A hint you have probably all already caught onto...

clarab_3

Hello all, I've been dealing with £33k worth of debt for over a year now - and am proud to say I've got it down to £18,500 so far. Unfortunately a victim of this weeks Cahoot rip off so that has set me back quite a bit.

I should draw up a retrospective and current SOA this weekend as I think this forum is fab - I'll be here for mutual support a lot from now on in!

Anyhow - have been loking around all day and havent seen this tip anywhere so here we go:

If you pay your energy bills by direct debit - take your latest bills and check the units used against your billed amount. Both of mine had been based on estimates for a good couple of years and by phoning in the correct (lower) readings I got my payments cut and a £650 :eek: cheque back for all the overpayments I'd made...

vicki_1981

Hi there - what a great amount you have managed to clear in that time what's your secret?

Well done.

clarab_3

vicki_1981 wrote:

Hi there - what a great amount you have managed to clear in that time what's your secret?

Well done.

Vile amounts of bank charges reclaimed (£5k)
Turned off my sky (£45 a month)
And my home phone (£20)
Got my work to get me a company mobile (2p texts!) and ditched my own (£40)
worked an obscene amount of overtime.
Sold a lot of stuff on ebay too.

I have £2500 left on credit card. I am going to do EVERYTHING I can in a final push to get rid by easter.

Then I have £16,000 in loans, which, while I can afford to pay them, I want rid of. The overtime will have to stop - Im exhausted - but I will start by overpaying my cahoot loan by the amount i am saving from not having my other debts, and see where it takes me...if nothing else I have never missed payments on these 2 so my credit file can start to heal itself while i pay them up...

Thanks for the support! it feels so good to be dealing with it and talking about it.

oops_a_daisy

clarab wrote:

Hello all, I've been dealing with £33k worth of debt for over a year now - and am proud to say I've got it down to £18,500 so far. Unfortunately a victim of this weeks Cahoot rip off so that has set me back quite a bit.

I should draw up a retrospective and current SOA this weekend as I think this forum is fab - I'll be here for mutual support a lot from now on in!

Anyhow - have been loking around all day and havent seen this tip anywhere so here we go:

If you pay your energy bills by direct debit - take your latest bills and check the units used against your billed amount. Both of mine had been based on estimates for a good couple of years and by phoning in the correct (lower) readings I got my payments cut and a £650 :eek: cheque back for all the overpayments I'd made...

I have just done this with my gas and electric - got a cheque back for £100 for overpayments on my electric and left £40 for heavy winter bills. My gas is £40 overpaid too so I have left that there too - just in case. Got my DD reduced by £10 a month on Electric too. Well done on getting £650 back and welcome to DFW

yung

:T well done and keep it up :T

taxi73

Welcome and well done for getting that money back

SunderlandBlackCat

clarab wrote:

Unfortunately a victim of this weeks Cahoot rip off so that has set me back quite a bit.

Whats this Cahoot rip off? I just opened a Cahoot account & was going to use it for my car tax, insurance etc.

clarab_3

SunderlandBlackCat wrote:

Whats this Cahoot rip off? I just opened a Cahoot account & was going to use it for my car tax, insurance etc.

they have withdrawn their flexible loans and DOUBLED my interest rate to 14.9%. My credit rating is stuffed by debt so I cant move it to the abbey as they so kindly advised.

If I dont overpay it and pay it up faster it will cost me an extra £2500 over the 5 year life of the loan

Any wonderful ideas of how to get it moved onto anything at a preferential rate with a rubbish credit rating welcome. I am trying to repair my credit at the same time.

Happy_Bunny_6

clarab wrote:

they have withdrawn their flexible loans and DOUBLED my interest rate to 14.9%. My credit rating is stuffed by debt so I cant move it to the abbey as they so kindly advised.

If I dont overpay it and pay it up faster it will cost me an extra £2500 over the 5 year life of the loan

Any wonderful ideas of how to get it moved onto anything at a preferential rate with a rubbish credit rating welcome. I am trying to repair my credit at the same time.

What about those local organisations whose names escapes me for the moment.
They lend to people who would otherwise struggle I think

They lend to local people or people in certain jobs and have savings plans/accounts.

Some one will have to help me out with this one, I just can't remember what they are.

buxtonrabbitgreen

Happy_Bunny wrote:

What about those local organisations whose names escapes me for the moment.
They lend to people who would otherwise struggle I think

They lend to local people or people in certain jobs and have savings plans/accounts.

Some one will have to help me out with this one, I just can't remember what they are.

I think you may mean credit unions though I believe you have to save with them for a little while before they lend you money.

SunderlandBlackCat

clarab wrote:

they have withdrawn their flexible loans and DOUBLED my interest rate to 14.9%. My credit rating is stuffed by debt so I cant move it to the abbey as they so kindly advised.

If I dont overpay it and pay it up faster it will cost me an extra £2500 over the 5 year life of the loan

Any wonderful ideas of how to get it moved onto anything at a preferential rate with a rubbish credit rating welcome. I am trying to repair my credit at the same time.

Ouch! - Thats terrible.

I wish I could think of something to help. You probably can't do a transfer to Abbey because they own Cahoot so it's not in their interests to give you a cheaper way to owe them money.

Have you tried applying somewhere thats not linked to Abbey?

Edit - Its probably worth getting a copy of your credit report so you know where you stand with it & can deal with any problems or inaccuracies. Mine was nowhere near as bad as I'd been led to believe & I also found there were loads of catalogues listed when I've never had a catalogue in my life so getting those removed helped to clean it up a bit.