in it up to my eyeballs

steveouk

hi there well i am just looking for a bit of advice regarding credit card debt, i am trying to tackle it head on myself and need to be really strict wih my self and every penny i spend but it is so so hard changing how i spend. i just did not think it was so bad.

i have
£1900 on a virgin card at 2.9% for life of the balance
£2000 on a 13months interest free with nationwide.
£150 on a santander card just about to finish interest free peiod.
and £490 on Marks and Spencer credit card.

I have around £300 in my current account at the moment. Once i get my latest expences paid in i will have an additional £200 plus £1200 pay at the end of the month, i live with my girlfriend and with my contribution to the bills inc mortgage and including my outgoings i pay out around £750 a month.

I am really really trying to spend as little as possible and i go to sea for 4 months next week with the merchant navy so that is good in terms of not being able to spend a lot of money.

my first priority is to pay off the santander and marks cards and also see if my girlfriend will let me use some spare loan money to pay off the virgin card then pay that back into our savings account. how does these things sound for a plan?? anything else to add please?

onlypaddy

I reckon your best bet is to post an SOA (http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html) on the debt free wannabe board. This will total all of your incomings and outgoings and advise you which debt to target first. They are experts on that board of areas to cut back.

[Deleted User]

Paying off Santander and M&S is good. But be wary of paying off the Virgin next. When your Nationwide deal comes to an end, that will move to the go to rate - some maybe something in the 20s?

If you think you'll still have a balance after that ends, then think about paying off the Nationwide instead and leave the Virigin at 2.9%, which shouldn''t be a big problem.

steveouk

had a quick look at that website and there is not a lot i can cut back on i know i need to cut down my everyday spending such as the too much money spent on drinking or getting a bus or texi when i could walk too many meals out etc.

i look back over the last few months and think how many things i have bought that i should not have done but whats done is done and i just need to be disaplined from now on. i have set and intend to keep to a much reduced budget for christmas presents this year.

will look at paying off nationwide maybe in when the period comes to an end. will try to save and reduce spending over the next 4 months and pay off a chunk off each of the debts starting with the highest interest rate each month once outgoings have gone from my account and will take out a cash amount to last me the month.

onlypaddy

steveouk wrote: »

had a quick look at that website and there is not a lot i can cut back on i know i need to cut down my everyday spending such as the too much money spent on drinking or getting a bus or texi when i could walk too many meals out etc.

You've just contradicted yourself in that one sentence. You can cut back on them and you must if you want to pay your debt.

steveouk wrote: »

will look at paying off nationwide maybe in when the period comes to an end. will try to save and reduce spending over the next 4 months and pay off a chunk off each of the debts starting with the highest interest rate each month once outgoings have gone from my account and will take out a cash amount to last me the month.

Seems like a decent plan. My aims would be:

Pay off Santander before end of interest free.
Pay off Marks & Spencer.
Both while paying minimum payment on Virgin and Nationwide. When santander and M&S paid off, pay minimum on Nationwide while it is interest free and throw everything else at the Virgin card, then switch this around when Nationwide interest free period ends

steveouk

what i ment by not cutting back on things is that it is the everyday spending i need to cut not things like phone bill or insurance etc etc.
It is the little things that add up. and i just need to try taking out say £100 to last me 4 weeks and then can have it in my head that the cash i have has to last me that amount of time or even longer.