Story of one man's LONG road to financial recovery

turbo.jet

Yes its never something I would have opted for knowingly

LondonGirl252

turbo.jet wrote: »

Thanks my DFWBud... Thanks for being happy for me. I hope I can continue to encourage you and provide useful tips!

I'd like that if you have time! Keep me on the straight and narrow please

turbo.jet

So, in half an hour I'm doing a 15 minute interview about laptop bags and will be [STRIKE]paid[/STRIKE] err I mean given a gift of £10 for my time

Another thing I've turned my mind to now that I am offically debt free (checked Barclaycard site today and the money has cleared - WOOHOO!) is how I will one day get on the property ladder.

I received the council newsletter in my email yesterday and they are having an open day on affordable housing in two weeks. They have various different schemes, one of which might suit me, to get first-time-buyers onto the ladder. I don't have a deposit yet, but they also have schemes to help with this. At the very least I'll find out what sort of deposit I need to get together before I can go down this route. Exciting times if anything comes from it!

Skint_but_Optimistic

Im doing an hour long phone call next week, and get 25 pounds!!

turbo.jet

Skint_but_Optimistic wrote: »

Im doing an hour long phone call next week, and get 25 pounds!!

Nice one! I might try and get a gig like that!

Horace

Well done Turbo :j You have given me some hope, I am going to ask for my unfair bank charges back, I shall then close the account and move to a different bank - although I love my current provider I feel that their charges are punitive so it is like banking with a smile whilst we punch your lights out:mad:

debtfreewannabe321

fabulous news T-J! Very happy for you

:beer:

turbo.jet

@Horace I had a reply started but it seems to have disappeared. D'oh!

I HIGHLY recommend doing it. I claimed back £1650 in overdraft fees and together with the £7K PPI reclaim, this was a large portion of my overall £20K debt (mind you this doesn't include interest I've paid over the years!). It only takes a small amount of time and the cost of a stamp. Go for it.

You are right, they do seem to give with one hand and take with the other, and I have thought of giving HSBC the flick as a result, but I know that a long histry with the same bank for your current account looks good to mortgage lenders, and this, coupled with the fact that they are all as bad as each other, has made me stick with them. Their customer service seems to have gotten really good lately.

@DFW - Thanks for your comments. I look foward to the day you feel this way too!

Horace

Turbo - I shall definitely go for the charge reclaiming, I am considering opening an account with a credit union to keep my cash away from the bank so that I can at least save something.

Must admit that I think you are mad to be here in the UK instead of being in Australia - I would be off there like a flash, but alas I am now too old as I fall outside the age restriction:( I do love Oz and spent 15 days there in 2003 - I took loads of pics and visited loads of places and when I showed my then work colleague where I had been, he immediately became homesick and booked a flight home:rotfl: Turns out that I had taken one photograph in a park overlooking Bondi Beach which was his favourite place. One day, when I am richer than I am now I will go back and spend a bit longer in places where I only managed to grab a day or so before moving on.

turbo.jet

Well... Aus is an amazing place but it will always be there, but you can't easily travel to Europe from there. The goal while being here was to see lots of the world, while spending pounds instead of Aussie $$$'s. This should be more achievable now.