Facing up to it, the OrangeProse way

OrangeProse

Hurrah, now have two interviews lined up in London in a couple of weeks.

Either would mean a pay rise of almost 70% - meaning I could solve all my debt problems myself in less than three years.

Fingers crossed for me please!

flowerofscotland

Good luck with the interviews. I think it is great that you want to pay off your debts and wish you every success in your plan

NekoZombie

lonely wrote:

I am thinking of a DMP, is it really the case that your credit rating is "shot to pieces" for the period of the DMP and then for an extra six years? I thought that a DMP was less damaging to your credit rating than an IVA - and that only last for 6 years from the moment it starts.

Yep, this is true. A DMP stays on your credit record for a further six years after its been completed. Sucks, huh? I'm not su're how an IVA really differs from bankruptcy - I read somewhere that mortgage lenders, for example, rarely make the distinction...

OrangeProse

It's been a while since I posted on this, which isn't good really considering I wanted it to be a kind of debt diary.

Still, I suppose there hasn't been any major news... until now.

I GOT A JOB! Finally - will be moving full-time to London in about 6 weeks. The job isn't quite as well paid as I was hoping for but it's still a huge improvement on my previous situation, even taking into account increased cost of living.

So not long before my giant snowball plan can kick in.

Hurrah, am so pleased. Love the lovely job offer.

lonely_2

Orange, I used to do a bit of copywriting too. And I live in London. Once you get on that ladder with your first job for a London agency, it will get much better. You will make contacts in no time and you will also learn about the upcoming or big agencies you need to check out from time to time. Also, there are lots of recruitment agencies that deal with these types of jobs (Profiles Creative, Stopgap and The Cremery are all very good). Well done on the new job though. I know on here it's easy to forget, but sometimes it's more important to have a job you love that pays you enough, than a job you dislike but pays you loads (I'm talking from my own experience).

OrangeProse

This one's a bit elderly but I promised a couple of people in another discussion that I'd resurrect it with an update. Quite a bit's changed over the last 18 months, some of it good, some of it bad. But I'm actually feeling quite positive about 'stuff' in general and things - finally - seem to be heading in the right direction.

Here's the revised SOA:

OrangeProse wrote: »

Income: varied
Still a freelancer, but now on a temp-to-perm contract in a good agency and at the moment bringing in £3,030 per month after tax. This will go down when they finally get a full time contract sorted, but I'd be happy with around £2,500 - £2,750 after tax for the sake of a permanent contract and benefits!

I also bring in around £1,000 - £1,500 per month from other freelance work.


Rent: £700
My half of our rent, gas, electric, CT, TV license, contents insurance and building maintenance.

Travel: £135 per month
Oyster Travelcard, my little blue friend.

Mobile Phone: £20

Food: £125 per month
I cook all our food, meal plan and somehow we still spend a lot on food. I have bought a student cookbook to counter this.

Now the debts...

Egg Loan: Balance £10,000 maturity date April 2012, paying £255 per month
7.66%APR. Missed a few payments on this, some of it covered with a payment break but am now getting it back on track. Have somehow avoided default or worse by sweet-talking them (increasingly difficult with Egg, if anyone's thinking of giving it a go).

Natwest Loan: balance £3,500 maturity date February 2010 paying £260/m
7.3%APR. My big success - have paid £6,000 off this in less than 18 months, never missed a payment, and it'll get blasted by the middle of next year (overpayments).

Sainsburys Loan: balance £1,000 maturity date January 2009 paying £145/m
7.1%APR. Also good news - paid about £4,000 off this one too.

Egg CC#1: balance £5,900 minimum payment £150
16.9%APR, limit £5,900. Not much changed on this one - minimum payment doesn't take much off the total and I missed some payments too.

Egg CC#2: balance £5,900 minimum payment £150
16.9% APR, limit £5,900. Same as other Egg card.

Tesco Plat CC: balance £2,050 monthly payment £100
19.9%APR, limit £2,100. Let this one go a bit too, it should be easy to blast this one pretty quick though.

Morgan Stanley CC: balance £4,400 monthly payment £170
23.9% APR, limit £4,400. Once again, naughtiness here. And this has the highest APR too. Oh dear oh dear oh dear.

Overdraft £3,400 (and I'm using it all at the moment) which results in around £45 interest charges each month

Bank account fee: £12 per month

New news, I also now have a car which costs about £35 per month in insurance, plus £20 per month in petrol (living in London we only use it locally and at weekends and I split the petrol costs with my BF).

I also try to hang onto £50 a month which covers haircuts, and putting some aside for clothes.

I'll have a think when I get in and if there's anything I've missed I'll add it on. But overall I feel like I've turned a corner. Things were very tough for a while (legal situation at the end of last year which cost £1,000s, hence the missed payments on things) but my new job is very good news.

Hopefully I can start properly attacking the debts and start putting some aside - and enjoying life a bit!

Thanks to those who asked after this in other chats - hope it makes interesting reading.

CAFCGirl

Crikey well done you.

My only suggestion would be to throw all your overpayments at your Morgan Stanley card, providing you are up to date with all your other accounts.

Like you said its your highest APR card so this should be the one you focus on more to stop it from costing you unnecessarily.

If you visit whatsthecost.com, they have a snowball calculator. Put in all your balances and APR and the amount you think you can pay to the debt per month and it tells you what to pay and where in order to cut the cost of the interest on your debt.

Your loans are all relatively low APR's so these can live with just the minimums, yet your credit cards are costing you quite a bit. The snowball will tell you just how much it could have cost you, and then how much it will cost you when you pay it off differently. This can be a real eye opener!

Plus if the £125 on food is your share, thats 250 a month for 2 people, that could be cut down considerably. Yet if thats 125 for both of you, ignore me LOL

Hope this helps in some small way but congratulations on your efforts so far! And Well Done on the new job