Debt Issues

Wood.Justin

Good Afternoon Folks,

I'm relatively new here, I have quite a few outstanding debts all which I've really ignored and I've fallen into the minimum repayment danger.

It seems I have the following:

HSBC Credit Card - £2600 @ 15.9%

Egg Credit Card - £2100 @ 19.9%

Post Office Credit Card - £1500 @ 19.9%

Barclays Credit Card - £900 @ 7.9%

HSBC Loan - £5500 remaining (20 repayments to go with repayment award of around £800 in 2012)

I don't really use the cards for spending as I'm a bit of a tight ar5e at the moment so rarely do I go wild. I am helped by my situation as I'm currently living with my GF and her folks, this allows for a lot of income to be put into paying these off.

I am looking at ways of reducing this sharp-ish. Like I say I'm still relatively new here so I will be delving into the forums a little more over the next few days to really understand where to start.

Your help and assistance is greatly appreciated.

Cheers guys...

- Justin

Tixy

Hi Justin

Have you worked out how much you can afford to pay towards the debts each month? If not then do a statement of affairs - http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html to see how much you should have available after living costs - remember to include in your outgoings for items you don't pay out every month (eg if you pay car tax then put 1/12 of the annual cost in your monthly figures, same with things like clothes and presents etc).

Then when you have done that it should show how much your minimum payments are and how much you can afford to pay off. Assuming that you have a surplus after minimum repayments then use the snowball calculator (on the same site) to work out what order to overpay your debts to pay the least in interest and to work out a debt free date.

If you have a shortfall, ie it shows you cannot afford the minimums then you need to be looking at ways to increase your income or reduce your outgoings. If you post your statement of affairs on here you will get loads of suggestions for doing both of these.