New to the forum - up debt creek - all advice welcome

_Persephone

I work for a well-known insurance company and rodent ridden price comparison site so I am pretty clued up there! Hopefully I can use this to repay some of the great advice I have been given so far

Mac is definitely covered! Personal possessions cover of £2000 with a single article limit of £1500. Mac was £1499!

Just trying to decide which bank to go with now. Like the look of First Direct. Snowballing plan scuppered now, as now I am changing banks, I will have to start repaying some overdraft before it's review in November.

patman99

Well, why not use your o/t to clear your o/d then use any remainder to lighten the load on your credit card?. By clearing the o/d you will save yet another dose of interest.
I know what it is like to live-off credit cards, loans and overdrafts. between 1991 and 2010 I had only 7 months when I wasn't in the red, then in 1999 I got me a credit card. Over the next 10 years I aquired 4 or 5 more. When I got made redundant 10 months ago, I had a loan of £8k, cc debt of £6k and was £1200 into a £1300 o/d.

_Persephone

From looking at my statements, it appears I only pay them a usage fee of £7 a month, and then pennies in interest. So I guess it would be more sensible to concentrate on the CC. :money:

I can't wait until payday until I can actually reduce the balance... I have only really been savvy since the start of this thread, and haven't had a chance to put anything into action!:(

I have started mystery shopping, and have devised a spreadsheet, with the assignments I have taken, I have about £120 coming to me, it will be paid in dribs and drabs, but I am going to reduce my overdraft gradually by this amount.

I just called Lloyds to find out some more about my loan - the APR is 18.5% and settlement date is Dec 2012. Is it worth me getting a loan with a better rate of interest to pay this one off? Or will I still pay the same amount, even if I paid it early? It says the full cost of my loan is something like £4.9k, (amount I borrowed was £3.5k). I work in Insurance, and if a customer wishes to do an early settlement, we cannot charge them interest for credit we didn't give them, would it be the same here?

Also finally confirmed the amount of PPI I had on a loan when I was a student back in 2004 - £463, worth trying to claim this back surely?

_Persephone

Bump... anyone?

Superbiatch

_Persephone wrote: »

Wow, that is amazingly cheap? I am totally clueless when it comes to electrity I just put money on the key. Will look for some articles on here about saving.

Pots sound intriguing too, and just what I need. How does that work - are they like separate accounts for each category? I definitely can't save cash in the house, as I will just spend it!

Jesthar wrote: »

My elec is only £12 a month - although my heating is gas central, not electric. Mind you, gas use must have come in at under £15 a month last year, too, as I got well over £100 back as an overpayment refund

Heat is the main waster of electricity - heating, cooking, tumble driers, immersion heaters etc. If you have an immersion heater, make sure it is well insulated, not a bare cylinder, or money is literally radiating away. Make sure appliances are turned off when not in use, preferably at the wall, and lights too. Thick curtains and draught excluders work wonders for retaining heat, and make sure you always draw the curtains at night - you can even make some cheaply or line other curtains using thermal blankets you get in pound shops. And speaking of which, snuggling up in warm cloths and a spare blanket or duvet on the sofa is far cheaper than having the heating on and wearing a t-shirt whilst watching TV - two pairs of socks also works wonders in bed!

Helpful information above ^

Do you know how economy 7 works? It basically means you pay a lot less for electricity used during twilight hours. Therefore I set my washing machine to come on at 2am (neighbours have never complained) and you need to make sure your storage heaters are storing energy overnight and not during the day. Find some instructions on how to work your storage heating system.

Also, how is your water heated? Do you have a hot water tank? If so, then get an electrician to pop a timer on it as you're probably heating it all the time but not using anywhere near that - look on it like a permanently boiling kettle

My electricity costs me less than £40 a month but I've got panel heaters which use way more elecricity more than yours, but I'm not on a pre-payment meter so probably levels out.

_Persephone

I have two water tanks, a daytime emersion that I never use, and a night time one. The water heats after 7 - I guess when the economy 7 kicks in. I only need it for washing up, as I have an electric shower that heats as it goes, and rarely take baths. Perhaps I should stop heating the water full stop and just use the kettle to boil water for washing up.

Superbiatch

_Persephone wrote: »

I have two water tanks, a daytime emersion that I never use, and a night time one. The water heats after 7 - I guess when the economy 7 kicks in. I only need it for washing up, as I have an electric shower that heats as it goes, and rarely take baths. Perhaps I should stop heating the water full stop and just use the kettle to boil water for washing up.

You could do with borrowing a smart meter which would show you what appliances use how many units. I borrowed one and was shocked to see how much my hot water tank used, not to mention my heaters lol. Needless to say I spent the winter months in my boyfriends house :rotfl:

Just a thought, but maybe only put the water heater on for a little period of time - say an hour or so? It will depend on how well insulated your tank is but mine tends to keep my water hot for 24 hours

IndigoBlue_2

Hi,

Apologies if this has already been mentioned or someone has covered it, but how much of your Apple laptop have you paid off and how much is remaining? For me this seems like an unnecessary luxury to have if you are trying to cut your debt.

_Persephone

I've got until October on it, it was a total frivolity, I was sucked in by the 0% APR

IndigoBlue_2

OK, so it's all paid off in october? Could you sell it buy a cheaper laptop and pay off some of your debts then?