Trying to recover my financial position

ok_c

Hi folks,

I'm trying to do a bit of financial housekeeping, to get myself straight, or at least a bit straighter.
And I'm hoping you could offer me some advice and guidance.

At the moment my debts and debt outgoings are as follows:

Personal Loan (Nationwide) ~£9,500 Feb 2006 over 36months @ 6.4% APR.
I also have PPI (:rolleyes:) with this, which brings the monthly payments to around £310.
Credit Card 1 (Halifax One) ~£2,100 @ 0% (Balance Xfer & Purchases) until June I think. I have a S/O paying £80/month into it and am not using it at all. I also have PPI on this
Credit Card 2 (Smile) £400 @ 10.9% APR. Paying chunks off this as and when I can, but I also sometimes use it for fuel to get to work and pay a large chunk at the end of the month if I do.

My O/D is about £400 also, but isn't really going anywhere as by the time I get paid and my payments go out, I'm back in it again etc etc. I'm sure this is a familiar scenario .

My income after tax, pension and S/Loan is £1100 a month. I then pay a further £160 towards household bills, and it costs me £150 to get to and from work.
The non essential bills are just mobile phone (£30), internet (£25) and miscellaneous things like food shopping etc.

This normally leaves me with about £200 "surplus" which will go on whatever I have to pay out for that month, car tax or car repairs (servicing & mot etc). Or something else that needs replacing or fixing. Which leaves me with not a lot to save or pay off extra towards the O/D or CC.


In the next ~6 months my living circumstances will likely change, which will mean I'll be having to find an extra £200-300 for rent/mortgage.

What is best to do to:
a) Dig myself out of the rut in the meantime
b) Find the extra money to pay the rent/mortgage
?

I have thought about rearranging my loan to a 4/5 year one which will bring down my payments, but I'm not sure if this is the best solution?

First of all, I'd like to get rid of the PPI on both my loans and CC. An article on MSE seemed to indicate that I can cancel the PPI with Nationwide, with no or little penalty. Is this the case, and how to I have to go about it?
What is Halifax's position on cancelling the PPI on a CC? Can I do that also?

I was looking into antinsurance.com as an alternative to PPI? Are these reputable?


At the moment, I'm not missing payments or anything, but want to make sure that I don't put myself in that situation or worse.


Any advice or suggestions is much appreciated, I do try to keep track of everything I spend and not to get drawn in by temptations of going out or buying things, but even so I don't seem be getting anywhere...


Many thanks

southernscouser

First things first you can easily cancel the payment protection on your credit cards. Phone them up either now or tomorrow and ask for it to be cancelled. Don't let them bully you into keeping it, even at a better price! :rolleyes:

It could still be possible to cancel the PPI on your loan. Have a look at this thread to go about it!

ok_c

southernscouser wrote:

First things first you can easily cancel the payment protection on your credit cards. Phone them up either now or tomorrow and ask for it to be cancelled. Don't let them bully you into keeping it, even at a better price! :rolleyes:

It could still be possible to cancel the PPI on your loan. Have a look at this thread to go about it!

Thanks,

This article, here, seems to say that Nationwide will let me cancel the PPI with no penalty. Would it be as simple as writing to them?

southernscouser

Also if you post a full SOA (see this thread for a guide) with as accurate figures as possible we will be able to advise you better.

Generally speaking consolidation loans aren't the way forward! I did it about 5 times! :doh:

Firstly you have to get a grip on your spending/outgoings so income exceeds expenditure. Sorry if it sounds like I'm stating the obvious but it's so easy to think you are coping when relying on the plastic. (been there myself :rolleyes: )

Take a look at this snowballing calculator which can tell you how long it will take to pay your debts and how much interest you will pay depending on the monthly amount you contribute to them.


And apologies for not saying welcome before!

:hello: :beer:

southernscouser

ok_c wrote:

Thanks,

This article, here, seems to say that Nationwide will let me cancel the PPI with no penalty. Would it be as simple as writing to them?

I've never done it myself and don't know about each individual lender I'm afraid but there is a template letter available in that thread I provided that should help you!

ok_c

southernscouser wrote:

Also if you post a full SOA (see this thread for a guide) with as accurate figures as possible we will be able to advise you better.

Generally speaking consolidation loans aren't the way forward! I did it about 5 times! :doh:

Firstly you have to get a grip on your spending/outgoings so income exceeds expenditure. Sorry if it sounds like I'm stating the obvious but it's so easy to think you are coping when relying on the plastic. (been there myself :rolleyes: )

Take a look at this snowballing calculator which can tell you how long it will take to pay your debts and how much interest you will pay depending on the monthly amount you contribute to them.


And apologies for not saying welcome before!

:hello: :beer:

Thanks for the welcome, and help :beer:

The figures I've mentioned are actually within about a fiver of being 100% accurate, I've just rounded them up
Edit: The only omission was food shopping, which is £20 every other week (but varies depending on what we've ran out of). And lunch at work which I try to limit at £10 a week.
The problem I have is trying to reduce the 3 main outgoings:

Personal Loan at £310, Petrol @ £150 and Household bills @ £160.

My loan I can take £27 off if I can cancel PPI, and household bills we've just reviewed and made some adjustments to (like changing supplier etc). But petrol, unless I can dig up some Texas-T in my back garden is, I don't see, reduce able?

I plan to sell some misc. stuff I have in the house, to get a few hundred, which will get my bank account in the black, but other than that

southernscouser

OK what does the £160 household bills cover?

People on here manage to only spend about £50 per person so you might be able to cut this back? Have a look at the oldstyle board for how they manage on so little!

What about electric, gas etc?

ok_c

That includes council tax (£40 pm), gas (£10), electric (£15), bt landline (£10), home insurance (£), rent (£60), TV license (£5), Water rates (£10).

These are evaluated by us quarterly and includes a little for contingency, and are all paid out by a separate bank account so they are always paid.