Hopeless situation – advice needed please!

Laura_83_2

Dear all,

I have a £2100 overdraft on my current account that I have had since I graduated from Uni in 2006, which I am always up to the limit on, and never seem to be able to pay off.

I can currently see no way out of this situation, and I’m sick of throwing money away, paying the interest on the overdraft (£30+), which I could be using to pay off the interest.
I’m considering getting a loan to pay off the overdraft and then pay the loan back monthly, so at least the £30 I currently pay in interest would actually be going to pay off my loan as opposed to just being wasted.

The Halifax (whom I’m with), offer a personal loan of £2000, but the interest rate is 23%:eek:, which is obviously very high, and over the period I’d be able to pay it back would end up with me paying a small fortune! I also owe my partner £100 which I would like to pay back but can never afford to do. After bills and rent, I am usually left with about £80 a week before food.

Any advice on loans, or what I could do, would be greatly appreciated - it may sound like a trivial amount, but to me it is a constant struggle each month and I’d prefer to be struggling knowing that I may be starting to pay the overdraft off, and not wasting it on interest.

Thanks in advance!:money:

Svenena

Could you get a 0% credit card? I'm concerned that you can't pay it down at all at the moment though. If you only paid it down by the £30 a month freed up from not paying the interest, it would take years to pay off. And I obviously have no idea whether you'd be able to get a 0% credit card. If things are so tight, more available credit probably isn't going to help you in the long run (too much temptation!)

What is your income? Can you afford to make cutbacks in your spending, or increase your income, eg by selling things or taking on part-time work? If you post an SOA people on here will be able to suggest where you can make cutbacks. You can find a template to do an SOA in one of the stickies on the debt-free wannabee board.

ETA: Assuming £25 a week for food, what is the rest of the £240 a month going on? Can you cut any of your bills? I personally don't think a loan is the answer - if you re-post on the debt-free wannabee board, they will be able to help you (very nice people over there).

paddyrg

After bills £80/week, you can make some serious inroads on the overdraft if you were really motivated to. A sack of potatoes costs under a tenner, it'll last weeks (been there and done it - just make sure you get your 5/day dressing your bulk potato meals up to avoid scurvy!), so it depends where you choose to spend your money. Let's say you absolutely must spend £30/week on ready meals, you've still got £200/month - given the interest you could be clear in just over a year, and then you'll be much better off overall!