How can i clear my two loans as soon as possible???

Kitsie

Hi,

I'm 24 and live with my parents. I want to move in with my boyfriend next year so we are really trying to pay off as much as we owe as possible..

I have two loans and a credit card.. My credit card is managable i use it but pay it off at the end of the month when i get paid.

My first loan started off as £2000 to buy a car and has somehow now escalted to £8000.

It was £2000 then i got myself into trouble after i lost my job and racked up loads of charges (thanks HSBC) so it then turned into a £4000 loan to clear my debts, my interest was something stupid like 27%.

I then moved banks to the halifax as i couldn't afford to keep paying charges to HSBC and i was never paying anything off as the APR was so high (i am going to look into getting the charges paid back as they were charging me ridiculous amounts). I then got into a bit more debt after i was made redundant and took out a £6000 loan with the halifax who i switched over too.

I then was invited in for a "savings review" and the Halix talked me into upgrading my £6000 loan to an £8000 loan because it had a lower interest rate which meant i had to start paying my loan off again after a year of payments. I didn't really want to do it but somehow it all happened and here i am..

I was made redundant from company last year (i know! i'm not lucky in jobs!) and my car was starting to die so i bought a new car with my redundancy and shares but was £1000 short so i borrowed £1500. I then managed to rack up lots of debt on my credit card and my overdraft looked like a bomb had hit it as i was retraining with my company and my wages were reduced to 1/3 of the normal pay for three months. I took out a loan with Cahoot for £4000 @ 6.9% over two years at £175 a month.

So i have two loans which i pay £338 a month for. I know i can put this up but i will be mega skint. I travel an hour to work each day which consumes a lot of petrol and i have rent and my phone bill etc to pay for (don't mention Christmas!!).

How can i pay these off quicker? I've thought about getting another loan instead of the two loans with a lower APR but i dont really want to start paying another loan again. Plus all i've done since i was 19 was take out a loan to pay off a loan and each time i do the amount of the loan goes up.

I know once i move out i will have more bills and will always be paying something but i would love to shift a big weight off this debt.. I dont have much in the way of savings.. I do have an ISA which has £700 but i'm reluctanct to use that (Sorry Martin i know it's your golden rule) as i need this for deposit and stuff for the house.

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly received...

Thanks for reading lol

Suz xx:p

Robert_Sterling

You have been very frank.
I will not mention the december event.
You need to change.
Perhaps you will.
I wish you the very best of luck
in your attempt to reduce your debt.
I think you will be able to get back some of the credit card charges.

lapat

i suggest you live a life of a hermit and cut out every and everything you dont need to spend on and start chipping away at these loans

i would suggest super balance transfers to cards that are 0% but it sounds to me that you would be tempted to spend ont hem aswell so that would be a no no......

at the end of the day its your will and determination that will make oyu pay back these loans and when you do realise that you will also be better of in the long run as you will think a lot more seriousley about what you borrow

i know life has dealt you a hard hand where jobs have been but be positive as things will get better provided you want them to

Keith

Look in the current account forum for how to reclaim the bank charges. Its very easy.

Kitsie

lapat wrote:

i suggest you live a life of a hermit and cut out every and everything you dont need to spend on and start chipping away at these loans

i know life has dealt you a hard hand where jobs have been but be positive as things will get better provided you want them to

I am really determined to clear these.. I'm going cut down by doing stuff like taking lunch into work and stuff like that to save the pennies i've worked out i can pay an extra £150 off a month and i worked out if want to clear the smaller of the two loans in a year it will only cost me £300 a month then i'll need to concentrate on the big one (which should be fun!!)

Suz x

happyformonths

Hi Kitsie,

Get yourself over to the Debt-Free Wannabee board. You'll get a warm welcome, tons of help and no doubt some frank (!) advice there

It's scary being in loads of debt - I know, look at my signature - but look at it this way, you're young, you've no dependents, you're realising at an early age that things have to change, so you've already got an advantage over a lot of people.

Good luck with it and hope to see you on the DFW board.

All the best.

HFM

ArchieB_2

You don't say what you have outstanding at this moment in time and what your income and outgoings are. Without a run down of each loan (APR, monthly repayment, amount o/s and term remaining) it is dificult to say where to start. If you have £700 in an ISA and you have a loan with £700 remaining then you should pay that off - if you clear everything you could resave that money over the course of a month or two - if that means delaying moving in then so be it.

I take it you would look to move nearer to work? Unless you are particularly well paid then travelling (is it a 2 hour round trip??) needs to be reduced.

Kitsie

ArchieB wrote:

You don't say what you have outstanding at this moment in time and what your income and outgoings are. Without a run down of each loan (APR, monthly repayment, amount o/s and term remaining) it is dificult to say where to start. If you have £700 in an ISA and you have a loan with £700 remaining then you should pay that off - if you clear everything you could resave that money over the course of a month or two - if that means delaying moving in then so be it.

I take it you would look to move nearer to work? Unless you are particularly well paid then travelling (is it a 2 hour round trip??) needs to be reduced.

I'm going to phone my back and find out the cost of the loan with APR etc.. i am looking for a new job closer to home as i'm not happy where i am at the moment that would reduce my travel costs..

I know that moving out might need to be put on the back burner until i've paid off my smaller loan at least..

I'll get the details and post them..

lapat

kitsie

well done anyway for acknowledging in what you need to do
thats a massive step alone