£18,000 in debt and need advice!!

Blueyes42

Hi there!

I have a bank loan of £6,000 (payments are £166 per month) thi sis with Lloyds bank. A Halifax credit card with nearly £8,000 on it and a Satander Zero credit card with £4,800 on it!! I have a good job working for a very large media compnay but I am on a day rate of £105 per day with no holiday or sick pay. This is a contract job for the forseeable next few years or so working on a project.

My monthly outgoings are:
Mortgage: £500
Council tax: £80
Service charge £85
Halifax c/c card £ 95
Santander c/card £110
Loyds bank loan £166
Water £30
Electricity £ 25
Travel £ 120
Food £ 150 (minimum)
Mobile bill £ 30
Internet £ 20
TV licence £ 12
Landline £ 20
Social birthdays/ clothes etc: £30 (although actually I should be spending nothing on this!!)

Total : £ 1,443 Monthly earnings around = £ 1300

problem is I am paying out so much interest and there is no spare money to have a life!!!!!!!!!! Every time someone asks me to go to a BBQ or do anything, my first thought is, I can't afford ANYTHING...

I have looked for part time weekend work in London but nothing so far.. I am trying to do the credit card tart thing but getting refused 0% balance transfer rates. I don't want to be tied into a loan where there is no flexibility to sclae up or down the payments.

There is equity in my flat - the mortgage is £111,000 and worth at least £160,000 so I am wondering if I should borrow money on the mortgage???

My job is a long busy 10 hour day so I have had little time to work on a CV for part time work unfortunately or spend any time trying to sort this out. At this rate I will be taking YEARS to pay off this debt!!

Any help much appreciated - thank you!

Tixy

Hi and welcome

How big is the property, would there be any chance to get a lodger to help out financially?
How have you been managing so far with the £140odd shortfall? are you in arrears with any of your debts?
You will be being refused for % cards as any potential lender won't think you could afford repayments on another credit card.

Probably not many areas you can reduce your spending but a couple of things to look at
water - is this a meter or unmeasured? if unmeasured research to see if a meter would be cheaper
travel - do you buy a monthly pass or whatever works out cheapest?
landline & internet - could probably get a cheaper deal by getting a combined deal from somewhere (think they start around £25 or so).
Food - try to reduce a little, try meal planning before you go shopping and try the drop a brand challenge.

I wouldn't secure the debt on your house, as if anything happens to reduce your income your house is then at a greater risk. Do you know about debt management plans? it might be that this would be a sensible option for you, where you will default on your agreements and then pay reduced payments to your creditors (via a debt advice charity).
This would have a big impact on your credit file and you can't take out more credit whilst on the DMP, but it would mean you wouldn't get further into debt and can manage your budget better.

Mrs_Arcanum

One option is to pay the minimum off the 0% interest card and pay as Much as possible off Halifax. Can you get any perks toward TV, landline & mobile through work? If not you could look at the mobile contract & downgrade or make sure you use the full benefit each month & save call costs on the landline.

Blueyes42

Tixy wrote: »

Hi and welcome

How big is the property, would there be any chance to get a lodger to help out financially?
How have you been managing so far with the £140odd shortfall? are you in arrears with any of your debts?
You will be being refused for % cards as any potential lender won't think you could afford repayments on another credit card.

Probably not many areas you can reduce your spending but a couple of things to look at
water - is this a meter or unmeasured? if unmeasured research to see if a meter would be cheaper
travel - do you buy a monthly pass or whatever works out cheapest?
landline & internet - could probably get a cheaper deal by getting a combined deal from somewhere (think they start around £25 or so).
Food - try to reduce a little, try meal planning before you go shopping and try the drop a brand challenge.

I wouldn't secure the debt on your house, as if anything happens to reduce your income your house is then at a greater risk. Do you know about debt management plans? it might be that this would be a sensible option for you, where you will default on your agreements and then pay reduced payments to your creditors (via a debt advice charity).
This would have a big impact on your credit file and you can't take out more credit whilst on the DMP, but it would mean you wouldn't get further into debt and can manage your budget better.

Hi Tixy,

Thanks for your reply = apologies - I hope you receive this answer as I'm struggling to find my way around this website!!

The property is a two bedroom flat - I do have short term lodgers who have helped out over the past year but to be honest the problem is that I need to start a spending diary in order to STOP FRITTERING the money away. I am very unhappy and then I'll go and spend money on coffee or male up - ridiculous!!

I am starting to get into serious arreas with bottlenecks of credit card payments but there i no arrears on the mortgage

I have just managed to get a Post office credit card and transfer the balance from teh Halifax card to teh Post office card at a 0% rate

I don't have sky TV but am looking at possibll reducing payments by using Virgin media and getting rid of the landline and the existing internet/ mobile deals...

A water meter cannot be installed in the flat due to age and layout of the building so that's a no unfortunatley.

I get a monthly pass yes..for zones 1,2 and 3 so quite good value.. Food - I never have dinner because I can't afford it

The IVAs lock you in so then when I need to re-mortgage next March when my 3.79% deal ends I won't be able to re-mortgae which would be a disaster! have looked into credit unions but none near me in west norwood.. I would love to get some sort of weekend job which would make me feel like at least I was putting extra money into paying off the debt, not just scrimping for the next 8 years or so..... I am 43 and should not be in this position! I really need to get my finger out and do my CV and apply for a part time job! Thank you so much for your reply though, it has made me feel better when before that I hadn't even got one respnse!! :-) :-)

jellybean39

Hi and welcome

Could you reduce your mobile landline and internet seems very high for all of it? dont know who u r with but could u not get internet with your mobile instead of landline? I know the feeling of the 10 hour days but the peeps on here keep u really motivated to get yourself sorted. Dont worry it will get better. have you got anything you can sell on ebay bit of a drag i know but i made a fair bit selling stuff i would normally chuck x somebody will be along to help out with the deal things much better in the know than me good luck xxxx

Blueyes42

Mrs_Arcanum wrote: »

One option is to pay the minimum off the 0% interest card and pay as Much as possible off Halifax. Can you get any perks toward TV, landline & mobile through work? If not you could look at the mobile contract & downgrade or make sure you use the full benefit each month & save call costs on the landline.

Hi there!

Thanks so much for your reply! Yes, I might have just sorted the Halifax credit card by transferring to a 0% card so that's something and I will see what Virgin Media can offer me. Cannot get any perks from work!! unfortunately. How do I show my spending diary on here liek everyone else does? I can't seem to find that calculator?? :-) Thanks again

Tixy

On an IVA you would probably struggle to remortgage. However on a DMP people usually find that they can lock into a new fixed deal with their existing mortgage provider. So they may lose the flexibility of being able to shop around for the very best deal, but don't have to end up on the SVR.
Might be worth talking to one of the debt charities perhaps - just to see what they say without commiting to anything. IMPORTANT - Where to seek professional impartial advice about your debts.

Very good idea to start a spending diary, this can be crucial to changing things. I guess at the moment are you paying off the cards but then needing to reuse them each month?

Bit worrying about the not having dinner. £150 should be easily enough to eat well. Might be worth popping on the oldstyle board for some ideas on cutting costs and really cheap meals (there are some that manage families of 4 or 5 for £200 on groceries on there, so it can be done, and they should be able to help with some ideas that might work for you. The grocery challenge thread at the top of the oldstyle section can be a very interesting read. Old Style MoneySaving and August 2011 Grocery Challenge

Obviously a part time job would be great if you could get one to fit around the main job, good luck with the jobhunting.

Blueyes42

jellybean39 wrote: »

Hi and welcome

Could you reduce your mobile landline and internet seems very high for all of it? dont know who u r with but could u not get internet with your mobile instead of landline? I know the feeling of the 10 hour days but the peeps on here keep u really motivated to get yourself sorted. Dont worry it will get better. have you got anything you can sell on ebay bit of a drag i know but i made a fair bit selling stuff i would normally chuck x somebody will be along to help out with the deal things much better in the know than me good luck xxxx

Hi there,

Thanks so much for your reply - it really is motivating to have help form here!! I will try to reduce my mobile/ landline and internet via Virgin. I do have a new (free!) phone to use internet but being age 43 I'm afarid I'm still a bit of a luddite and don't know hwow to do this properly. I also get free internet at work and |I think Virgin offer only gives me 25 free mins internet at the moment! I just need to take some time to sort it all out which I haven't done so all my own fault really at the end of the day!! How did you do your diary which I see - I would like to do this too?? need motivation to se ethe balances going down! I am just avoiding opening letters from the bank at the moment! Yes, will try to do the E bay thing but at presnt my 6 year year old Dell laptop has died on me and my work lap top will not connect to my inetrenet at home and I just can't seem to get anyone to help me find out why!!! In teh eman time I'm losing money left right and centre!! :-(

Any way thanks again, much appreciated! :-)

Blueyes42

Thanks Tixy! Really good advice, I will keep you posted. Sorry for my terrible typos. I did try to reply but iy would not let me before as it said that sa a new user I was not allowed to post with links (which weere in your original message) which seems a bit strange if somneone is reading this reply and then can't see your original helpfil link hmmmm

Tixy

Ah yes it does that with links, even if they are for this site. Its an anti spam policy from when we had hundred of spammers targeting the site.
You can just delete them from a post if you do want to quote a reply to someone.

Can you get someone from work to help with the computer? do you have an IT person? (maybe you can say you need to be able to log on from home with work computer for work purposes - its what I did with mine!)

Failing that we do have a techy board here who may be able to offer a bit advice about connecting online - if you post and ask for some simplified advice (otherwise they start talking in techy speak where I don't even understand some of the questions!)

Spirit_2

Your employement status sounds odd.

I suggest you post on the jobs board for advice about entitlements to paid holidays.