage to claim all this??????????????

That is nowt to do wi you i'm afraid.

OP

First thing to get rid of is sky.

Can you post a more thorough SOA??

mrcorsa

magicmaria wrote:

Benefits £1093.52 (4 weekly)

£273.38 a week without having to work - how do you manage to claim all this??????????????

is that relevent to the matter dont mean to be rude but thats not going to help

mrcorsa

wullieb1 wrote:

That is nowt to do wi you i'm afraid.

OP

First thing to get rid of is sky.

Can you post a more thorough SOA??

SOA means nothing to mean could you explain

magicmaria

wrote:

That is nowt to do wi you i'm afraid.

Surely anyone who had an alternative to working 60 hrs a week and receiving roughly the same from the state would be interested???????????

mrcorsa

magicmaria wrote:

That is nowt to do wi you i'm afraid.

Surely anyone who had an alternative to working 60 hrs a week and receiving roughly the same from the state would be interested???????????

are you disabled no cus it seems your able to work we are not. would love to be able to get out to work this is not the topic we are dissussing

briona

mrcorsa wrote:

hello everyboby me and my partner have decided too add up our debts and try and sort the mess that we are in i've read alot of posts here and figured it was our time in needing ALOT of help.

below is a list of our income and debts

Monthly Incomings:

Benefits £1093.52 (4 weekly)

Monthly Outgoings:

Gas - £26
Electric - £30
Water - £30
TV License - £10.99
Sky £37
Phone - £40
Food - £300
broadband - £20
extened repair protection £5.81
mobile £19

Total : £518.80

Debts :Mine

MINT LOAN BALANCE £7,990 - £228 MONTH 10.5% APR

BARCLAYCARD BALANCE £4500 19.9% APR

MINT CC BALANCE £800 APR UNKNOWN AT MO

STORE CARD BALANCE £743 ON BUYNOWPAY NEXT YEAR

HOME SHOPPING CAT - BALANCE £1029 (£917 ON BNPL NEXT YEAR)

TOTAL = £14,262


Partners Debt

BARCLAYCARD BALANCE £3500 22.9% APR

CAPITAL ONE CC BALANCE £1991.64 27.2% APR

STORE CARD BALANCE £1780 26.49% APR

STORE CARD 2 BALANCE £241 25.6% APR

MANY HOME SHOPPING CATALOGUE

CATALOGUE A BALANCE £1380
CATALOGUE B BALANCE £1393
CATALOGUE C BALANCE £566
CATALOGUE D BALANCE £1063
CATALOGUE E BALANCE £273

TOTAL = £12,187


TOTAL FOR BOTH OF US = £26,450

thats all the infomaton i can think of at the moment if anyone of you great money savers can help us any advice is gratefull

Hi MrCorsa and welcome to MSE!

The first thing I can see is that the food bill of £300pm for two people plus a child is pretty high. This is almost a third of your monthly income – why mot visit the Old Style board for tips on reducing this and making your money go further? [http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=33]

The APRs on your debts are pretty high, but with benefits as the sole income and so many debts already, you will probably not have much luck in reducing these. The catalogue debts are likely to be among those with the highest APRs [typically 29.9%] meaning that for every £100 you owe, it will cost you £129.90. By reducing your food bill, by say £100, you would be able to throw a bit more at the catalogues. Catalogues E and C with balances of £273 and £566 respectively would be the easiest to clear soonest and would make you feel better in that you would have two less debts.

After the catalogues you would need to prioritise clearing your partner's store card debts... Again the store card with the balance of £241 should be relatively quick to clear. The important thing is not to continue to run on further debts on these cards.

Hope that helps.

Briona