Advice on IVAs

Jezza007

dancingfairy wrote: »

Hi - does your wife qualify for working tax credit? If she would do and it's just that they have her working full time and she's part time can they base it on her new hours/pay or do you mean she/you don't work enough hours to qualify? No. They have said due to changes in thresholds we don't get anything now
Lottery - 9 pounds (I'm sure this could go). Totally agree.
tv, broadband, phone etc seems quite high at 80 pounds - can you reduce this at all? are you paying extra for multi room or something? can you reduce to less channels and use freeview or something? We have multi room at mo but will be ringing them to cancel it. Also have HD and sports. Recently rung them and had peyment reduced and sky movies free for a year but think we need to reduce further.
Mobile phones -you should be able to save here - there are decent packages for 20 pounds - can you cut back/reduce tariffs at all? Defo will be reducing mine as don't use it that much. My wife has an iphone so the payment is higher. May have to get her to change phone!
CHildrens savings - hmmm. A tricky one, maybe put it on hold until you are in a better position? Maybe set a target of a few years without it. They are all not in double figures agewise yet!
Overdraft payment - is this for charges or how much you usually go over or for 'extra' features or what? This is for an overdraft on an old current account overdraft. Missed this off the debt list - £1850

Oh in terms of debt management it should be based on what you can afford to pay so if you can't afford the 247 and have to pay less due to having to eat and pay for petrol then they will have to accept less. Definitely give CCCS or NationalDebtline a ring and swap the dmp over to a free one. - Will have to sit down and really work it out. Have started shopping at our local Aldi now. Much cheaper than the bigger supermarkets.
df

Thanks for the advice. Hopefully my answers cover it all.

Jezza007

I have had a look for an SOA templete but have had no luck. Anyone know where i can get this?

~Beanie~

Its here: http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

Just remember to format it for MSE once you have completed it.

Jezza007

I have 5 in my family with 3 children under 8. Doesn't include things like cub camp, football club annual payments etc.

Incomings

Income 1 - £1905.34
Income 2 - £955.56
Child maintenace - £230
total in = £3090.90
Outgoings

Full time childcare - £525
Part time chilcare - £96.80
Mortgage - £349.65
Electric - £32
Gas - £40 (average - pay by quarter) Check your G&E bills. Are they up to date? Are you on the cheapest tariff? Have you now turned central heating off? Have looked into and chaepest at mo is who we are with. Heating is off.
British gas service - £24.14 Hmm, check the main site articles to see if you can get this cheaper - over £250 a year spent on this. Thanks. Will check this out.
Lottery - £9 cancel. Will Do
Council tax - £133 paying over 12 months or 10? which figure is this? This is over 10 months i believe
Builings insurance - £18.12
Car insurance - £53.73
Water - £28
Life & critical illness insurance - £27.65 check level of cover? if you both get it through your jobs too, could you drop the level covered separately? I have to pay extra through my work for this and doesn't cover what we wanted. Will investigate further.
Sofa credit - £49.81 how much longer to pay and at what rate? About 3 years left on this at 0%.
Sky tv, broadband and phone - Av £80 reduce the sky package - try a freeview box, check rate for broadband and phone. Cut down calls outside free times (if sky do an inclusive package for calls) - Will do.
Wastewater - £26.80
Tv license - £12.12
Contents insurance - £17.70
Overdraft payment - £40 what is this? interest charges or reducing what you owe? pay onto a old current account overdraft. Left it off debt by mistake. This is approx. £1850 but with interest this only pays about £10 off actual debt a month.
Mobile phone 1 - £28
Mobile phone 2 - £43 right - look at either calling to reduce tariff if you are in contract, selling handset, check services that are Sim only prices, you should be able to get these two down to £40 total (or even less depending on usage). Sim only deals for £10 a month give you 300 mins, so how much do you really need? I only really use mine for texting and internet so will look to reduce. Wife has iphone so tariffs high on this generally.
Kids savings accounts - £15 for now clear the debts instead. If you stopped this and the lottery you would get nearly an extra £300 a year off a debt. Agree with this. Not easy but needs must.

Cataloge - £160 (total debt £1000)
Debt management - £247 ( total debt approx £11k)
Credit card 1 - £90 (total debt - £3423.54) what interest rate? About 17% i think.
Credit card 2 - £50 to 100 (total debt - £1710.15 - 0% till August 12)
Credit card 3 - £45 (total debt - £2557.61 - 0% till May 13)
Have you stopped running up debt on the CCs? Yes. Only pay off monthly payment.
Any money left goes towards food and petrol etc