wot-a-mess debt crisis

Itsadogslife_2

One thing that surprised me when I came on board was actually how many of us were in the same boat with the levels of debt that we have. Definitely agree with everyone else, SofA is the way forward. People are super friendly and supportive and best of all are full of good ideas to help with money saving and therefore debt busting :T

wolveslass

Hi wot-a-mess,

A year ago I was in a similar situation to you, with similar numbers of credit cards. When I had my LBM the first thing I did was to remove all credit cards from my purse!

Then I got them all to 0% and started overpaying on those with the shortest balance transfer offers. I have set up a very detailed excel spreadsheet which shows total starting debt, all separate cards/loans/ payment dates/ end of balance transfers dates/ debt owing etc.

I had a really good 6 months then had a set back when all balance transfer offers seemed to be ending at once and I had every good card going! My response was to look at the figures and take out a loan to cover the large majority of the debt at the lowest interest rate I could find. This means less different cards to juggle (I now have just 3 to keep track of, all on 0%) and an end date for the large chunk of my debt.

I know some people hate the idea of consolidation but I was struggling to keep track of the cards and when the 0% offers had ended I would have accrued masses of interest. Not only this but by transferring debt from so many cards I was accruing a lot of fees. My loan means that I have a set interest rate (lower than the cards would be) and I no longer get charged fees.

For me it has worked well. Now my debt drops by on average £700-£800 a month. This will slow very soon as I am due to go on maternity but I am throwing as much at them as possible for now. I have a small amount of savings to take into my maternity leave, but my current dilemma is, do I keep these savings for emergency or do I pay off a debt in full?

Any comments/advice gratefully received!

wot-a-mess

Iam very grateful indeed for all of this advice & support within a single day. It's quite ovewhelming really.

Iam also a bit bleary-eyed by reading thro so much on this forum tonight & there are so many good ideas. Some things that can be done within the next few days:

1. STOP using credit cards unless in a real emergency
2. STOP buying anything that is not required
3. Do budgets & financial plans & stick to the plans
4. Be realistic in what is achieveable
5. Spend less on weekly shopping & be creative with healthy meals
6. Look at ways of generating extra cash
7. Target 1 debt & try to clear it within a reasonable timeframe
8. Look at finances & see if better deals are available for anything
9. See if anything can be done to reduce current overdraft requirement.

This week some credit card payments are due & Iam really looking forward to my signature showing a step in the right direction.

Thanks again to everyone who has been so very supportive & understanding.

silkglade

Hi and welcome, Good luck on the start of your journey.... You have taken the hardest and most important steps already.

I have a huge debt hanging over my head too....

I have decided to just think and work on one debt at a time too as I think seeing quicker smaller results are important as you then really start to see a difference quickly.

I think it can be very deflating if you look at the total debt and think OMG this is going to take XX years to pay off!!! Almost seems endless.

Seems much better thinking oh this card will take xx months to clear then the minimum payments saved can go to the next one too and help to reduce the amount of time that one takes to pay off.

wot-a-mess

Slept like a baby last night. Think it was due to feeling much better with all the words of support on here.

£100 payment to a credit card today, so the 1st step has been taken. Another card payment is due later this week.

There's so much work to be done to sort out the mess, but I have worked out that one of the debts should be cleared by end of April next year which is a not-too-distant target.

scotdebs

Hi there W-A-M & welcome. I have very similar debts to yourself and like you am lucky enough that income is higher than outgoings (but not by much) ...for the moment.. if I had carried on the way I was then I think within 12 months time I would have been in real trouble (like 40K of cc debt isnt already trouble!:rotfl:)

Anyway I found doing a SOA really helped and for me identified that the biggest areas we overspend on are grocery shopping and takeaways.

Good luck with your journey lets get shot of the dasterdly cc's :mad: for once and for all!

wot-a-mess

Still need to do SOA but did an exersize about a year ago on insurances, etc., to get better deals plus I assess gas/elec. prices regularly, so the only things that stand out that may be able to be cut are: shopping, mobiles, home phone & internet.

I reckon after any tweaking is done to reduce outgoings that some extra income is defo gonna be required. Need to look at the ideas on here.

I'm still a bit overwhelmed by all the support on here & hopefully I can get the chance later in the week to read even more diaries for inspiration & ideas.

wot-a-mess

Very tired today - Hard day at work.

Ive just calculated that really need to try to generate over £100 (preferably £150) per month extra cash. This is required to ensure that all the debt payments are made & I dont need to use anything from credit cards. Thinking cap needs to go on.

de1amo

İ can see your debt but know nothing about your assets-a soa will clarify your situation! i carry about 3k of personal debt but have liquid assets of about 300k returning higher returns than my credit which is all interest free--the soa will detail the interest rates being pay!

wot-a-mess

Bleary-eyed again with reading various excellent diaries & threads on here & continuing to plan what needs to be done. So far this week:

1. Stopped using credit cards.
2. Stopped using personal PAYG mobile - hardly use it anyway.
3. Got a better internet deal which includes line rental switch from BT.
4. Not wasted any money on anything that is not really required.
5. Signed up for survey sites. I know the rewards are pretty low but every little will help I guess.

A credit card payment is due tomorrow so another wee bit of progress in getting the debt down.

Having spent so much time on here this week reading diaries & threads it has becoming very apparent indeed that there is no "quick fix" & it looks like many small things can hopefully make a big difference.