Pomegranate's ponderings

Pomegranate1983

I've procrastinated enough about wrIting this diary. I use this forum so much and find the advice given invaluable so the time has come for me to write it all down and chart my progress and, no doubt, stumbles towards being debt free.

A bit about me. I'm 28. I'm married with two girls and a dog. Dh and I have been together for 9 years almost. He's a wonderful man but he drives me to insanity! I guess that's what marriage is all about. Our daughters, again are wonderful but drive me even further to insanity so you could consider me to be a woman on the edge! I'm living a bit of a busy life at the moment. I work full time which is a new situation for us and I'm also studying for a degree so I feel like time which belongs solely to me, and even more rarely, time that belongs to me and dh, is a distant memory that I hope to regain after asking my exam in June!

We own our own home (albeit for the £135k mortgage that is slowly being paid off!!), live in a nice area and both have decent jobs. I have always worked part time until September last year when an opportunity arose for me to take a promotion at work. I now work full time which is great but has its disadvantages, one of them being that I no longer get to do the school run or go to school events like Christmas plays etc. because I also work in a school so don't have the flexibility within the term. But I can't complain because I do get school holidays off which is always a bonus! Hubby is lucky enough to be able to work from home which means that we don't have to pay for child are as he is home majority of the time to take and fetch the girls to school. We also have a really supportive family who are always around to help whenever needed too which is something we're really grateful for.

Now for the money part. Deep breath!

I need to first of all say that this debt is my debt. Whether or not people agree, my husband and I do not particularly share finances. This is what works for us (or not, as I'm sure some would say!) but I feel the need to point out now that I won't be asking my husband for help with my debt. As far as I'm concerned he helps enough by paying the mortgage and keeping a roof over all of our heads. He knows about how much I owe, but we each have financial commitments and my debt is one of mine.

First up is Mr Vanquis credit card. Big bad Mr Vanquis. This is the newest in my collection of extortionately expensive debts, and the one I am most keen to be rid of. I have a credit limit of £1000 and a balance of £960 to go with an interest rate of 39.9%. I am currently paying minimum payments on this card, £44.14 last month, but all shall be explained shortly ...

Next up, drum roll please, is Next. Next which leaves me with next to nothing! Only a puny £400 on this, but a delightful 30% interest rate! Again only making minimum payments on this account as all spare cash is thrown at another debt. However, minimum payments are still £40 odd a month and I can't wait to be clear of this one!

Following Next we have Monsieur M and S. this beauty boasts a £2000 credit limit, £1920 balance and 26% interest rate. Minimum payment last month was for £49.25

Last but one there's Egg. This has obviously been taken over by Barclaycard but I also have a barclaycard so still call this account egg. This has a credit limit of £650, balance of £557 and 26% interest rate. Minimum payment on this was £15.99 last month.

And finally we have my thorn in my side, Barclaycard. I have has this card since I started university in 2001. I have maxed the balance, cleared the balance, maxed it again, cleared it again, and finally, last year, because of circumstances, it is now maxed again. However, because I got myself into a bit of a pickle over last summer, I couldn't make minimum payments so ended up on a payment plan to reduce the balance. The card has an £1800 credit limit, however because I didn't make the payments and because of late payment charges and over limit charges I was soon up to £2200. So this is where my money has been going to each month because until I can get the balance under £1800 I am being charged for being over my limit £12 per month. there is a balance of £1787.90 on there at the moment, but I don't know if I'll be charged £12 again along with interest on the 2nd march, we'll have to wait and see for that one. If I am charged the over limit charge I will overpay this account again for one month before transferring the overpayments to vanquis which has the highest interest rate.

I have £270 per month to pay towards my debts, so last month this is what I paid:
Vanquis: £44.14
Next: £41.63
M and S: £49.25
Egg: £15.99
Barclaycard: £118.99

My credit score is shot to pieces so I'm just going to have to get my head down and work hard to repay what I owe. I have done the snowball calculator at whatsthecost and it tells me I will be debt free by July 2014. I would like for this to be sooner, and I constantly tinker with my budget to try and maximise the amount that I can pay, but unfortunately there is nowhere for me to go at the moment. I have already posted my SOA on here a few weeks ago under my other username, however I didn't want to start my diary with that name as it was quite obvious to others who know me who I am!!

One thing I should mention and ask for some advice on is this: I have, thanks to martin's email last week, applied and been accepted for a capital one 0% balance transfer card with a limit of £1200. The 0% balance is only until September !when it jumps to 34.9% but hey, anything's a bonus when your cheapest apr is 26%! My question is should I transfer the balance of the Vanquis card with £1000 on it and the highest apr, knowing that I may not be able to pay off the entire £1000 by September, or should I transfer one of the smaller balances, e.g. The egg card, knowing that I could pay that off if I put all of my spare cash to that instead of vanquis? I think I know what the answer is, because even if I didn't pay all of vanquis off then I'd still end up with a cheaper credit rating than I have now.!

So that's me. Long and not very interesting! I must warn anyone who reads this, I type for a living so I don't realise just how much I write therefore I apologise for the length of this post, it will probably be rejected when I try and post it for being too long and boring! feel free to ask me anything, I could write another 10 or so paragraphs explaining various parts of my life but I think I'll save that one for another time!

Ciao for now x

DedicatedDFW

Hi there pomegranate and welcome to diary land :wave:

Good luck on clearing the debt - also you've got all your figures and %'s and are keeping up with them all so that is good and your credit score can't be too bad if you've snagged a 0% card :cool:

Erm - someone will pop on with advice about the balance transfer i'm sure i'm not up to giving a well thought response with numbers just now

Just so you know i've been with my fella for about the same length of time (though we're not married) and our finances are completely separate too

Oh and i have also been known to talk alot too :whistle:

jwil

Hi Pomegranate!

Good luck with the debtbusting

Maybe have a play with the figures on the snowball calculator http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx to see which would save you the most money?

Another who keeps finance separate apart from joint bills, we've been together 9 years too and married for 4.

GreenSaints

Hi,

Welcome to diary land!

I also keep finances separate from my boyfriend (we've been together 9 years in 2 months) so if it works for you then great

With regards to your CC question, remember to add your balance transfer costs to that. If it was me (doesn't necessarily mean this is the right way) I'd work out the balance fees for all the cards and then work out the interest costs for each one. The one that's the highest, I'd transfer.

Also, what's this 'I don't think I'd clear it in time' speak? You're a MSE, so you'll get obsessed like the rest of us and pay it in no time

Good luck and look forward to reading your progress