Eeek Eek Eek

Supervixen

I can't help it, money just seems to slip through my fingers.

On the plus side I have a fabulous credit rating as I never <touching wood madly> skip a payment but it's getting WORSE not better.

One of the reasons is that we are trying to flog a house in a buyers market and move to a sellers market. We have to move for job/transport/sanity reasons but despite LOADS of viewings nobody has bought and it's over six months now.

I want to get a loan for £14000 to cover the amount I owe (as well as the loan for £20K I took out in 2005, about 18 months paid off) but I should be able to get some money from the equity in the house when we move so I can't really do that until I know how much we're getting...and then I'll take a loan out for £14K minus the amount I have as a lump sum. Most of our equity id going into the new house, as the houses are bloody expensive.

I also know I need to get the loan approved BEFORE we move, as it's harder when you've lived somewhere a few weeks than it is when you've been there 7 years!

So, tricky situation. Travelling to work is costing me a flaming fortune and I have no spendies. Hence buying everything on credit. Hubby helps as he earns more but I haven't asked for much help, I hate admitting how bad things are.

So...that's me. Looks like I'll be back to getting the 6:45 bus to work as of next week (lovely in the cold and the rain as you can imagine) as I can't drive, and it's either a 1.5 hour bus journey or I get a bus to the nearest rail station and then a train, which is a shorter and nicer journey by far...but costs over twice as much. GOD I hate that bus journey. We so have to move.

Looks like I'll be here for some time...

lynzpower

hi there

I can hear the panic there, so take a deep breath and slooooow it right down.

Your best bet is to look at your outgoings first.

Consolidation doesnt work, as you are trying to consolidate another loan, was that a copnsolidation too? many many of us have been there and consolidated loads of times, it keeps you in debt longer and you waste more money on interest. Most of us here try to pay the debt off FASTER, saving lots of money in interest, and getting out of debt qwuicker, not stretching it out for all eternity- again.

Do a SOA- Statemednt of affairs, Southern scousers sticky will tell you all you need to lknow, post it up and lets do our best to find you some extra money somewhere, or at least another solution that doesnt involve getting into more debt.

Big welcome, theres a lot to learn, stick around
Lynz
x

Storm

Welcome Supervixen & congratulations on taking the first big step and posting this!

1.5 hours on the bus sounds horrendous, so to be a true DFW use the time to either sleep (if possible) or read all those books you've been meaning to for years (getting them out the library of course!)

If you post a full SoA as Lynzpower says you'll get loads of good advice from people on here.

Storm

Supervixen

Thanks Lynz. I got a really good book (through my website, I don't know if you can get it here yet) called 'Wealth Mechanic' - it has some good advice in but it says you should pile all the extra cash onto the debt with the lowest ratio of amount owed/minimum payment and put any extra money into the debts that way...BUT trouble is I don't have any flipping extra to play with!

If I pay the minimums off I'll be in debt in 20 years time.

:cool:

hmm.

I could get a loan and pay it all off in 5 years (the new £14K)

Here's the SOA

Income:

£1241.08 pcm (may go up soon)

OUTGOINGS

House joint account £535 pcm (hubby pays more) this covers food as well.

(I did a clear out when I got the Money Diet - have reduced pretty much everything as much as possible)


Major Loan Northern Rock £263.85 - amount o/s £22,000 approx

Joint loan Egg £40 - amount o/s £3900 (will repay in full when house sold)

Lloyds TSB Credit Card - £172 - amount o/s £8595.35 - interest about £6000 is interest free till Feb 07, the rest about 12% APR limit £9000

Egg Card - £68.03 - amount o/s £3401.68 - interest 5.9% Limit £6000

MBNA - £5 - Amount o/s £293.51 - interest 9.9% - Limit £15,200!

Next Directory - £11.23 - Amount o/s £59.27 APR n/k (limit £4000)

Simply Be - £21.92 - Amount o/s £355.73 APR n/k (credit chge £7.64) (limit £1200)

Overdraft £1443.29 (limit £1800)

Owwwwwwwchhhhh!

Other than that I have:

Bus fare £70 (hubby sometimes covers this)
Train Fare £80 (optional but preferable)
Phone Bill £25 (fixed contract, and I use it!)
Overdraft charges - around £15
Bank account charge - £10 (was £15 but downgraded)
Credit expert £5.99 (that's how I know my credit is good)
Christmas account £20 pcm (ha ha ha ha)

I make that £1321.10 going out
...and £1241.08 coming in.

And a total (non mortgage) debt of £14148.83

If I ignore the travel, get hubby to cover the bus and don't get the train - I save £150 which means I have £80 to live on.

If I pay £5000 when we sell the house, I'll get rid of the o/d and Egg card, and shove the extra onto the smaller debts. That will leave me a debt of £9148.83 mostly on the Lloyds TSB card. If I carry that over into a loan, it'll cost me: £179.63 over five years through Smile at 6.6%

That would free me up almost £100 a month.

I need to pray for a flaming pay rise. Well, we're getting one but it's only piddly, I might get an extra £30 a month. Or if I get the job I applied for and interviewed for this week, that's anouth £2000 maybe a year so I could get another £100 if I'm lucky. *sigh*

quantumleap

First of all post a SOA, you'll get loads of good advice.

Was you're 20k loan a consolidation loan?

If it was and you now owe another 14k then I would suggest that another consolidation load is not the best way forward.

I also suspect you need to address the reasons why you are overspending and getting into so much debt. Until and unless you do that then you are going to get lost in the cycle of building up debt and consolidating.

You'll get the help and advice you need on here if you are open to it.

Supervixen

I thought that was a SOA?

Part of the reason I owe another £14K is that I overspent badly when I got married in Canada last year. I thought 'we'll never do that again' and so went a bit mad. I planned to pay most of it back, this year, but my outgoings have gone up with hubby getting a job that means he can't drop me off on his way to work any more, living in the sticks, and being faced with a £150 travel bill.

Also, we assumed we'd be able to sell the house fairly fast so I didn't worry about paying stuff off, but six months down the line, the 'it's OK, I'll pay a chunk of it off soon' seems a bit hollow.

I can't to a DMP or anything because we'll never get a mortgage and I'm relying on my good credit record, long time in this house and 5 years in my job to get us the mortgage (hubby will be paying most of the extra)

I'm not even considering a secured loan, but if I do go ahead with a 5 year loan for the remainder after the house is sold, I'll be giving custody of my cards to my hubby and reducing my overdraft massively. And actually CANCELLING credit accounts instead of paying them off.

tyllwyd

One tiny thing I'd do - could you not get your OH to pay off the Next account for you and cancel the books so that you don't have to pay for them any more - not a huge saving but at least it would stop that little bit of cash dripping out of your account.

Dolly_Smith

next directory is 26.49% interest - get rid of it asap. At the rate you're paying it will take 6 months to pay off and over £30 interest and it's only £60

you can also get rid of Credit Expert now you know what's on there

I'm not sure you'd be able to get another consolidation loan - you have a lot of available credit and it would only increase the term you're paying. Think about what you have to do to only free up £100 pm - you'll pay more than that in interest over the term of the loan

what does your husband earn (slightly nosey question, sorry)

quantumleap

It is a SOA, our posts overlapped!

Use the snowball calculator to see how quickly you could pay off you're existing debt without consolidating. Also, if you do consolidate I'd suggest cancelling all but one of you're cards and ensure you only have a small limit on the one you keep.

Don't forget to consider the reasons why you got into debt in the first place. Sometimes (and I'm not suggesting this is the case with you!) when consolidating people don't address the cause of why they've had to consolidate and that can often be the reason why the debt continues to spirral, often out of control.

Supervixen

Yeah, Next is on my list of things to pay off first!

Think about what you have to do to only free up £100 pm - you'll pay more than that in interest over the term of the loan

How so? I just looked at the snowball and with everything included it's going to take me 110 months to pay everything off! If I can rope hubby in to be really disciplined, I can pay the smaller bits off, and the overdraft & Egg card, when we sell the house. Then I can pay everything else - £9200 onto the 5 year loan leaving the Northern Rock loan, and the smile loan. The smile loan would be gone in 5 years, leaving me an extra £180 to put towards the Northern Rock loan, leaving £9222 and paying it off hopefully within half the time I would have done (2 years or so instead of the 4 that would be left)

How does leaving it all where it is pay it off slower - I'm not being obstructive, I'm genuinely curious to know how to work the system...

quantumleap

P.S.

I wish you well by he way.