Debt advice with SOA Info

SomersetLad_2

Hi,

I've managed to get myself a bit of debt (approx £10K). To be honest it isn't unmanageable, and I am making the payments each month (even if some of them are the minimums). I'm planning on increasing my income but at present I want to seek advice from people on here on how to progress my debt or find the best way of paying it off. It's about time I cleared this off and stopped lining the hungry banks pockets.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1681
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1681

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 383
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 64
Council tax............................. 96
Electricity............................. 30
Gas..................................... 35
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 34
Telephone (land line)................... 14.08
Mobile phone............................ 30
TV Licence.............................. 15
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 5.11
Groceries etc. ......................... 160
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 48
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 12
Entertainment........................... 60
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1106.19


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 125000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 128000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 117000...(383)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 117000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Barclays Credit Card...........2383.6....68.76.....26.9
Sainsburys Loan................2836.16...227.......10.85
Natwest Overdraft..............4000......51.61.....18.28
Total unsecured debts..........9219.76...347.37....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,681
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,106.19
Available for debt repayments........... 574.81
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 347.37
Amount left after debt repayments....... 227.44

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 128,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -117,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -9,219.76
Net Assets.............................. 1,780.24

Created using the SOA calculator at
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

Appreciate all advice and please ask if there is anything else I need to add.

Thanks.

SomersetLad_2

Ideally I need to know if it would be better for me to go with a one off loan and shop for the lowest interest rate for the lot. OR should I get a loan for the overdraft and the existing loan, and then transfer my Barclay Card to a 0% interest credit card?

I would say I've got a squeeky clean credit score, never, ever miss a payment.

SomersetLad_2

BUMP

Any advice?

Niv

Hiya Somerset. Your SOA is far from complete. It will help you if you fill this out fully to give you a truer indication of any excess you have.

Dont you ever buy clothes?
Dont you pay road tax for your car?
Do you not maintain your car (inc MOT)?
Do you not have building and contents insurance? (Buildings is normally (Always) a condition of your mortgage)


Even if you pay these things in one offs you should be diving this by 12 and puttign that figure intot eh SOA.

Niv

Niv

As for how to consolitadte your debts. Have you spoken to your bank to see what size loan at what interest rate they will give you? This is what I would enquire to get a baseline for further decitions.

Niv

tallyhoh

Im assuming that your building insurance is with your management charge but you should still have contents insurance.

joedenise

As Niv says your SOA is incomplete and you need to add everything you spend in.

Your debts are not unmanageable but rather than get a loan to clear them I think it would be better if you snowball them, ie pay as much as you can to your higest interest credit card (Barclaycard) minimums to the others. Once Barclaycard is paid off then move on to the next highest (O/D) and then finally your loan.

It is never a good idea to consolidate credit card debt into a loan as it means you could still run up the CCs again and would end up in the same situation you are currently in.

Denise

Tixy

Hi

You need to do a full SoA to include budgeting for items you don't pay for every month (so that you don't need to dip back into credit cards etc when big bills appear).

Given your salary and current level of debt and the large overdraft you may find it difficult to get a consolidation loan cheaper than your existing debts - if at all. Any new lender will judge your new consolidation loan to be in addition to your existing debts (in case you choose not to consolidate), so would be looking at up to £20k of debt.

Some comments on your SoA.

SomersetLad wrote: »

Hi,
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1681
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1681

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 383
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 64
Council tax............................. 96 are you claiming the 25% single occupier discount?
Electricity............................. 30
Gas..................................... 35
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 34 have you looked into getting a meter which should be cheaper if you live alone, If this is metered do a leak test and try to reduce your usage.
Telephone (land line)................... 14.08
Mobile phone............................ 30
TV Licence.............................. 15
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 5.11
Groceries etc. ......................... 160 you could probably try reducing this a little.
Clothing................................ 0 probably need to budget for something here.
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 0 need to budget for this
Car Insurance........................... 48
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0 budget for new tyres, servicing, MOTs etc (work out the annual cost and budget 1/12)
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0 may need to budget something here - dentist check ups, eye tests, odd prescriptions etc?
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0 budget for this and contents (or if you don't have it I'd suggest you look into getting some)
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 12
Entertainment........................... 60
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1106.19


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 125000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 128000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 117000...(383)......0 is this repayment or interest only? is it a fixed APR? what APR?
Total secured & HP debts...... 117000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Barclays Credit Card...........2383.6....68.76.....26.9
Sainsburys Loan................2836.16...227.......10.85
Natwest Overdraft..............4000......51.61.....18.28
Total unsecured debts..........9219.76...347.37....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,681
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,106.19
Available for debt repayments........... 574.81
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 347.37
Amount left after debt repayments....... 227.44

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 128,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -117,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -9,219.76
Net Assets.............................. 1,780.24

Created using the SOA calculator at
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

Appreciate all advice and please ask if there is anything else I need to add.

Thanks.

Presumably you don;t have the £227 spare currently? Try to work out where it is going and how much you should really have spare. Then target any extra payments you have against your most expensive debt - the BC credit card.

You say you hope to increase your income? can you start that now? How big is your place - would it be possible to have a lodger to help out with house costs (its tax free income).

Have you any things you can sell to try to raise money towards your debts?

foxgloves

I would snowball the debts rather than get a consolidation loan. Consolidation loans can reduce monthly payment amounts, but you usually pay for longer, so more interest (thus giving even more to the greedy banks you mention!). Also as someone who watched partner consolidate 3 times, it only moves debt around, it doesn't do anything about stopping the overspending/non-budgetting behaviour which caused the debts in the first place, therefore, the credit card debt, overdraft, etc, just grows again. I would never again take on more debt to try & get rid of debt.