Very Depressed And In Debt

STUDENT_2-2

Hi, I dont know whether the following is real debt or whether I am just panicking over nothing?

My Accounts are as follows;

TESCO Personal Loan - £5000 - 6.5% APR
BARCLAYCARD Personal Loan - £2500 - 24.9% APR
BARCLAYCARD Visa - Credit Limit, £1800 - owe nothing - 18.9% APR
RBOS Visa - Credit Limit, £475 - owe nothing - 17.9% APR
RBOS STU ACCOUNT - Overdraft, £1400.00 - Bal, £350.00 in credit - 0% APR
A+L Premier Current - Overdraft, £100 - Bal, Zero - 0%APR

I have an income of about £500 per month and £4000 in Student Loan per year as I am now a full time student. The problem is that I cant stop thinking about my debts it's driving me mental. I have a very poor credit rating so cannot get anymore to help reduce the costs.

My Outgoings per month;

£69 to Tesco
£69 to Barclays
£12 to BT Phone Bill
£20 to Tesco Internet
£50 to TMobile
£50 Petrol
£75 Car Insurance

My MOT and TAX are due this month too! I never seem to have any left over to pay off extra towards my debts....any advice and I dont wana use my cards again to pay for the above costs. Please help.........I live at home by the way and no one in my family know about the above, I am 20.

Thanks...any help appreciated!

rchddap1

1. Don't panic or worry. The more time you spend worrying about things the less time you have to logically sort through things. Everything can be sorted given time and a bit of logical thinking.

2. Any cards that you don't need (and especially the ones with the high interest rate) cut up. Destroy. Obliterate. You can't use them if they are in small bits in the bin.

3. Think about ways to cut down your bills. Do you really need to spend £50 on your mobile each month? If the spending is not absolutely essential don't do it. Is there a cheaper option to Tesco internet? Sit down and work out a budget. Write down everything that you spend from loans, to a few pence buying chewing gum or chocolate. You can then start to cut out anything that isn't important.

4. Always pay off the most expensive debt first. That is the one with the highest interest rate. In the long run this will save you money.

5. My personal advise would be to ask for help from your family. Between you all you can sort this out. For example, my father lent my partner and I a few thousand to pay off a car loan. We weren't having any trouble paying it, but it saved us interest, and he felt good because he was helping us. You've taken the first step by posting here and asking others for help. However, your family will want to do the same. At first they will be shocked, but if you can post here and ask help from strangers, asking for help from people that love you and know you can't be that much more difficult.

These are just my thoughts on things, but of course I don't know the full details of your situation. I hope this helps, but try not to worry. You can sort yourself out.

heathcote123

is the car 100% essential?

£50 petrol doesnt add up to many miles on a monthly basis, even in a small car. Could you get a push bike?

Couple that with your insurance money and you could have those debts payed off a lot quicker.

Cars are great... but the costs dont really add up on a student lifestyle.

That 24% loan is outrageus. Pay off what you can with the 0% overdraft, leaving yourself a cushion.. then pay the rest of it off with a lower percentage credit card and get rid of that debt altogether.

Once thats off your back, put everything into clearing that credit card.

Poppy9

Agree - cut back on mobile, you can't afford the luxury. On a cashback deal I pay £25 per month up front for 100xnet and 100 text (cash back reduces this to £6.99 so its a nice little saving when it comes back in month 7). Find a cheaper internet provider, does the uni have a scheme? Lose the car if possible. The petrol and insurance alone are costing you over £30 per week. How much would public transport cost you? Can you transfer the Barclaycard personal loan to Tesco? Else renegotiate the rate with them.

Becles

When do you make most of your mobile calls? And who to?

If it is evenings and weekends, would your parents mind joining Talk Talk? I'm with them and had no problems with the service.
http://www.talktalk.co.uk

If you join Talk1, all your evening and weekend calls to landlines are free. There are no rental charges for the first year, so you could cancel it in 12 months if you wish.

If a Talk Talk customer recommends new customer, they get £10 each. There is potential there to make a bit if you get friends/relatives to sign up.

There are many other packages out there depending on what time of the day you make calls and to which numbers. Do a bit of research as I'm sure you could get the £50 down.

MSE_Martin

Actually I am afraid I have to disagree with some of the post above

In your situation one of the worst thing she could do is cut up your credit cards. You are currently in efficiently using the debts that you have, you could utilise exactly the same products and be pay much less interest.

TESCO Personal Loan - £5000 - 6.5% APR
BARCLAYCARD Personal Loan - £2500 - 24.9% APR
BARCLAYCARD Visa - Credit Limit, £1800 - owe nothing - 18.9% APR
RBOS Visa - Credit Limit, £475 - owe nothing - 17.9% APR
RBOS STU ACCOUNT - Overdraft, £1400.00 - Bal, £350.00 in credit - 0% APR
A+L Premier Current - Overdraft, £100 - Bal, Zero - 0%APR

Your most expensive debt is the 24.9% APR Barclaycard personal loan. This is a hideous rate. Interestingly the Barclaycard Visa is likely to have the ability to really the cost of your interest, please read my Barclaycard existing customers loophole article, you could move the debt from the loan on to the card and decimate the amount of interest you pay.

You also have a student overdraft at 0% of that you're not utilising when this is the cheapest debt you've got, you could use some of that to pay off the remainder of the Barclaycard personal loan that you can't pay up to the Barclaycard Visa.

There are some serious savings to be made just by moving it around. Please read carefully my credit card shuffle article and the article "
should I cancel my credit cards?" which'll explain exactly what you should be doing in relation to the above

However just because you don't cut the cards up doesn't mean you should use them. Lock them away don't touch them don't go near them

Shawz

If you really do need a mobile and mainly use it for text messages it may be better to use one of the free O2 sim cards that give you 300 text messages and you still have your £10 call credit to use. If you would just like to be able to send text messages it may be better to ditch the mobile and use some of the free services on the internet to do it. If you would like one of the O2 sims please pm me your details and I will put one in the post for you.

Do you really need to have internet access at home, (are you using dial up or broadband??) if not it may be worth seeing if you can use it for free in uni or your local library. If you do need it at home, it may be worth looking at an ISP like efhbroadband http://www.efhbroadband.com/ with them you can get unlimited broadband for 9.99+vat per month and they are only on a three month contact and not a year.

If you do decide to keep the car it may be worth looking at www.confused.com just to check you are getting the lowest car insurance quote possible. One other option would be to see it you could car share with someone else and then (hopefully) halve your costs.

One other suggestion would be to keep a small notebook with you and everytime you spend money make a note of it. This then means you will have an accurate record of where your money is being spent.

I hope the above info helps.

rushnowt

Hiya Student

I could never come close to giving advice above anything posted here especially Martin obviously, he knows what he's talking about.

However I would say that you should never worry about debt, all you can do is do your best to cut it as quickly as is phyisically possible, you dont need to starve your self or make yourself ill.

If you cant sort it out with the help from here, Please go and see someone at the Citizens Advice Bureau, its what they are there for, and face to face is alot easier in my experience so that you can show them all the paperwork you have and they can help you out in the best way possible.

Good luck and dont let your studies suffer

deemy2004

Why not get a partime evening or weekend job ?

ffs

STUDENT wrote:

Hi, I dont know whether the following is real debt or whether I am just panicking over nothing?

You would be equally wrong to panic as you would be to ignore the situation. Others have given good advice about how to reduce your costs, free up some income, and reduce your debts. But I suggest you also consider the long term. Do you feel comfortable having access to these credit facilities? Do you think that you may find yourself borrowing more than you planned again in the future? What can you do to stop that from happening?

Shawz

Good Luck