Struggling to help myself

Anon247

Ive a £500 overdraft, an £800 credit card and £600 loan with wonga. I earn £1250 a month and around £800 in rent and bills. I'm single, live alone and rent.

I have not missed any payments and am just about able to keep afloat, but with each month it becomes harder.

I am in debt and it is scaring me.

I decided to take out a loan for £1900 with sainsburys (rec by uswitch) to pay off all my debts and enabling to me pay £100 a month back for two years to get myself debt free.

But my application was declined.

I can't afford to pay these debts off without doing something like this though. I'm trying to help myself get debt free and I've been declined.

I have no family to help me. I don't know what to do.

YoYoY

Anon247 wrote: »

Ive a £500 overdraft, an £800 credit card and £600 loan with wonga. I earn £1250 a month and around £800 in rent and bills. I'm single, live alone and rent.

I have not missed any payments and am just about able to keep afloat, but with each month it becomes harder.

I am in debt and it is scaring me.

I decided to take out a loan for £1900 with sainsburys (rec by uswitch) to pay off all my debts and enabling to me pay £100 a month back for two years to get myself debt free.

But my application was declined.

I can't afford to pay these debts off without doing something like this though. I'm trying to help myself get debt free and I've been declined.

I have no family to help me. I don't know what to do.

Well done on having kept up your repayments so far.

Things are not as bad as they seem. With a monthly income of £1250 and outgoings of £800p.m that should leave you with £450 p.m. to play with

You need to address the debt with the biggest interest rate first ... and I suspect that to be the Wonga one.

Don't worry about your overdraft at this stage. You'll actually pay that off when you pay in your monthly income, but will no doubt be at that level again come the end of the month, but don't worry for now.

Credit card - ensure you make at least the minimum payment every month (I guess about £40 depending on your card/terms). If you do that, they won't chase you.

That should leave you about £400 to put towards your Wonga debt.

If you have a £600 debt with Wonga, you must have used them before as they only lend £400 initially. Pay them back again, and please try to avoid ever using them again with their representative 4214% APR :mad:

Once you've cleared your Wonga loan, you'll be in a good position to make great inroads into the overdraft and credit card debts

unimaginative_user_name

Well done for having the courage to face up to your debt before it goes up any higher and while you are still managing the monthly repayments.

Wonga is definitely the one to tackle first as the APR is so high and the longer it goes unpaid the higher the amount you will have to repay.

Have you tried other ways of raising extra cash such as eBay, online surveys? Are you entitled to any benefits?

Best of luck anyway on your debt-free journey. If you put up your SOA others might be able to suggest areas where you could save.

Ash1982

Have you thought about asking for an credit limit increase on your credit card and using that instead of wonga? or interest free period? Then pay of £400 per month.

Anon247

Thank for replying.

Yeah Wonga is defo the scariest one for me. I'm paying £50 a month for credit card (£10 over min payment) and as first commenter said, £500 ocerdraft gets cleared each month when pay goes in.

Stopping wonga isn't possible though as I can pay it back in ful the day wages go into bank, but then need to take another wonga loan out to pay bills and rent. Stuck in a circle.

My bills etc are already as low as I can get. Only benefit Im elegible for is single person discount on counsel tax (which I have). I have no unnecessary outgoings (bills literally are rent, counsel tax, electricity, water, phone, tv licence) I can cut down.

Ugh. I feel so useless. Just want to get this sorted.

midnight_express

Could you move to a cheaper place ? Flatshare ?

asparagus1968

hi,please can you post up a SOA?
there may be somewhere we can help.
if i were you,i'd want rid of wonga asap.pay it off in full on payday.don't ever use them again,its best to use the overdraft and CC rather than wonga.
so,next pay day incoming £1250,

outgoing £800 rent/bills
£40 credit card payment
£600 wongo
= £1440 out,
thats a shortfall "only" £190! and a cleard wongo debt.

increase income/ebay everything you can,sell dvds/cd on music magpie.

join topcashback( just earned £30 for getting insurance quotes!)

Really scrimp this next month,you can get back on the straight and narrow.

month after,only debts are cc and overdraft,you can put £400 to them a month,soon be debt free.

good luck,we've all been there!