Desperate To Be Debt Free

GreenSaints

Hi Dolly - hope you had a good Christmas and New Year. Going to start properly a week on Monday - sounds bad I know, but I'm away on a course for another week so I've not been eating properly.

2012 will be skinny and debt free year to us both

Hi January - thanks for visiting again I'm still scraping by with a few pounds left!

I'm so angry today. I got a letter from First Direct about my unauthorised transaction. The jist of the letter was this:

• Dated 30 December (and I received it today)
• You made a subscription (yes, I know that, and cancelled it)
• Attached is a copy of the authorisation (which blatantly shows it was cancelled 19/12/2011)
• If we don't hear from you in 7 days, we'll debit your account on 6 January (which has no money, will put me over my OD as I don't have one, and then they'll charge me again!)

Seriously? It seems like they haven't been listening to me :mad:

So I rang them up and this how the conversation went like this:

• the Disputes Team have gone home
• they have tried to ring me that's why they sent a letter (absoulte b*llocks!)
• if they were going to debit the account they would have done so by now (so was that a threat? is that ethical?)
• we are trying to help you, we won't just leave you while this dispute is still going on (so why take the money out straight away then?)
• we'll get someone to call you back on Monday to help you (oh yeah, like last time?!)

I did have a bit of a cry when I got off the phone as the woman was quite rude. I did get a hug from BF though which helped. I've sent them a stern letter saying I want to close my sole account. I've had nothing but problems with them and they don't seem to want to help.

Oh well, nothing I can do until I get a call from them on Monday

January20

GreenSaints, no they don't listen until you " FYI, I am recording this call" and then their attitude is a whole lot different! Try it, even if you are not recording the call. And don't let the b****ers upset you. They are not worth it!

GreenSaints

Hi January - I'm a lot happier today, mainly because my expenses from work have been paid in so I have £100 in my account! Woohoo!

I rang xbox today and spoke to a really nice man who was genuinely interested in my problem. He said that the money has been refunded into my account on the 19 December. He said that there was nothing to worry about - the account owes no money and they owe me no money. So I'll be interested to see what First Direct have to say on Monday! :mad:

With regards to my debts in general, I need to update my payment total as I keep forgetting to add the PAYE payments to student loans every month. I've also applied for a Halifax Rewards account as they are now giving £100 when you switch as well as the £5 a month. £5 a month - that's not be sniffed at!

Hope you are having a nice weekend

January20

I'm glad you are feeling better! It's always so frustrating when you are trying to do battle with those faceless companies like banks and utilities! But great to hear about your expenses payment :T

So far, I'm having a great weekend, thanks. Did a couple of chores this morning, spent some time on here and then spent the entire afternoon in a coffee shop chatting to a friend. And because we chatted more than we drank, I spent less than £10 and that included coffee, my Metro fare there, and a bandage from Superdrug. Not bad for a whole afternoon in town

Enjoy Sunday!

GreenSaints

£10 for a day out in town is not bad at all! I have two free vouchers for Cafe Nero, but I don't drink coffee!

I haven't done any chores yet this weekend. I really should............oh wait, I emptied and filled the dishwasher. That totally counts!

January20

Oh yes that is a chore!!

Can you use your Cafe Nero vouchers on hot chocolate?

I realised around 2:30am that 2 shots of espresso in the last cappuccino I had was perhaps not such a good idea oops!

GreenSaints

Hi all,

Sorry for the lack of updates. It's because I was away for two weeks on a course so it's back to reality as it's my first day back at work!

So what can I tell you? Well, I got paid last Friday (thankfully!) so I'm comfortably in the black. This is what I'm [STRIKE]hoping[/STRIKE] going to achieve this month:

• Pay £500 to BC (£100 from Halifax for switching accounts, £65 from ChaCha, £25 from Retail Eyes and £20 from Amber Arch and the difference from my wages)
• Have 7 NSDs (hopefully more)
• Run 4 times a week (3 short runs in the week, long runs at weekend)
• No takeaways for a month (not good for my heart or wallet!)

There is still the ongoing saga with FD/xbox - but I'm just ignoring that for the time being! If they aren't willing to help me, I'm not going to give them my money! :mad:

January20

Hey GreenSaints, welcome back! What was the course like? Was it useful?
I bet you are relieved to have been paid!
I like your goals but I think I could only do the last too

GreenSaints

I went to train as a Gym Instructor. Completely different career path, but I really enjoyed it. I want to study next as a personal trainer, but I need to work out which method of study would be best. I suppose I need to get fit too!

I've also been paid for my mystery shopping (one of them at least) so have put that £20 to BC. I know my aim is to pay off all my debt this year, I don't think it'll be feasible. However, I do want to pay off a minimum of £7922.39 (so I'm at £15,000 exactly of debt) but if I can do more, then great! I would like to get it to £10,000.

So far, so good today. I've had an NSD, I did 30 Day Shred this morning and I'm hoping to have a nice, healthy meal tonight. Not so bad for the first Monday back

GreenSaints

Hi,

Just to keep this up to date, I thought I'd write how I've been getting on since my last post.

So I finally got paid for one of my mystery shops, so put that towards my CC. Still waiting for one more. One of my books sold on Amazon, so after fees and postage, that's probably another £10.

I've enrolled on an indoor cycling course which is in June. I've decided I'm going to enrol on the personal trainer course. So I've bought the books for that to get ahead. But the best thing of all is that I will be paying in cash - my own money, not the banks and not even my mum's! It's very liberating

I've been travelling to a different office for the past week (163 round trip!) so I've been spending a fortune in diesel. Obviously I'll get it back from work, but it won't be for another few weeks Just got to keep my eye on the account so I'm in the black!