One Day I Will .... get debts below £8500 (Debt Diary)

onedayiwill

Thanks Tigz. As for my motto "Pennies make pounds ..." this is true in spending as well as saving. Somehow it took me until I was nearly £11,000 in debt to really get that. Doh! So I use this phrase both when I get the urge to spend something and when I am putting my spare change into the piggy bank.

So an update.

Got a letter from A&L saying they're matching my Smile OD. Which is great - everything can be moved across and no more interest on my OD which will make it quicker to pay off. Still waiting for a response to my first letter to Smile re: bank charges.

I have been selling things like crazy. It's amazing what you can find to sell when you look at your stuff. All those things you thought you needed, that you have hung to for years "because you really like them" etc. Suddenly when you have your LBM become junk that can be sold to pay your debts!

I am lucky to work in a place where we have a "small ads" email list for selling personal items. It reaches loads of people - it's quicker than ebay, no fees or postage costs and people usually pay cash. Things that haven't sold on the email list are being put on eBay.

Still haven't told OH. He saw me reading my A&L letter yesterday and asked about it. I told him I was changing banks as I wasn't happy with Smile. It would have been the perfect opportunity to 'fess up but somehow I couldn't do it. Feeling a bit mad at myself for being such a chicken! :mad:

It's a bit of a rollercoaster ride, being a DFW, isn't it?!?

Crown

onedayiwill wrote:

My no spend day was ruined by a necessary trip to a public toilet ... which cost me 20p!!! But desperate situations ....

I hate it when I have to pay to use the toliet. I needed to spend a penny but ended up spending 20 of them....

onedayiwill

Today I did a big task that I have been putting off, seemingly, forever. I ventured into the my "financial" drawer. This is the drawer of my bedside table where I stuff all the papers/letters etc to do with my money.

What a trip it was today. Scary as hell. So many unopened letters and bills stuffed in there. I opened every single one of them and read them all. Fortunately, no real stings in the tail, no debts I didn't already account for apart from a letter from Direct Line.

This is dated December 2006 and is regarding a cancelled motor insurance policy and demanding an outstanding payment of £1.46 within 7 days, otherwise this will be passed on to a debt collection agency. Well, I guess I better phone Direct Line on Monday and pay it if they haven't already passed it on. I'm not going to try and argue my way out of £1.46. I know my pennies make pounds motto could come into play here, but frankly on the phone I'm a bit of a wimp.

I found the documentation for my Virgin loan - the first time since I took it out two years ago! I must have had a bizarre uncharacteristic spurt of organisation back then because I took a copy of the agreement before I sent it back to them. And it seems I did tick the box to take the PPI. Dammit. It adds a total of £1405 to my loan!!! What was I thinking????!

So I was downhearted and didn't think I had a chance at claiming it back - and was using this as proof that I shouldn't bother to make the panic inducing phone call -until I found an unopened letter from Virgin from June 2006 which contains the following:

"We would like to point out that in practice, after the initial 30 days, MBNA [who Virgin use] have always had a refund policy for customers who repay their loan early or choose to cancel the protection but decide to keep the loan open. However, the version of our policy wording printed in 2005 did not reflect this, due to a printing error."

So I guess I have a pretty good chance of being able to cancel it and possibly get some money back, right? I think I will write rather than phone though. Hopefully I can find a template letter somewhere ... I know I've seen one.

I also found my original Egg card credit agreement and welcome letter from 2000. Seems I have PPI on that also but I can't see anywhere on the agreement that I agreed to it. I am transferring the balance to my new M&S card (without PPI!) this month. Then plan on closing the Egg card account - do I have any chance of reclaiming the PPI I've been paying for the last 7 years?

I have been employed throughout my time in credit so I can't claim that I would never have been covered by these PPIs.

Hmmmm.

Anyway, I also now know what tarriffs we are on for electricity, gas and telephone! I couldn't have told you before - how shameful is that!!!

And I was able to look through my bills and there was a huge jump in electricity usage when we got our tumble dryer, as predicted by someone earlier on the thread. The thing is, with our house being so cold (especially now I've turned down the thermostat ... OH doesn't realise this and keeps saying "the weather is getting colder again!") things take days and days to dry and turn sour smelling if we don't use the dryer. Not quite sure what to do about that.

I still have to read through our mortgage paperwork (though OH deals with this so there should be no surprises there as he is generally good with money).

Well. Huge update. Better stop here before you all start snoring! Hold on, what's that I hear?? WAKE UP!!!!

tigzem

Good luck with the PPI... hope you get it back.

Hmm not so good about the tumble drier, do you have radiators? I put my clothes on them to dry.

I wasn't snoring.... honest!! lol

Tustastic

Hi oneday, just wanted to say well done for having your LBM and getting started on the DFW journey.
I sympathise about the trouble in actually picking up the phone to call about the PPI on your Virgin loan. I get mental blocks about making perfectly ordinary phone calls - what is it about our minds?
Anyway, get ready to make the call next week. It's just another customer calling to them, and if you don't like the answer you get first time, you can call again.
Good luck with it all.

omg_3

onedayiwill wrote:

Yesterday evening I found a cashbook for an old Nationwide Cashbuilder account which I had completely forgotton I had! It is easy to see why ... when I looked at how much was in it, the last entry - from May 1994 - says £1. I reckon with interest that must be at least £1.20 now. :rotfl:

When I am next in town I'm heading to the Nationwide to close the account and claim that money!!! Pennies make pounds, pennies make pounds, pennies make pounds!

Might be better to keep this open. At some stage you could make balance up to £100. You would then qualify if they demutualise and get a windfall.

omg_3

Re; the tumble drier, If you havs an airing cupboard, put rails up. You can then hang drying up. It takes the creases out as well!

onedayiwill

omg,

Might be better to keep this [Nationwide Cashbuilder] open. At some stage you could make balance up to £100. You would then qualify if they demutualise and get a windfall.

Can you explain this to a completely unsavvy money disaster area? Thanks.

Unfortunately no airing cupboard. We do have radiators though ... will go for hanging on the radiators (the only problem with this prior to tumble dryer was that the rooms would get too damp! But if it saves money...)

omg_3

http://www.rpoints.com/bb/viewforum.php?f=12

This site explains and discusses the possibility of Mutual Building Societies de mutualising, just like the BRADFORD AND BINGLEY AND THE HALIFAX. Members got windfalls at the time The NATIONWIDE is well fancied

beanielou

Just wanted to say think you are doing really well.
take care.