I'm Going to Reduce My Debt

Hallam_Macca

Thought I'd update this before I went out for the night. My mate is having a house party so I won't be spending on the outrageous prices just to get in places and buy drinks. I'll be getting a crate of beer in and possibly a taxi fare home.

Yesterday proved a bit of an expensive day for me. Spent £22.50 on the megabus to get to London and back, the high price is because I booked it the day before and then £11.30 on a return train ticket from London to Gillingham.

I used to live down there and as my team Oldham were playing them it was a game I just couldn't miss. Plenty of old memories flooding back and got hugely soaked in the rain that came down all afternoon. If you were in the South-East yesterday you'll know what I mean!

Also spent around £8 on food and drink during the day. Megabus despite having really cheap fares counter this by having really poor customer service. My coach back was late by a good 90 minutes and there was on one at the station to advise what was happening if anything at all was! Ended up rolling in at home gone 1am when I should have been back at 11pm. Megabus are very cheap but be warned as in my opinion don't provide a good service at all.

Last note hope you all have a good time bringing the new year in and you all have a great debt-reducing 2007. Thanks to everyone who has helped me so far in getting my finances sorted and I will see you all next year! :beer:

AndyR_3

Are you still paying £11.50 for your Barclays account? If so you can cancel this - you're paying for an Additions account which includes various benefits like Greenflag cover and some insurances. If you cancel it, the overdraft interest will increase but you'll still be better off. Just send a letter to Barclays, Leicester, LE87 2BB asking them to cancel your Additions facility but retain your overdraft. They'll write back soon to say they've done it.

If you took out this account on the basis that it was the only way you could get an overdraft, then you may also have a complaint about mis-selling. PM me if you think you need more help.

Hallam_Macca

Cheers AndyR. I had been under the impression from Barclays themselves that the charge was so I could have an overdraft and that I couldn't request to stop paying it until I had cleared it. It wasn't so bad when they were charging £5 a month for it but it has kept going up since.

As for my spending I've spent yet more. £8 on a 12 pack of lager for NYE and today I've spent £2.50 on a programme at todays game against Nottingham Forest (We won 5-0 btw :rotfl: :T ) and £2.60 on a pint and some chocolate. Looking at all my spending so far I might need to update my soa quite a bit. So much stuff I'm paying for that I didn't know I was doing.

I'm off skiing in Bulgaria this saturday coming. I'm wary that I use my mobile a lot so I want to cut down my costs as much as possible. Has anyone got any ideas or options on how I can do this?

Hallam_Macca

I've had a no spend day today, partly because I have no other option as I'm totally skint. Payday is coming soon (saturday) and I need to get a plan sorted on what I'm going to be paying this month. I've updated my SOA as well below to reflect what I've done so far.

Incomings

Salary £834.01

Total £834.01

Outgoings

Rent £100 (Will be spent on food for the household instead of paid direct to my grandad)
Sky £43.50 (looking to reduce my sky package, not sure on what options I have)
Gym/5 a side Football £45
Mobile £40 (rough average - should reduce now not getting SMS messages, when I get my bill I will see if I can change my call plan)
Football (admission, programme, travel, food) £90
Contact Lenses £22
Food £40 (approximate)
Going Out £50 (approximate)
Credit Card Payments £250
Clothes £25 (approximate)
Petrol £30 (approximate)
Presents/Xmas £30 (approximate)
Magazines/Newspapers £10
Haircuts £5
Holidays £50

Total £780.50

Debit Cards:

NatWest Total £1,249.10 - Overdraft limit £1250 - 0% Interest
Barclays Total £560.49 - Overdraft limit £500 - Unsure of interest but minimal - £11.50 a month charge just to have overdraft facility. Sending letter requesting charge is cancelled (03/01/07)

Credit Cards:

MBNA Total £2323.06 - Credit Limit £2500 - 19.9% Interest (Reduced from 24.9%)
Captial One Total £890 - Credit Limit £1000 - 6.9% Interest on balance transfers - Only use this card to pay off debt.

I think I've made a decent start so far to managing my debt. Although it has gone up that is only because I haven't been paid yet. I believe my new SOA is a better reflection of my budget after looking my diary so far and the items I've managed to reduce. I think I can now afford to pay more off my debt each month because of this.

This month I've got a few extra payments to meet. I need to get my spending money for my holiday in Bulgaria. Going to get £100 of Levs, that should be enough for a week over there.

I also need to pay some payments off my credit & debit cards. I'm going to pay £60.49 off my Barclays Debit Account to bring it back to my £500 overdraft limit and then pay the minimum payment on my Capital One account which is around £30.

I also need to pay my dad back the £30 I owed him and £10 that I still owe from that Fantasy Football I was in. With these extra payments in mind I'm going to pay just £100 off my MBNA debt. I don't want to be paying too much and getting myself into trouble later on in the month.

What do you think about this? Decent plan or is there any advice people could give me? Am I going about this completely in the wrong way?

beanielou

Hi again
Just a suggestion here
As you are already going on holiday this month how about cutting down on football, entertainment, and clothes for this month so you could cut down on your smaller overdraft & that would be cool.
No pain , no gain & all that.............

Hallam_Macca

Yeah good thinking. I expect I won't spend so much on some of these things as I'll be away but there are some things that could wait until another month like you've said.

Again I've spent no money today. I don't expect to be paying anything until saturday now. I've typed up my letter to Barclays to request my monthly fee is cancelled from my account, just need to send it off tomorrow and hopefully I won't be paying that charge ever again.

They had six inches of snow last night in Bansko where I'm going, it's looks great on the webcam, can't wait until I'm there!

Hallam_Macca

Hello again. Finally finished work, my holiday awaits! But first I need to sort my finances out so I can relax for the week.

Yesterday was another no spend day but I've been paid my wages a day early because my pay day is on a saturday they put the money in a day before. I dunno why but it's fine by me! Been paid £834.02 after tax.

So far I've transferred £63.25 from my NatWest account to my Barclays account so that I'm now at my overdraft limit of £500.

I've also transferred £30 from my NatWest account paying off some of my debt to Capital One which is just over my minimum monthly payment. I've been charged though as I didn't pay enough last month to cover my minimum payment and I've been charged £12. My usual pay date is the 6th of every month but has moved to the 2nd this month without warning. Not sure that is right!

I need to go out now and get the rest of my stuff for the holiday. Money, insurance and a few ski bits that I've missed out on. Will update later on what else I've spent!

bobbadog

Hallam_Macca wrote:

I've been charged though as I didn't pay enough last month to cover my minimum payment and I've been charged £12. My usual pay date is the 6th of every month but has moved to the 2nd this month without warning. Not sure that is right!

Hello! been following your thread with a while, but you just reminded me - my rent comes out of the bank on the 4th of the month, but this month they took it on the 2nd? Wasn't a problem, as it was ready and waiting - but still - not sure how they can take DD's early?! madness.

Enjoy your holiday!

Hallam_Macca

bobbadog wrote:

Hello! been following your thread with a while, but you just reminded me - my rent comes out of the bank on the 4th of the month, but this month they took it on the 2nd? Wasn't a problem, as it was ready and waiting - but still - not sure how they can take DD's early?! madness.

Enjoy your holiday!

Hi bobbadog, good to hear your reading this. Thought people might lose interest with all my ramblings!

The charge I guess is all my fault. I'd already paid a bit last month but not enough to cover the minimum payment so if I had done that I wouldn't have been hit with the charge early. Something I'll learn from though.

I've been a bit busier with the plastic today but hopefully that'll be it for a while. First off I've been paying off my debts to people. £2 each in 3 birthday collections at work and £10 to pay off the Fantasy Football Fee I owed, no more payments to be done on that now I've quit.

Spent £100.49 on 262 Bulgarian Lev's and £20 on a weeks travel insurance. Got a call later from the Post Office saying they had charged me incorrectly, should have been £40 so I'm going in tomorrow and paying the rest off. Also bought a 1st class stamp at 32p for a letter I've sent.

Then I went to Specsavers and paid £22 for 30 pairs of contact lenses. I had a look for cheaper contact lenses on this site but it looked way too complicated to follow so I haven't bothered.

I almost got roped in to paying money to the charity Shelter, the woman talking to me was very persuasive with all the heartbreaking stories but somehow I managed to say no!

Then off to the Trafford Centre, got some ski goggles for £19.99 and a pair of Caterpillar-like boots for £30 with protective spray for £3. Also spotted a pair of trainers for £10. Wasn't on my list to get but they looked so good and were so cheap that I had to get them. Won't have to get any in the near future now.

I've tried to pay £51.50 off my MBNA credit card using my NatWest card but I got the following message:

"Your request to pay your credit card bill was not authorised by your debit card issuer.

This could be because you have entered some or all of your card details incorrectly or a floor limit has been placed on your account by your debit card issuer.

Click here to return to the 'Maintain Your Account' screen. Alternatively contact your debit card issuer for further information."

I've entered my details correctly so what's going on? MBNA have no way of phoning them to make a payment. Grrr!

Edit: I've setup a payment from my NatWest online account. £51.50 should be transferred on the 8th January. Will check when I'm over in Bulgaria just in case.

Further Edit: I spent £3.09 at McDonalds also. Offered to pay £30 back to my dad that I owed but he told me to keep it for my hols.

I've also noticed on some peoples signatures they have debt free dates no them. How have you worked this out?

Seaxwyn

Hi HallamMacca, I'm another who reads your thread.

To get your debt free date, go to http://www.whatsthecost.co.uk/snowball.aspx - this is the famous snowball calculator.

Enter the amounts and APRs of all your debts, details of minimum payments required on each, and the amount you can pay off each month, and it will work out the best way of paying them off and give you a little table of what you pay to whom each month and when they're all gone.

It's very instructive as you can play around with the amounts and see how much difference paying just ten or twenty pounds more each month can make.

Hope this helps and have a fab holiday