"Simply not solvent!

SarahNeedle1872

Sea78 wrote: »

Crikey! That's a handful!

Makes the carrot totem poles even more admirable! DD is currently makig a night picture which has kept her amused for the last 20 mins but ds is still in the seek and destroy mode!

Look forward to hearing/reading more about your progress

Sarah - if OH comes we spend way over budget and it's usually on 'bargain' junk food for him!

Sea xxx

ALWAYS junk food... chocolate, crisps, milkshakes... all the healthy stuff!

Seaxwyn

I have a dilemma and would appreciate any views.

I have a new Egg card with 0% for balance transfers for 12 months, then rising to 16.9%. (2.5% fee applies)

I can't decide whether to transfer my Abbey CC (CC1 in sig) or OH's loan (Loan 2 in sig). This is my thinking:

Abbey CC
- this is the higher interest (marginally)
- I wouldnt be adding to the debts in my name

OH loan (current balance £3960.30)
- could save roughly £1200 interest by paying in one year rather than the 4.5 it's set to run
- OH could then close his HSBC current account, and may then investigate reclaiming bank charges, which he is resistant to doing
- OH may be more motivated to help pay this off as it's his loan

Having written it down, I see that a lot hinges on OH's cooperation. This makes me more inclined to leave his loan and bt my own debt.

Abbey have said they will likely offer me another low balance transfer deal when the current one expires on 16 June. So the ideal thing would be to BT the Abbey balance onto the Egg card, then the loan balance onto the Abbey card - however I can't do that, can I? Only the Egg card will take loan balances.

Any advice or comments welcome.

Seaxwyn

The above post may have been a bit of irrational insomniac worrying.

I am now thinking I should bt the loan AND some of the CC balance, up to the Egg limit of £7,500, and rely on finding another balance transfer deal in May that's better than the current >12% limits - obviously work to pay off as much as possible before that though.

Would still welcome opinions.

Thanks

SarahNeedle1872

I suspect ur Egg card will only allow u to BT up to 95% of ur limit (that's what mine says anyway) which on £7500 would be £7125.
As for what to transfer, as u have said, I guess that depends on how cooperative u think OH is gonna be at helping to reduce the debt, otherwise u are just taking on more debt in ur name.
I personnally would transfer the CC1 onto Egg, leave OH's loan alone and let him pay for it. I don't know ur situation works, but if u concentrate on clearing the debt in ur name first, u'll find things a lot easier and have a lot more 'spare' cash. Maybe THAT will motivate OH to sort his debts out.
I have put myself in the position that if my OH doesn't/won't help clear the debts, I will do it myself. If he messes up, he has to find the cash to pay for it, but without affecting me or DS (sounds really selfish I know, but I'm NOT taking ALL the responsibilty for HIS debts too!)
That's just my opinion, hope I haven't offended, and good luck with whatever u decide to do

Sarah x

Seaxwyn

Thanks Sarah

I guess you are right, I need to have another conversation with OH. We have discussed it and he said all the right things, but I know from experience that once a debt has gone from his immediate horizon (ie noone is phoning him about it) he stops thinking about it.

I just don't know what would motivate him more - being personally debt-free, or having a loan to pay every month.

I like your attitude - it's comforting to know there are lots of us on here with 'difficult' OHs!

Verbatim

I'd say transfer your debt and let OH take responsibility for his. If he actually has to slog through it, (like you're doing!)he might learn not to spend so easily next time.

Hope that doesn't sound too harsh.

taxi73

Hi there...I'm inclined to pay CC1 and leave OHs loan until last as whatever happens at least you are paying a payment off the loan each month....and at least if he pays his loan ..you'll have the money to pay yours

Seaxwyn

Thanks everyone. I did as you all suggest and transferred my own credit card onto the Egg card.

I found that really difficult as I never did think of OH's debts as separate from mine. To me it is all 'our debt'. However I recognise he doesn't see it that way and for now I'm just going to concentrate on 'my' debts and stop expecting him join me on the DFW mission. I won't even raise the subject again, it has caused too much friction between us.

So all my debts are now on relatively low interest, and that is causing me problems thinking how to snowball them! I've started a new thread asking for advice on that, so that maybe more people will read it.

This is what I posted:

Hi there,

Following a balance transfer my debts now look like this:

• Sainsbury's CC @ 5.94% LOB - £2794.12
• M&S CC @ 3.94% LOB - £3883.42
• Egg CC @ 0% til May 08, then 16.9% - £5470.5
• A&L overdraft - 0% til Nov then 5.9% - today £3203 but contantly changes (limit £3750)
• NatWest loan @ 7.8% - £386.86 pcm, 67 payments to go. (can make overpayments but have to pay fee of 2 months interest each time)

I usually manage to pay a small amount over the minimum payments. Where should I pay this?

The Snowball calculator says to put it onto the Egg card. However I am pretty sure I can transfer this balance again before the interest rises next May.

So should I pay the Sainsbury's CC, as it's the highest-interest easiest-payable debt?

Or should I save the money (I have an ISA at 5.3%, currently empty) and use that to make overpayments on the loan - in which case, how much would I have to save to make it worth incurring the fee? NatWest currently unable to tell me how much that is!)

I'd be really grateful for advice as I want to get these darned debts paid off as quickly as possible and can't work out what's the best thing to do

SarahNeedle1872

If it were me, I'd pay it off the Sainsburys card, because it's the highest interest and u will probably be able to get another LOB/0% BT when Egg finishes. Ur credit rating is obviously still pretty good. I probably wouldn't bother with the ISA cause u'd have to save more to beat the 2 month penalty, plus u would be paying more interest on the other cards.
OR u could put all ur extra money into the ISA, saving for Egg when 0% finishes... then u could pay a chunk off before u BT... that's two ideas anyway! I guess if snowball says Egg, it's done the sums already, so at least if u ISA'd it, u'd earn some interest too.
Glad u decided to stick with ur own debts, sometimes u need to selfish! All our debt is in my name:mad: so I see it all as mine. When u have cleared ur debt, u can say 'look what I have acheived'

Sarah x

Seaxwyn

HI Sarah

I did the Snowball again with the Egg at 0% and it said to pay the Sainsbury's card. So I think that's what I'll do - it's also the smallest so that's motivating to actually try and pay it off.

I'm sure there's probably a cleverer way, involving saving at a higher rate than my 5.3% ISA but for now I'll stick with the snowball mantra of paying off the highest interest first.

Almost all of our debt is in my name, even though plenty of it was initially in OH's and the big loan was for building an extension which we all benefit from. It's galling to have to think of it as 'my' responsibility but there you go, I've let go of that now. There's more to life than money and being :mad: as I have been for a long time doesn't help. I'm going to try to be :A now!