My State of Affairs

angel31572

Sorry..did I bore everyone?? zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

slowlyfading

No, I just dont know what the answer is! You'll have to wait til more experienced people come along
Nicola x

angel31572

slowlyfading wrote: »

No, I just dont know what the answer is! You'll have to wait til more experienced people come along
Nicola x

Haha..thanks anyway

oops_a_daisy

not sure if anybody else has mentioned this ( on my second drinky now ) but anyhow have you looked at the snowball calculator - it works out how long it will take to pay off your debts based on the interest added and payments made ? the link is here. Have a look at it and work out how long it will take paying the current amounts and then compare this with the loan.
Hope this helps - OOPS

angel31572

oops_a_daisy wrote: »

not sure if anybody else has mentioned this ( on my second drinky now ) but anyhow have you looked at the snowball calculator - it works out how long it will take to pay off your debts based on the interest added and payments made ? the link is here. Have a look at it and work out how long it will take paying the current amounts and then compare this with the loan.
Hope this helps - OOPS

:T
Thanks a million. I'll do that now. Hope it's not too complicated. I haven't had a drinky but have had a tough day!

angel31572

oops_a_daisy wrote: »

not sure if anybody else has mentioned this ( on my second drinky now ) but anyhow have you looked at the snowball calculator - it works out how long it will take to pay off your debts based on the interest added and payments made ? the link is here. Have a look at it and work out how long it will take paying the current amounts and then compare this with the loan.
Hope this helps - OOPS

Had a look. With a clearer head tomorrow, this could give me more of an insight. Thanks.

Any other advice about best ways to clear credit cards are welcome.

angel31572

MinnieSpender wrote: »

Hello again, angel! More useless advice from me, no doubt!

Re you insurance. Can you get it cheaper via your union? Mine does all sorts of deals for members. Worth a look? Most have a website with their offers on them.

Your advice is NOT useless..I will phone the union on Monday and ask what they have to offer..in fact I'll look up the website now.

angel31572

MinnieSpender wrote: »

Hello again, angel! More useless advice from me, no doubt!

Re you insurance. Can you get it cheaper via your union? Mine does all sorts of deals for members. Worth a look? Most have a website with their offers on them.

Had a look and submitted my contact details. Apparently my £11 per month entitles me to free advice and insurance offers among other things... Hope it's not too good to be true.

:T

Crown

Hi Angel, just got back from work and thought id see how you were getting on. As already said after the day you have had it will probably be better to take the night off and get some well earned rest and face things fresh in the morning.

As to the best way to tackle your debt if you do not take the secured loan it really depends on on quite a few factors and there isn't really just once answer.

As Clapton has already said you really need to do a thorough SOA including everything he mentioned. this will give you better idea were you are and how much you really have to spend on your debt.

The credit cards are not going down as you as you cannot attack them all at once. The best thing to do would be to snowball the debt. As already suggested take a look at the snowball calculator on whatsthecost.com

Simply put you pay just the minimum amounts on all the cards apart from the one with the highest interest and throw all of the extra money onto just that card. By doing this you will be amazed at how quickly the balance will come down. once the first card is eliminated and only then you move onto the 2nd throwing the minimum payment plus that you were using on the previous card to tackle it. Trust us that this really does work.

I would suggest you start with the balance of £750 as it is a target that you will be able to clear pretty quickly once you get started.

The most important thing is that you stop using the credit cards and if possible your overdraft and start living within your income. You cannot easily get out of debt why you are still using credit!

Once you have an idea where all the money is going you could also consider a DMP if you have enough spare after your living expenses.

Just remember that you cannot go to jail and it is highly unlikely that you will lose your home for unsecured credit debt. You can lose your home for secured debt. The worst that will happen with unsecured debt is that your credit score will be destroyed and you will have trouble obtaining further credit for at least 6 years but surely if you want to be debt free and you stick to a budget you will not need anymore credit and you will have piece of mind that you are keeping a roof over your son and your own head.

Hope this was of some help and sorry for the long post

angel31572

Crown, it was so kind of you to check on me :T ..can't believe I've been sitting here for 7 hrs!!

The snowball idea sounds great. I'm definitely going to put the loan on hold for now to consider this more seriously.

Just one thing - I can see the psychological benefits from paying the lower balance first but just wondered why it wouldn't be better to tackle the highest one as I'm paying more interest on that one... sorry if that makes me thick!!