Today i Put up my White Flag - Please Help! (Debt Free Wannabe)

Dumyat

maybe you should sit down and work out how much it costs you to do these oncalls...use it as a bargaining tool for your pay talks. I know you say you are getting your time back...but other jobs pay that at overtime rates or at least unsocial hours payments. include all your expenses to do with your job. they are having a laugh - your salary does not seem all that competitive in the IT job market...not that I know that much about it. but if you are providing 24 hour on call it should be compensated for. £1300 does sound cheap.

thesaint

This may have been mentioned before, if it has, sorry.

I believe that bar Virgin, the mobile networks allow you to downgrade the tariff that you are on after 'x' amount of months.

Rachman_2

What's the mileage on the Renault - they tend to do high mileage well - I'd suspect from the failures that it's done somewhere north of 120K - whatever the odometer says.

Failing turbos, relays, clutch etc. are all systems of it having had the !!!!!! kicked out of it - e.g. not letting the turbo cool after high speeds, clutch abuse due to either traffic light grand prix or someone having driven it like a twonk - I should have expected electrical faults - it's an olde Renault, but in terms of core reliability they are usually quite good. Have you checked the service history carefully, and if you've had it 13 months, why was most of the work not covered by the warranty you got when you bought it (or if you bought it private, tell me you had it inspected unless you KNOW what you are looking at).

I am also fairly surprised you are only getting 45mpg out of it - whenever I have driven a 1.9dci on a run, I've got about 55mpg - and the local constabulary will vouch for the fact I see some speed limits as a minimum, not a maximum.

I'd go through the service history with a toothcomb, cross check the bills and mileages and call the previous owner and ask them - if it's duff and you bought from a retailer, I'd play hell with him - though I suspect the phrase "Car Supermarket" may be about to rear its head....

And tell me why you are paying £150 a tyre - that's nuts. you can buy Porsche fitment 18" Pilot Sports for under £150 a tyre - it's a Megane on either 15s or 16s - they ought not to be more than £70 each - however, if you have put bigger wheels on it, then I can probably explain your steering problems too.....

hambrook

I know it takes 20 mins per item to list them on eBay but the feeling you will get for selling electrical items an paying of chunks of debt is well worth it.

List it on a Thursday evening for 10 days and watch it fly out the door. And when you get the eBay money, don't be tempted to spend on dead weight (car), pay of the things that are costing you the most (credit cards).

You probably don't need the last bit of advice, but don't by French cars. I am sure there are thousands of happy drivers out there with Renaults and Pugs, but I have heard too many horror stories, especially about the Megane. VW, Audi or even Seat (all VW under the bonnet) will get you a tried and tested work horse.

Do you need 3 mobiles? Why not sell em? I know that they are under contract, but what money are they saving you by keeping them? Mobile phones go for good prices. Even 3 year old models fetch £50+

Baggiebird1nil

If you have any books, DVD's or CD's sell them on Amazon.
Don't know much about cars but that would be the first thing to go! As long as it's reliable, goes backwards and forwards why do you need all the toys?
Good luck with your debt thing

abbecer

Congratulations on realising your problem before it spirals really out of control. Everyone on here will do their utmost to help you.

Rebecca x

Epiphone

Get rid of the car, you're throwing good money after bad.

Re the phones. Drop each contract down to the minimum you can then eBay two of the three handsets. Use this money to pay off the remaining contracts. You might want to look into a mobile contract that gives you broadband.

If your work requires remote access then they should pay for it. This means you DO NOT pay for WnW or the BT landline. Having said that, a simple VPN connection would allow you to use your parent's broadband.

If whilst on-call you are required to drive to a site that isn't your usual working site then your work should be paying you mileage. If they flatly refuse then claim this back on a self assessment tax form.

To be honest I think you know the reason you're in debt. Toys. Stop buying them. Sell the stuff you don't need.

MINI-Cooper-S

Rachman wrote:

What's the mileage on the Renault - they tend to do high mileage well - I'd suspect from the failures that it's done somewhere north of 120K - whatever the odometer says.

100k on my Megane

Rachman wrote:

Failing turbos, relays, clutch etc. are all systems of it having had the !!!!!! kicked out of it - e.g. not letting the turbo cool after high speeds, clutch abuse due to either traffic light grand prix or someone having driven it like a twonk - I should have expected electrical faults - it's an olde Renault, but in terms of core reliability they are usually quite good. Have you checked the service history carefully, and if you've had it 13 months, why was most of the work not covered by the warranty you got when you bought it (or if you bought it private, tell me you had it inspected unless you KNOW what you are looking at).

I know i am young etc etc but i dont kick the !!!!!! out of my car, not with me depending on it as much as i do.
I have had a look through the service history, it has had another turbo with the previous owner and a little bit of electrical work.

My father and myself inspected the car, (which now i regret).

Rachman wrote:

I am also fairly surprised you are only getting 45mpg out of it - whenever I have driven a 1.9dci on a run, I've got about 55mpg - and the local constabulary will vouch for the fact I see some speed limits as a minimum, not a maximum.

55Mpg!! i have never seen that, i very rarly see 40 on my digital display.

Rachman wrote:

I'd go through the service history with a toothcomb, cross check the bills and mileages and call the previous owner and ask them - if it's duff and you bought from a retailer, I'd play hell with him - though I suspect the phrase "Car Supermarket" may be about to rear its head....

Car supermarket.... there where i am heading tonight - New car time!

Rachman wrote:

And tell me why you are paying £150 a tyre - that's nuts. you can buy Porsche fitment 18" Pilot Sports for under £150 a tyre - it's a Megane on either 15s or 16s - they ought not to be more than £70 each - however, if you have put bigger wheels on it, then I can probably explain your steering problems too.....

My Tyres are Pilot Sports which are £150, the car has the Renault Megane Sport 17 inch wheels. (The car back in its day was a showroom model)

Hope that gives you some insight!

Chris

Keith

MINI-Cooper-S wrote:

With regards to my car, this had been a major issue for me; 13 months ago I took out a £7000 loan to buy the car. So far in the past 12 months I have spent at least £5000 in keeping this thing on the road!
There is now another thing going on it (power steering is on its last legs) and I have already been quoted £600 to sort that out.
The car is a 52 place Renault Megane Sport Hatch 1.9 DCi.

Hi Chris,

We had the same car but the Petrol version, we sold ours after 6 months and lost 2k, they are all very unreliable from reading the OC forum! We sold ours and bought a £600 Mondeo from ebay, very cheap and reliable.

hypno06

MINI-Cooper-S wrote:

For the new car, my current car has all the toys, its a top spec one, and I am so fussy in saying my new car must have the same!
(SHOOT ME NOW!!) lol


Thanks

Chris

Please get your head out of the sand. You know you cannot afford all the latest toys and if you want a debt free future you have to make the move now before you end up deep trouble.

By getting rid of this one item, and getting a different car, you will be saving on fuel, saving on insurance and saving on fees, but most importantly in my humble opinion, you could be saving yourself from a life full of debt.

I know which I would do. Please think about what is REALLY important to you.