Desperate To Be Debt Free!

artyfartyem

Hi gmood,

Thank you for your lovely reply, it's nice to know that you're not alone in feeling this way, sometimes it feels really isolated. Because our major debts are with lloyds and we had our current account with them too we had to include them in the plan. And they have been horrible all the way! I have heard that barclaycard can be a nightmare, I had an egg cc that has been taken over by them and they have been fine fortunately. Fingers crossed you don't get any hassle with them.

Thank you for the tips, I like the £2 idea! I have ordered vouchers through park to try and keep myself from slipping up at Xmas! I will try and find your diary and keep up with how you are getting on, take care

elantan

GMOOD thats a really lovely supporting post

artyfartyem

Hello again,
Seems like more good and bad news again. We went to see a mortgage advisor about getting another mortgage of less value if we sold the house and put in a large deposit from the equity in this one, and I have to say it was one of the most humiliating experiences of my life. We were honest and said that our credit rating wasn't great, and we have had to give her copies of our credit reports so she can see which companies would be best to approach without doing lots of credit checks. I just felt so stupid. Like I was being judged over a few missed payments, which made me some sort of criminal. We are thinking of waiting until next year to sell the house now, as we will be in the teens rather than the twenties with the debt, and to be honest I would find that more manageable.

We also went in TSB to close the current account as we have paid the overdraft off but they said that they couldn't do it as we hadn't been 'advised we were in credit' even though the balance was in credit. The lady didn't even have a closure form for us to fill in and send off. Typical!

So the good news is we finally booked a holiday, as there was a sale on and we needed something to look forward to. Trouble is we need to save even more money now to cover spends and tickets etc while we are away. This will have come out of the extra payments we were planning to make on the debts, which is a bit gutting as I wanted to get rid of a least one CC asap, but I guess life isn't worth it if you don't have anything to look forward to.

I have also come up with a way to pay some things off quicker by making an additional payment each month, for example if we want to shave 1 month extra off the debt I have divided the amount by the number of months I want to pay it off in and deducted the amount that will be paid through CCCS, so I can see how quickly I can get rid of the creditors who are still charging me interest.

Some positives I guess, just can't wait till the debts get under 20k now, 8 more months to go...

Getmeoutofdebt

Hi again Arty!!
Gosh you sound like you have been busy!! I hope the house sale works out for you. Don't let the bank staff make you feel down, they will see customers in your situation all the time and probably think nothing of it so don't let it worry you or think that they are judging you in any way. Maybe the descision to leave it until next year is a good one and will work out better for you. Like you say you will be less in debt and maybe the house prices / interest rates etc will improve and it may work out in your favour. Fingers crossed eh?
The Lloyds tsb thing sounds about right. I paid my overdraft off last year (then got back in it again this year! oops!) I was determined to clear it because as you probably know they charge you interest but also just to use it as well. Anyway I paid it off online and decided to get rid of it so I couldn't use it again. (the overdraft not the account) so I pressed the button to remove it and a week later I got a fine! I had apparently gone overdrawn when there was no overdraft in place! I thought thats odd cos I knew I'd paid the o/d off and that nothing was due out of the account. The account even had some money in it! I went online and checked and I hadn't gone overdrawn at all! It showed the money going in, clearing the o/d and I was in credit and nothing had come out. I phoned them up and they said "oh its the way the accounts work. If you remove an o/d it does it immediatley on the system but if you pay money in, even if it is showing on your account its not classed as officially being in there for a few days so the system sees it as your o/d removed while being overdrawn even though you weren't!"
So I am guessing thats why they said that to you about closing your account.
I am having good days and bad days too. I have managed to pay over £400 off my catalogue this month due to having a bit of spare money now I am paying less to my creditors and also through selling some junk on ebay, but on the downside I have still had no straight answer from Barclaycard despite ringing them, sending 2 letters and an email! I still don't know where I stand with them and am incurring fines etc! Grr!
But hey onwards and upwards!
Good luck!!
G.M.O.O.D

artyfartyem

Hi gmood!

I'm so sorry for the delayed reply, for some reason I didn't get an alert to say there was a post on the thread!

We have decided to leave the house sale until everything is paid off. It is frustrating knowing how much profit we stand to make on the house but being unable to move on! Things have been going ok, we have set £100 shopping budget for the month to help save some more money which is hard but meal planning has helped. I traded some old books in on amazon and got a £25 gift voucher which I use to buy some flasks which I have been filling with homemade soup for work. I have also made a few quid from opinion outpost sureys and through quidco to help.

Still no joy with tsb, we paid the money in to cover charges but because we didn't pay them in by a certain date they are charging us another £5 for not being overdrawn! I am fed up with it!

Sorry to hear about b/card, hopefully by the time you see this reply things will be sorted for you. Thank you for replying, it really means a lot.

Hope you have an excellent weekend

Arty x

Keeping_Motivated

Hi just I've just read your diary and wanted to say that for what its worth I think you are doing amazing..all the changes and the amount you have paid off.

I know there is still a lot of debt to pay but don't lose sight of the massive amount you have already paid and how in control you are now on a day to day basis re your finances and give yourself some praise for that as it is deserved.

Also on the days you feel down try not to project into the future of how long there is still to go and what if this happens or that...try and focus on that day and think am I doing all I can do for today? If the answer is yes then thats all you can do...worrying about tomorrow will not change it so focus on the day.

If you carry on the way you are you will get there and you will be in a better position for the future with all your experience and new found skills.

Take care
KM

artyfartyem

Hi KM,

Again for some reason I am not getting the alerts on this subscribed thread! Thank you for you post, I know you are right, I guess sometimes I can't think properly. I just look forward to the end, I reckon it'll be like winning the lottery having all that extra cash every month!

Looks like you are doing well on the mortgage payments Well done!

Getmeoutofdebt

WoW! Just nipped on for a nosey at where you are up to and you are doing really well! Look how much you have paid off in a year!! Well done you!
I'm not doing too badly myself, I paid off my catalogue and my 1K overdraft thanks to some commission I earned selling a pals stuff on ebay and barclaycard agreed to lower my interest to 2.5% so the money I'm saving each month on interest means I can actually make it through the month. I agree with you about how it will feel like winning the lottery when its all paid off. So much spare cash! imagine!
I still pay interest on Lloyds credit card. They won't budge, and my Yorkshire bank card only agreed to freeze the interest for 3 months and that time is up now so I'm expecting a battle with them again soon. I have really up days where I feel like I can do this in no time at all and then down days where I feel like it will take forever but I guess that is only to be expected. I just need to concentrate on the up days!
Good luck and stay positive! We can do it!!!
xx

LunaLady

Well done arty - you are making real inroads into your debt.

On the down days I always try and think of the interest I am not paying back because I have started paying off my debts. You have come a very long way and you should be proud of yourself!

artyfartyem

Thank you for your supportive posts, I am trying to stay positive. It's I'd exactly a year today that we made our first payment to cccs, and it's half term so I've bought a bottle to celebrate. And I got asked for id! Result. Guess its not ALL bad! x