My SOA amd My Debt Diary

skintscotsman

Hello All,

I've lurked on here for a while and posted a bit too...have buried my head in the sand for too long now regarding my debts and had a bit of a kick up the behind a few days ago. Went ot discuss a mortgage with someone and they basically said I have no hope in hell of getting one with the state of my current debts......so here goes with my SOA

Monthly Incomings:

My salary - £1076.30


Monthly Outgoings:

NatWest Loan £300.40
CBMS Credit Card - £160
RBS Credit Card - £20
Advantage Gold - £12
Sky £6
Phone/Broadband - £30
Car Insurance - £26.87
Petrol - £160
Gym £42
RAC £24.75

Total: £770.02

Leftover = £306.20

I am lucky enough not to pay rent or food as I am living with my folks, and I have not yet done a spending diary to calculate the money I spend on junk food from the vending machines at work!!

CMBS CC – Balance £8194 (limit 8250) APR 18.9%

Overdraft - £420 (limit £600) APR 15.92%

RBS CC = £930 (limit 1000) APR 20.9%

NatWest Loan - this is that bit that confuses me!! The original amount I took out in December 2005was £18500 over a period of 7 years with monthly repayments of £300.40.

I was advised this was at a flat rate of 5.2%. I just phoned the bank to ask more about this, and they say this equates to APR of 9.7% and the outstanding balance is actually £22229, therefore making the amount repayable £25233.60. So should I really include this extra amount as a debt?? I am happy to do so, no point in sticking my head in the sand even further.

Total debts as of 18/11/06 - £31975

skintscotsman

I'm going to blabber onto myself here for a while, it's the way my mind owrks to map plans out, so bear with me!!! Feel free to butt in too

Ok, so the next bit of advice someone would give me is to

1) Reduce the outgoings

2) Increase the incoming

skintscotsman

Reducing the outgoings:

I am going to cancel the gym as I have not used it. This will remain as an outgoing for 3 months though as I this is their notice period:mad

Reduce the rates on the credit cards as these look ridiculous!!! This is the bit where i could do withsome help in finding appropatie cards.

The £6 special offer I got with Sky is ending soon, so I think I will just put this onto freeview, although my Dad was saying hed be happy tp oick up the Sky as he watches some of the Discovery channels a lot.#

Increase the incoming

I am actuively looking for a better paid job.

In the meantime, I am swotting up on my old Maths notes from School and Uni so I can provide Maths tuition for Int1/Int 2 and Higher students. This should bring me in approximately £20/hr tutored, will need to judge this as it goes along.

immoral_angeluk

Monthly Incomings:

My salary - £1076.30 Any chance of any overtime or payrise? If not are there any better paying jobs out there? Do you get any form of tax credits or other benefits? Check out https://www.entitledto.co.uk to see if you can get any other help.


Monthly Outgoings:

NatWest Loan £300.40 Is there any chance of you getting a 0% deal on any credit cards to do a balance transfer of your cards and loans??
CBMS Credit Card - £160
RBS Credit Card - £20
Advantage Gold - £12
Sky £6 Why so low? Either way is there any chance of cancelling and going freeview instead?
Phone/Broadband - £30 Have you had a look for any cheaper deals on the market at the moment? Does this include your calls?
Car Insurance - £26.87 Again, are there any cheaper deals around? Have you tried confused.com or moneysupermarket.co.uk?
Petrol - £160This seems a lot... do you need the car for work or would it work out cheaper to buy a bus/train pass?
Gym £42 £42 is a lot of money, especially when you consider travel costs to get to the gym... personally I would cancel this and take up street jogging/cycling. Your wallet would thank you!
RAC £24.75 How old is your car? Do you really need this? Also you haven't budgeted anything for car maintenance/mots/tax?

Total: £770.02

Leftover = £306.20

I am lucky enough not to pay rent or food as I am living with my folks, and I have not yet done a spending diary to calculate the money I spend on junk food from the vending machines at work!! I bet you'll be suprised how quickly money disappears when you see it all written down! But a spending diary is an excellent idea. Once you see the true scale of your spending, set yourself a budget and stick to it!

CMBS CC – Balance £8194 (limit 8250) APR 18.9%

Overdraft - £420 (limit £600) APR 15.92%

RBS CC = £930 (limit 1000) APR 20.9%

NatWest Loan - this is that bit that confuses me!! The original amount I took out in December 2005was £185000 over a period of 7 years with monthly repayments of £300.40.

I was advised this was at a flat rate of 5.2%. I just phoned the bank to ask more about this, and they say this equates to APR of 9.7% and the outstanding balance is actually £22229, therefore making the amount repayable £25233.60. So should I really include this extra amount as a debt?? I am happy to do so, no point in sticking my head in the sand even further. Yes, unless you believe you can pay it off any sooner, in which case you'd more than likely be offered a reduced settlement amount.

Total debts as of 18/11/06 - £31975

skintscotsman

Stuff that I think is good value for money right now:

Mobile Phone/Broadband for £30: got this on Orange. 400 free x-net minutes + 1000 texts free per month + broadband in the house. I have only ever gone "out of the allowances" when I have used the phone abroad. In a contract with this for another 12 months anyway so it would cost a mint to get out of it.

RAC - my car is quite old and if I broke down far from home, Iit owuld cost me a lot to get home. The ocst of thsi isn't actually £24.75 per month, it is that price for 4 months and then I don't pay anything for the rest of the year.

immoral_angeluk

skintscotsman wrote:

Stuff that I think is good value for money right now:

Mobile Phone/Broadband for £30: got this on Orange. 400 free x-net minutes + 1000 texts free per month + broadband in the house. I have only ever gone "out of the allowances" when I have used the phone abroad. In a contract with this for another 12 months anyway so it would cost a mint to get out of it.

RAC - my car is quite old and if I broke down far from home, Iit owuld cost me a lot to get home. The ocst of thsi isn't actually £24.75 per month, it is that price for 4 months and then I don't pay anything for the rest of the year.

So you pay 24.75 for 4 months... so £99 for your breakdown cover? Is that right? If it is then you're being ripped off! I'm with the AA and only pay £32 a year!! In your case I'd seriously have a look round for a better deal, because obviously with an older car you need breakdown cover but there are cheaper deals out there.

skintscotsman

Monthly Incomings:

My salary - £1076.30 Any chance of any overtime or payrise? If not are there any better paying jobs out there? Do you get any form of tax credits or other benefits? Check out https://www.entitledto.co.uk to see if you can get any other help.There is a pay review going on at the minute but it will be an arbitrary amount,, will make hardly any difference. The nature of my job does not really allow for overtime, but as I mentioned I am definitely looking for aanother, better paid job, I'll kepp you all updated in my debt diary (make it a job hunting diary too!)


Monthly Outgoings:

NatWest Loan £300.40 Is there any chance of you getting a 0% deal on any credit cards to do a balance transfer of your cards and loans??
CBMS Credit Card - £160
RBS Credit Card - £20
Advantage Gold - £12

Do you really think I would get a Credit Card with a limit of £30k on a 0% offer

I think I would maybe get the ~£9k on a 0%no problem though. I know my credit rating is quite strong.

Sky £6 Why so low? Either way is there any chance of cancelling and going freeview instead?To cut a long story short, I knew someone who worked in Sky and this was family and friends deal for 1 year only, the year is almost up and I am moving to freeview afterwards, otherwise my folks will pick up the cost of it.


Phone/Broadband - £30 Have you had a look for any cheaper deals on the market at the moment? Does this include your calls?This is ithe best deal around, it truly is worth it, I was paying £50+ for equivalent in the past


Car Insurance - £26.87 Again, are there any cheaper deals around? Have you tried confused.com or moneysupermarket.co.uk?Yes, this is the best deal I could find at the time, I use confused.com for this, I have had a couple of accidnets and got 3 points so this is actuaslly quite reasonable for a young male driver.


Petrol - £160This seems a lot... do you need the car for work or would it work out cheaper to buy a bus/train pass?Absolutely need the car for work. Part of my T&Cs/


Gym £42 £42 is a lot of money, especially when you consider travel costs to get to the gym... personally I would cancel this and take up street jogging/cycling. Your wallet would thank you!Just called to cancel and they said I only need 1 month notice so that is a bonus. Letter being done later on today,.


RAC £24.75 How old is your car? Do you really need this? Also you haven't budgeted anything for car maintenance/mots/tax?:eek: haven't budgeted for maintenance or tax either, will add £20/mont maintenance and £10/month for tax now.

Total: £770.02

Leftover = £306.20

I am lucky enough not to pay rent or food as I am living with my folks, and I have not yet done a spending diary to calculate the money I spend on junk food from the vending machines at work!! I bet you'll be suprised how quickly money disappears when you see it all written down! But a spending diary is an excellent idea. Once you see the true scale of your spending, set yourself a budget and stick to it!I think this will be the most difficult part of all........

CMBS CC – Balance £8194 (limit 8250) APR 18.9%

Overdraft - £420 (limit £600) APR 15.92%

RBS CC = £930 (limit 1000) APR 20.9%

NatWest Loan - this is that bit that confuses me!! The original amount I took out in December 2005was £185000 over a period of 7 years with monthly repayments of £300.40.

I was advised this was at a flat rate of 5.2%. I just phoned the bank to ask more about this, and they say this equates to APR of 9.7% and the outstanding balance is actually £22229, therefore making the amount repayable £25233.60. So should I really include this extra amount as a debt?? I am happy to do so, no point in sticking my head in the sand even further. Yes, unless you believe you can pay it off any sooner, in which case you'd more than likely be offered a reduced settlement amount.

Total debts as of 18/11/06 - £31975

skintscotsman

immoral_angeluk wrote:

So you pay 24.75 for 4 months... so £99 for your breakdown cover? Is that right? If it is then you're being ripped off! I'm with the AA and only pay £32 a year!! In your case I'd seriously have a look round for a better deal, because obviously with an older car you need breakdown cover but there are cheaper deals out there.

cheers immoral, i'll look into this but i don't think i'll be able to cancel it will keep ye updated

skintscotsman

oh, a i just checked entitledto a week ago and i'm not entitled to anything at all

immoral_angeluk

Re the car insurance.. that is really good in that case!! I have 3 yrs no claims, 3 points with my husband as an additional driver while he learns, for an 03 reg rover 25 and we pay £33 a month! I hate car insurance...

skintscotsman

yeah my no claims has been slashed to 2 years due to hitting a stray lorry tyre on a dark motorway at nuight at 70mph!!! just thankful i got away with my life tbh!

just called RAC and reduced my Cover slightly, which means I only have one more payment of £6.50 to make and the only idfference in the cover is that I will only be towed for 10 miles. Fingers crossed I will never need it! I am never too far way from home anyway, longest round journeys I do now are 250 miles.