in debt and dont no where to start

lostnfound

Okay Im in the same boat as comeonthetic cept its my hubby that doesnt listen about debt,he doesnt realise anything is wrong until im about to crack under the strain of it all,an by gawd have i been there a couple of times and it looks like im in trouble again.We have about £20000 in debt and need to turn it around so that we have money to save and spare cash to treat our kids once in a while.Both of us are on low incomes and have tax credits to bump it up but it doesnt make a dent in our debt it will be 5 years before we are debt free.

lostnfound

Okay here goes this is what we earn and what we pay out :
Hubby weekly wage : £210
Mine monthly : £300
Tax Credits weekly: £104
Family Allowance monthly: £154

Okay the worst part expenditures:
endow policy: £26.60 monthly
house & contents insurance: £23.14 monthly
car insurance: £35.46 monthly
mortgage: £323.34 monthly
sky: £18.99 lowest package monthly
sentanta sports: £6.99 monthly
tv liscence: £10.49 monthly
cahoot :£38.98 monthly
cahoot loan: £43.74 monthly
lombard loan : £265.45 monthly
british gas services : £13.31 monthly
sottish power: £48.00 monthly
scottish gas: £34.00 monthly
provident loan: £133.00 monthly
bt: £30.00 monthly
next: £20.00 monthly
index: £20.00 monthly
argos: £20.00 monthly
aol: £24.99 monthly
fuel: £15.00 weekly

okay at the moment council tax not included because ive paid for the year but it due to start again an it will be approx £124 monthly when it starts again.We remortgaged the house last year but it didnt help our situation even though we got a fixed rate for 5 years so if anyone has any ideas how to bail us out again it would be appreciated mean while ill look on the site for pointers in the right direction. Thanks in advance.

katglasgow

Have you used Martin's articles to see if you can save on Gas and Electricity? The Scottish Power bill seems very huigh. At the moment I get both gas and elec through Scottish gas so I get a duel fuel discount but when May comes I'll have been in my current house for a year so I'm going to look at all possible options agan then once I know how my usage averages out for a year.

Also I am saving a lot on my phone bill now thanks to this site. I pay £11 per month to BT for Line Rental (Option 1) by standing order - they call it monthly payment plan. I then registered with 18866 AND 1899 for the cheaper calls. Now all my landline calls are 1p for unlimited time! I am paying 1899 c.£2 per month for calls to mobiles and 18866 c.£1.80 every 2 months for all landline calls.

Thats about all I know cos I'm only learning myself but mahbe its a start.
I'd like to get my home insurance down too as I feel this should be my next step. Hope you get some more advice x

robnye

couple of quick pointers

look for cheaper broadband connection - aol £24.99, others available

sky package... could you suspend it for 6 months.......

bt...... look at using 18866 (i think thats what it is called)

what is the setanta sport.......? do you need it...?

list the amounts and % interest rates.... for more pointers

Grumpy_Old_Duffer

First, welcome!! If 'comeonthetic' thread is anything to go by, you're certainly going to get some help here. Read his thread first, you might get some decent 'tips' other than monetary.

1. Have a look at your mortgage ... try to see if you can get a lower rate.
2. Look at all the 'Store' cards .... transfer to a 0% Credit Card.
3. Also consolidate the other loans to 0% Credit Card (gives you some breathing space until you can get yourselves sorted).
4. Get rid of the Pay for satellite channels ...... they're all crap now-a-days anyway (all the local pubs in my area have taken out their Sky channels, that should tell you something).
5. If you want 'some' additional sport get a Freeview box, or better still, cancel Sky BUT KEEP THE DECODER ... you can get Freeview using that and it'll cost you nothing.
6. Why are you paying to British Gas AND Scottish Gas?
7. Sign-up with 18866 ... landline calls cost 1p regardless of duration.
8. What's the £15/week fuel??
9. Pay the Family Allowance into oventry Buildind Society (7.25%)

Just a few quick observations ..... but there will probably be many more!!

Mentalminis_2

only a couple of small savings that i can think of i'm afraid as i'm not entirely sure of all the items on your list.

I have just changed my phone provider over to homecall, it is costing me £4.50 a month now and i get free evening (after 6pm to 7am) and weekend calls (6pm friday to 7am monday) this is for both local and national calls, i am still paying bt their line rental but thats costs me £10.50....so in total it would cost in theory £15 a month, a saving of £15 a month

another reduction would be the sky, the kids won't like it i know but that would save you £18.99.

total saving would be £33.99 a month

whats sentanta sports???

lostnfound

okay sentanta sports is Rangers tv which hubby wanted but doesnt even watch,in regards to transferring our loans to 0% credit cards we cant get cards to even cover the amount we owe.Another thing about credit cards hubby doessnt approve of them so no chance of getting one anyway.Will look in to changing the bt situation.I pay scottish power for both my electric and gas sorry i wrote it wrong.The Fuel is petrol for our car.Will get the apr`s on all the loans an post back in a little whil.

Grumpy_Old_Duffer

lostnfound wrote:

Another thing about credit cards hubby doessnt approve of them ...

Hubby needs to get his bumps read .... what does he think the difference is between a Credit Card and a Store Card ..... basically they're same thing, except you're probably paying more for the Store Cards.

With my Credit Card (Goldfish) which I pay-off every month, I collect the 'points' which I can exchange for vouchers at Asda ... pays for the 'big' Xmas shop every year.:j

Mobicate

BT!!!!

I would recommend calling BT and asking them to move you to OPTION1

this is £10.50 a mth when you pay by direct debit

I use carphone warehouse for calls (TALKTALK)

http://www.talktalk.co.uk - Its free to register and theres no contract and they give you free calls to ANY local or National numbers ANYTIME in the evening and weekend for upto 70 mins... if your approaching the 70 mins you can hang up and call back for another 70 mins.. all the other calls - like calls through the day are gauranteed 30% cheaper!!

If you get someone to recommend you to talktalk You will get £10 on your first bill too!!

Secondly..... Sentana has to go! Thats 72 quid a year!! doesnt seem alot but its one of your store cards paid off for 3 months!

Someone has suggested this already - GET RID OF SKY!
We have just purchased a freeview box! dixons and currys have them im sure i saw them when I was wandering around!
Its a one off fee of around £30 for it... you tune it in and it gives you loads of extra channels!! there isnt a monthly fee!!

thats a massive 18.99 saved a month!


ARE YOU CONTRACTED TO AOL?

Talktalk also have 1MB broadband this month for £15.00

so thats a total of £25 a month for your landline and broadband if you combine the package!!

pickle

- I'm only paying £13.50 a month for sky for the basic package - so maybe you need to ask for a current package booklet to see what the current prices are. If you get t.v. reception where you and freeview reception then i'd get rid of sky and do what others have suggested & get a freeview box (make sure your area receives the signal before buying the freeview box though - mine doesn't).
- Look at the interest rates on the loans and see if you can move the more expensive interest rate loans onto the cheaper ones. I imagine the store cards must have hefty interest rate charges?! If you look at the 0% rate credit cards then you have to look at what interest rate applies once the interest free period has ended. You may not be able to move it to another 0% loan if the banks decide they no longer want to offer these deals, so look carefully at the small print.
- The way i dealt with my debts was to focus on one loan at a time and try and pay it off quickly so that i got a real sense of satisfaction when i could cross it off the list.

Edinburghlass_2

Can I suggest that both the OP and Mentalminis pop over to the Telephone Boards and read Martin's thread here regarding signing up for Onetel for a year of free evening and w/end calls with a £20 call credit for signing up. TalkTalk also have a similar package and as mentioned have now brought out a broadband package which includes free evening and w/end calls for a year. This is being discussed here.

The TalkTalk broadband package is new and therefore will attract a fair amount of critical posts but for £15 a month calls and broadband I think its probably worth looking at.

Also as already posted sign up for 18866 and you should make an inroad into your telephony costs!