tearose grows up and stops being such an ostrich!

tearose

First of all, to anyone who might read this here, I wanted to say thank you to everyone for motivating me to finally get my head of the sand and facing up to my debts :A! I've been a member of this forum on the past (but couldn't remember my username - and thought a new name for a new me woudl be good!) but never posted that much, and never here (although I had debts I didn't really want to think about them...).

I have about three credit cards and an overdraft that always gets used to the maximum - it's ridiculous that I don't even know how many cards, but all the statements go to my parents address still (I have moved around so much that it was easier than keep changing my address) and I never open them. I started out with one, due to % transfers, ended up with the three. I think my debts must be around 7,000 - I am trying to be realistic here but am going to go on a mission to find out tonight. I pay the minimum amount on each at the moment. I do have some savings but I have this silly idea about just keeping them seperate as it's my "saving for a house deposit" fund!

So, steps I've already taken so far
- I don't know if this is helpful but I did think that doing a credit check report would show me who I have the credit cards with. It didn't but I do know that apparently I have the highest possible credit rating. Yes the credit card companies love me, I pay so much interest just paying off the minimum amount! I don't really know much about credit checks - but I hope having run one does not affect an application for an interest free credit card which I've heard it might? (see "Things I must do").

-Started selling stuff on ebay.

Things I must do now
- Find out what my debt is, and what the interest is!
- apply for an interest free CC (hopefully barclaycard 20 months but virgin if not.. )
- put more stuff on ebay to sell
- work out a realistic budget, and means to pay of this debt as soon as possible.

I love the idea of all the challenges, no spend days, and a payment per day and I really think I need something to keep me going in between pay days. I'm sure most of my income just gets frittered away rather than going towards paying off those debts or saving.I earn a decent wage, have finally paid of my student loan and I have no excuse not to sort myself out now, finally!

clippy_girl

Hi Tearose! :wave:

welcome to the land of diarys! should help to keepo you on the straight and narrow!

i think you are right in that the first thing you need to do is check who and what you owe. that way you can start on a plan and picvk which one to tackle first

re your budget, make sure you keep it realistic and include some allowance for treats or you will go mad! if you make it too strict you wont be able to stick to it and it will be too demotivating! you can always overpasy or reduce if you find you have some left!

have you tried the soa tool (on main dfw thread)? will show what your outgoings are and people can give you some tips!

also re your savings, not sure how much you have but if all your cards are not 0% (or wont be once you have got youre new balance transfer card) then i personally would pay it off the debt as you will be shelling out more in interest than youre earning. as soon as you are debt free you can re-start the saving and as you wont have debt it can all go in the saving pot

jwil

Happy new diary Tearose!

Your credit report should show who you owe money to - there are three companies, Experian, Equifax and Call Credit (I think). I check mine through Experian ( I subscribe which is not very MSE) but that shows me each of my accounts and the latest balance that they've posted.

It sounds like you may have done a credit score which is different (and frankly not very helpful as each company scores individually).

You checking your own credit report does not make a difference, but applying for credit does, so don't try and apply for several credit cards in a short period of time. If you are unsuccessful with Barclaycard and Virgin, then it would probably be a good idea to not apply for anything else for around 6 months.

Good luck with the debtbusting though!