Indigofire's get out of debt diary.

indigofire

I went to HSBC to see about a new banking account and was dismayed to find that due to my dismal credit history I could only get there basic bank account. Which wouldnt help me what so ever. So I went to my actual bank and made an an appointment with there financial advisor so that I could see where they could help me.

I also got all the addresses of the credit groups and plan to send off to them.
I think that I have at least £20,000 worth of debt:eek: and I am only 23

My budget is as follows
Income: 956 (DLA, IS and HB)

The spend I know I pay out is
Rent: £360 (monthly)
Electric: £60 a month
Food: £100 a month (including feeding my cat and litter tray stuff)
Monthly Bank Charges: £38 (including £8 a month for there silver account)
Contract Mobile £30
Entertainment £25
Transport: £20 petrol (normal paid to my landlord for getting me around) I also have a bus pass.
Mobile Broadband £15 (I run an online forum)
Domain £0.66 (paid yearly.)
total £648

which leaves a total of £308 of money left over.

My plan is as follows for saving
Rent- Find somewhere cheaper to live.
Electric- Cut down on computer use
Food- Buy basic brand only
Montly Charges- This should stop on the 31st
Contract- Not go over my limit. Also 02 allows thethering so my plan is to use my phone instead of mobile broadband which will save me £15 a month
Transport- Stop relying on my landlord and put my bus pass to actual use. (the only problem is the nearest bus stop is 20 minutes away and its hard for me to walk without getting breatheless.)
Domain-Need and quite cheap.

Now to tackle my debts the plan is to get all my credit reports and then either go to CAB or contact CCCS and get away to repay all my debts. I want to debt free by the time I am 30. Which is seven years away.

I hope I can stick with this. Wish me luck.

Abcynthia

Good Luck Sounds like you've got some good ideas!

I am only 23 (24 this year) as well and we have just under 13K of debt.

Hovel_lady

Hello indigofire.
Sounds like you have a good plan of action.
Wishing you lots of luck, do update us with how things are going x

indigofire

Thank you guys. I just did there debt remedy and they said that it will take 1 year (with the debts I can remember) to be debt free, but I know I have lots more I cant remember.

indigofire

Well with the figure I think my debt is 20,000 it will take me 6 years and 9 months. I dont actually think it is that bad. I did a sum of money I should be getting for the next year and I will have extra money every 4 months or so which will be good.

indigofire

Google street view is brilliant. It allowed me to trace all my old address, but two (which were in 2004 when I was 16) and it has allowed me to see the dismal state my address history has been in for the last 6 years.

17 properties in 6 years is pretty awful. . Truth is its made me pretty sad.

However there is only one week of August left and I will beginning my debt free wannabe life starting September. (I dont get paid till the 1st anyway so theres no point.)

Heres the plan get a relistic budget set out.
Get a tin that you cant open and put all spare change at the end of the day in.
Any extra money paid into account (this happens every 4 months or so) will be placed into my savings account which will allow me at the end of the year (September 2012) to have some extra money which I will use to pay off my biggest debt at that time.

My trouble started when I was 17 and started a cycle of getting overdrawn. I had a normal account with lloyds tsb and was getting about 120 a month in benefits (not including housing benefit) I discovered that my account allowed a buffer of £50 and being the silly daft sod that I was used it. The problem was that this started a vicious cycle. Every time I got paid the buffer would take the money and then I would use the buffer for my benefits.

Then when I turned 18 Lloyd started charging me with a vengeance. Then the person who I was living with applied for me to get DLA which took 6 months. By then I was £1750 overdrawn with lloyds tsb. I rang up lloyds and they arranged an overdraft providing I payed a set amount each month. Then I get my backdated benefit and lloyds took the lot. and left me about £150 quid.

Then I took out an o2 contract and got addicted to psychic phonelines. (I was suffering a mental breakdown due to reporting my childhood abuser to the police and recovering from an operation where I was intensive care for a month) I racked up a bill of £3200. (why 02 let me do that at all is beyond me). Then I got a talk talk (I think) phone line and racked up £1600. Then Virgin where I racked up a further £1000. Then I applied for BT and they sensibly gave me an account where I had to top up and this helped.

My life at this time was a mess. My house would have given those cleaning shows nightmares. I was planning my suicide when I met my friend Tim. he took one look at my life and made me pack a bag and move to his.

My lloyd tsb account was bouncing out charges here there and everywhere. By the time I moved my account I was £3450 overdrawn.

I moved to a thinkbanking account. I was paying £12.50 and was actually having an account that wasnt causing me nightmares. After being with them for 18 months I grew tired of having to travel 34 miles to the nearest (royal bank of scotland) to get a big withdrawl.

So I changed to Natwest. Who I am quite happy with. I have been with them for about 17 months now and no major problems apart from a couple of charges which hopefully will be gone by wed next week.
I have had a couple of sim only contracts each ranging from 30-150
I have 1 housing arrears and 1 council tax bill. Sky and a phone accounts. 1 catalogue and provident and thats it. accounts and thats it. I think the realistic figure is about £15000 debt.

I also suspect that my mum has taken credit out in my name. When I get my credit report I will find it. If she has I will report her to the police. (no love lost)

So yeah now I have a clear picture hopefully I can get all of this sorted and be debt free by the time I am 30.

greenanne

morning indigofire.
as a new subscriber here myself i can tell that you have already done the most important thing.that is you have reolised that you have a problem that you can't put off doing something about any longer.
i hope your new plan of action has given you a feeling of being back in control of your life

indigofire

Thank you Greenanne.
Started a spending dairy and had a look at a credit report, but it doesnt have my full credit history so it isnt upto date. Tomorrow I will type up all my addresses with the dates and send them off to the credit report companies. I cancelled my 12 month contract with 02 and decided to stick with 3. 3 have already tried to tie me into a 24 month contract, but I have told them I wasnt interested. oh and I put £1.99 in a sealed jar.

indigofire

Just phoned virgin media and my debt is actually £648.99 which is a relief. (I thought it was about £1500)

indigofire

Considering cancelling my 3 contract. Its only one month rolling sim, but with me entering a debt management plan there going to suggest I cancel it anyway. I am concerned though with me cancelling my phone line, my overdraft and my contract that I wont have any credit what so ever.

indigofire

:j
Have phoned all my creditors and got a true figure of my debt history. I only have £5510.78 worth of debt. Thats 3 quaters smaller then I thought. Woohooo.

I will be cancelling my overdraft on Wednesday and My one month rolling contract at the same time. I have also downgraded my account to the basic one where I cant get an overdraft.

My debt free life is starting.:)