A Head to Head Challenge

michael1983l

The challenge

21k of debt

2 Years to pay it


head to head to see who pays it off first


My debt List


Barclays Overdraft £340

Capital One £270

Egg £8700

Halifax £1400

First Direct £2600

Black Horse £1053.72

Alliance & Liecster £9134.45


Total Debt £21698.17


Who has equivelant debt that wants to make the challenge with me. All thats required is a monthly update to compare debt payment rates.

mizmir

My debt is nearly £27.5K but a challenge of the first £21K by Christmas 2008 would be a good motivator!

So I'm in! When is the first check in point?

michael1983l

mizmir wrote:

My debt is nearly £27.5K but a challenge of the first £21K by Christmas 2008 would be a good motivator!

So I'm in! When is the first check in point?

either the first day of every month or the last day its your choice

mizmir

Make it the last - though I may be a little late in December!
Do you have any plans for raising money for this? From your sig the bank charge claim looks like your secret weapon - I can't compete with that! But will be eBaying, starting Quidco - and - when I can find some spare cash - trying my hand at matched betting!

Good luck!

michael1983l

mizmir wrote:

Make it the last - though I may be a little late in December!
Do you have any plans for raising money for this? From your sig the bank charge claim looks like your secret weapon - I can't compete with that! But will be eBaying, starting Quidco - and - when I can find some spare cash - trying my hand at matched betting!

Good luck!

hahaha fair enough, my bank charges reclaims will help an awful lot but after then its just direct payments from my wages. Im salaried so cant get overtime payments. It is also very unlikely that I( will be raising any money from sales of items but you never know what the future may hold I suppose :rolleyes:

at the end of the day though as long as it keeps all participants motivated in clearing the debts then none of us loose

mizmir

michael1983l wrote:

at the end of the day though as long as it keeps all participants motivated in clearing the debts then none of us loose

Absolutely - no losers in this one! My current DFD is Sept 2010 - so if I can knock anything close to £21K by end 2008 I will be a very happy bunny!

Anyone else out there up for this?

michael1983l

mizmir wrote:

Absolutely - no losers in this one! My current DFD is Sept 2010 - so if I can knock anything close to £21K by end 2008 I will be a very happy bunny!

Anyone else out there up for this?

a very handy tip to pass on is if you have a large personal loan if possible try and find an extra £50 a month to pay it off with. I recently did this with egg and it reduced the payment period by 18 months i think and cleared £600 of interest charges off the account. I just cant believe i never did it sooner.

nevadagirl

Hello there,

I'm looking for a challenge to get stuck in to for the new year and I'm feeling really motivated, so would it be okay to join in?

I have unsecured debt of 20,170 to clear but if I'm as motivated as I think, and I manage get to £21k, I can chuck the extra cash at my mortgage :rolleyes: That's another challenge in itself!

My secret weapon is eBay as I have a flat full of [STRIKE]accumulated random stuff[/STRIKE] other people's future treasures and desperately want to declutter. My motivation lies behind the fact that I want to move in with the OH in early 2009 once I finish my part time degree, and I'm being realistic in estimating how long it's going to take me to get my flat sorted out. After living with my ex, then really enjoying living on my own, it is going to take me a while to psych myself up to living with someone again.

I work full time, with no chance of overtime, but the opportunity of a promotion is likely come up in the next year or so. I've just hit the threshold for paying back my student loans so I'm having to be really focused at the moment about money anyway.

If you're happy for me to join in, I'd love to be part of the challenge.

michael1983l

of course you can join in everyones welcome here. As long as it gets peoples debts down in quicker time.... I despise banks and hate seeing them make money out of unfortunate people like me. Since I found this site I have learned to bite back

nevadagirl

Great! And thanks for the tip on the loan, too. Like Mizmir, my DFD is in 2010 but I want to be debt-free much earlier than that.

To break down what I owe:

Loan 1: 9,180 (due to finish July 2010 but will be earlier!)
Loan 2: 6,123 (due to finish Mar 2010, no overpayments). I know, I know, I was young and foolish.
Credit card 1: 2,300.22 (3.9%LOB)
Credit card 2: 2,566.79 (0% to end Dec 07) - boiler packed in and I wasn't going to take finance to cover it

My student loan will cost me £132 a month until September 07 when I will be back under the threshold, I'm at the top of my payscale and don't get a cost of living raise every year. I'm only over by £4 and the threshold tends to go up by more than that every year. So I'm not counting the loan in this challenge.

I won't be able to do much extra money saving between now and the 25th, but I'd been planning to get a big batch of eBay stuff turbolisted while I'm off work. From experience, I don't think it's worth putting things up for sale until March-time when things start to pick up again. I generally make about £150 a month when I'm doing it in earnest, but it's usually things like secondhand clothes, books, CDs and freebie toiletries, so each item that sells is usually about £2 or so.

Wish I wasn't meant to be working today or I'd start now!

Broken_hearted

I'll sort of join in. Will post on december 31st how much has gone this month, although it might not be a lot. Debt free dec 2008 hopefully.