Newbie DFW - advice require please? ~(SOA)

scottish_blend

I wanna join the DFW club

My SOA is as follows

Mortgage £62248 - £424.63 per month - tied to March 08
The mortgage I can tackle next year tho when I've got these debts down a bit

Personal Loan (A & L) 6.4% £6059.13 - £130.04 per month (4 years to go)
Mint Credit Card - 16.9% £231.23 - £5.70 per month
Virgin Credit card - 15.9% £870.38 - £12.45 per month
Capital One Credit Card 15.9% £1050.37 - £51.91 per month
RBS credit card - 16.9% - £1846.62 - £40.00 per month
Egg Credit Card - 16.9% - £747.19 - £11.34 per month
Argos Card (3 piece suite) 25.9% - £353.45 - £14.14 per month

Monthly income= one wage £1274

Outgoings:

Council Tax 112.00 (no arrears)
Gas - 30.00
Electricity- 23.00
BT - 11.00
TV licence - 26.30
Scotlegal -30.00 (policy matures 2010)
House Ins - 25.01
Tiscali BB- 14.99 (includes evening and weekendcalls)
Sky - 43.50 (12 months ends May 07)
Lottery - 9.00
Mobile - 30.00 (deal ends May 07)
Travel to work 50
Groceries - 50

If I could explain a few things also - as you can see, one income so a bit of a struggle. Travel to work and groceries are an estimate at the moment.

I have 2 credit cards that I have just opened

HBOS - 12 months interest free - balance available for transfer £2427
& more - 3.9% life of balance- balance available for transfer £1750

Wha I would like to know is what is the best way to juggle with the credit cards and/or loan part of it with these two cards. What would be the quickest, and easiest way to pay off, certainly the credit cards anyway, and I can look at the loan then the mortgage in time.

Monthly outgoings is tight as you can see, but manageable I think now, with the two new cards. particularly the and more one.

I hope that all makes sense to you, and I would be grateful for your advice please?

Thanks all

Vickicb

Welcome!

I would BT the following onto the 2 new cards as they are the highest interest rates:

Mint Credit Card - 16.9% £231.23 - £5.70 per month
RBS credit card - 16.9% - £1846.62 - £40.00 per month
Egg Credit Card - 16.9% - £747.19 - £11.34 per month
Argos Card (3 piece suite) 25.9% - £353.45 - £14.14 per month

Plus ONE of these:
Virgin Credit card - 15.9% £870.38 - £12.45 per month
Capital One Credit Card 15.9% £1050.37 - £51.91 per month

Why is your TV licence so much?

scottish_blend

because I moved into my house in July - they said I have to pay more?

I am going to check with them tho as speaking to my sister she says she's about a tenner.

Should say also I am looking on uswitch for the gas and electricity side of things, I have recently switched to tiscali from AOL and saved a tenner, plus got free evening and weekend calls too, and also looking at reducing the sky package - altho I'd like to keep it if possible - looks like a few long lonely nights in are coming my way :D:D

thesaint

Could you put a total for your outgoings?

£9 for lottery, is this necessary?

Sky, did you have it installed in May of last year? I ask because as far as i'm aware, you don't need to have your chosen(Expensive) package for a year.

The same with the mobile, most networks allow you to downgrade after 'x' amount of months to a cheaper tariff.

I am only guessing though about your situation.

scottish_blend

total outgoings at the moment is £1145, sorry

yes - I'm looking at downgrading the sky package just now, also with the mobile - they say I need to wait six months (its 02) which is up at the endof this month - so I'll be going that too (and going PAYG next year I think )

The lottery is kind of a "trap" now in that I have played the same numbers since it started and I'm kind of scared to cancel (I know I know) with the luck I've had recently - I'd cancel it tomorrow and they'd come up on saturday

CLAPTON

your totals look like this

income 1274

spending 878 (include mortgage but excludes debt repayments)

leaving 396 for debt repayment

actual min repayment 265

which leaves about 130 spare each month

first thing is do you actually have 130 spare each month...i will asssume not.

a. start a spending diary and see where all your money goes. your spending look a little light to me ...there seems nothing there for any clothes, any socialising, haircuts, any optical/dental/medical, any magazines/newspapers, any weekends away, holidays, any work lunches/coffees etc

b. your groceries spending of 50 seems unrealistically small.

c. how much is the scotlegal worth..is it an endowment...probably worth cashing it in and using the money to reduce debt.

thesaint

scottish_blend wrote:

total outgoings at the moment is £1145, sorry

yes - I'm looking at downgrading the sky package just now, also with the mobile - they say I need to wait six months (its 02) which is up at the endof this month - so I'll be going that too (and going PAYG next year I think )

The lottery is kind of a "trap" now in that I have played the same numbers since it started and I'm kind of scared to cancel (I know I know) with the luck I've had recently - I'd cancel it tomorrow and they'd come up on saturday

I was in the lottery trap as well, I used the same numbers each week from day one. When they started the Wednesday draw I immediately stopped because it would double (£1x2) my weekly dabble. Unless you watch that awful lottery show, you will never see your numbers anyway. It's not the news it once was. Just ditch it.

scottish_blend

CLAPTON wrote:

your totals look like this

income 1274

spending 878 (include mortgage but excludes debt repayments)

leaving 396 for debt repayment

actual min repayment 265

which leaves about 130 spare each month

first thing is do you actually have 130 spare each month...i will asssume not.

a. start a spending diary and see where all your money goes. your spending look a little light to me ...there seems nothing there for any clothes, any socialising, haircuts, any optical/dental/medical, any magazines/newspapers, any weekends away, holidays, any work lunches/coffees etc

b. your groceries spending of 50 seems unrealistically small.

c. how much is the scotlegal worth..is it an endowment...probably worth cashing it in and using the money to reduce debt.

Was thinking of the scotlegal one, might enquire as to the value of the plan at the moment - and perhaps even look at cashing it in and replacing it with something that matures every 5 years or so, as it was originally planned to use it for a car.

Yes, not a lot left for socialising - hence why I said lots of long lonely nights in front of the telly Fortunately a few of my mates are in similar positions too, so friday or saturday evenings at each others houses instead of the pus is helping us all debt bust

I'll have to play it by ear re the groceries I guess - take a note of everything I spend over the next couple of months. Altho I did a monthly shop on saturday there, and sepnt £46 and my freezer is full. At work I have soup or toast or something at lunchtime, so maybe it is do-able for a few months - one thing is for sure I am going to have to give it a go, because I'm on my tod

Its a long hard road ahead - but I'm willing to give it a go - as you say - perhaps for the first couple of months of the year, a debt diary is the way to go?

scottish_blend

I took out the loan in July last year - is it worthwhile shifting the loan?

Northern Rock would loan £6000 for £139.95 over 4 years. Would knock 6 months payments off it? for an extra £9.91 per month?

I don't know anything about interest payments or that - is that worth doing does anyone know?

scottish_blend

Thanks to all by the way - I appreciate you taking the time - my head is absolutely swimming with numbers right now :S