Debt Free before my 25th birthday.

MusicalLawyer

I have made an aim to save £1000 for 2012.

I am going to save £80 per pay packet (every 4 weeks) and put it in to a Cash ISA account.
In 2013, all my debts will have been paid off. Giving me an extra £90 per month. I will therefore, in 2013, save £150 per month, allowing me to save £1950 - I shall put in an extra £50 over Xmas as i ALWAYS have over time! Hopefully by the end of 2013 I will have saved £3000.

October 2012, I also receive a lump sum of £2500. This will also go in to the savings, making a total of £5500 in 2 years.

I am savings this as me and OH are wanting a mortgage when our defaults are off our credit files (2016!) and once I have qualified as a solicitor. I am aiming to save something like £10,000 - not including any interest which may be added.

MusicalLawyer

Things I NEED to do tomorrow;
- Ring Job Centre re paying crisis loan back, from 2010. (£82.20)
- Ring Gothia re F&F settlement on Wonga PDL (£150)

MusicalLawyer

Been trying to ring the DWP Debt Management team re Crisis Loan of £82.20 - keep getting the same message that they're unavailable for two days now. Will continue to try and ring them tomorrow, if not I will have to pop down to Job Centre!

Decided that, instead of saving £100 per month, I will use this money to pay off my remaining debts.
Then I will then start to save this money.

Therefore this is how it should work;

Feb 24th
Pay usual £25 to Gothia Ltd, leaving £292.61
Pay usual £65 + £90 to Littlewoods leaving £200.
Pay £41.10 to DWP re Crisis Loan leaving £41.10.

By this time Littlewoods should have responded with the SAR.
I can see from statements at hand that they owe me 6 x £12 unfair charges, which = £72.
If refunded, should leave me with £128 outstanding to Littlewoods.

March 23rd
Pay usual £25 to Gothia Ltd, leaving £267.61.
Pay off £128 to Littlewoods.
Pay off remaining £41.10 to DWP re Crisis Loan.

April 20th
Pay settlement of approx £200 to Gothia.

May onwards - I will be £90 per month better off ( as I don't have to pay debts ) and this money (plus extra £10) will go in to savings account

MusicalLawyer

Spoke to Gothia Ltd via Email. Agreed a settlement of 75% of the debt (£238.21) to be paid in full and final settlement on 25th February 2012! This will be paid using the usual £25 from the month, plus £213.21 from wages.

This will then leave just;
Littlewoods - £355
DWP - £82.20

MusicalLawyer

Haven't updated this in a while!

25th Feb saw me settle my Gothia debt at 75%. (£238.21).

This now leaves me with a £302 Littlewoods debt (I got a £12 charge for paying a couple of hours late grrr). And an £82.20 debt with DWP for a Crisis Loan in 2010.

So I owe a total of £384.20!
Been doing overtime to pay off quicker, however finally went to the dentist and need some work done = costly!

MusicalLawyer

OK so.. I am doing overtime this month.
I'm going to have just under £300 spare this month.

I still haven't heard from Littlewoods regarding my SAR request, which i should have received on Feb 25th. I'm going to write them a letter 'reminding' them that they're in breach of some rule or other (think it's ICO). Then also send them another letter detailing that I want my £72 of 'get collection letter' charges refunded. I will then be able to completely clear the balance at the end of March!

I am going to try my luck at writing to the creditors I have defaults with;
Wonga, QuickQuid, Capital One, Vanquis and Santander. All but the latter were defaulted in consecutive months September to December in 2010. So even if I can get 2 of these off that'd be awesome! Not too bothered about the Santander one as that falls off my file in Aug 2013.

When I ring the DWP Debt Management I just get put through to an Automated payment thing - so I'll ring them again on April's payday and clear this £80 odd Crisis Loan, which they aren't even chasing me for

Then I can concentrate on savings!
I so far have £60 in my ShareSave, and £30 in my Savings bank - it's a start! I am aiming to save something like £900 - £1000 by the end of 2012.

MusicalLawyer

Letters to my 5 creditors have been written. Just need to print them off after dinner, and get ready to post them before my lecture tomorrow afternoon.

About to write letter to Littlewoods to 'remind' them about my SAR request that I sent to them in January. I did remind them via their 'contact us' bit online to no avail!

MusicalLawyer

Another payment made to Littlewoods!

Now owing just £299.20!