Hmmnnn Help?!!! :-s

poststudentblues

Hi everyone!

Im looking for some advice to help clear my debts!

right i currently owe in total:

Halifax: £2000 overdraft
HSBC: £1500 overdraft
HSBC Loan: £1800
M&S Credit card: £950

total: £6250

Monthly out goings: (just what i owe not including rent etc...)
HSBC Loan :£80
HSBC Overdfraft: £6
M&S CC: £30
Halifax: £30

(these are all the minimum i have to pay)

Im not to worried about the HSBC Loan and Overdraft as i can currently keep up with them both. The HSBC overdraft is a student account and £1000 is interest free and the Loan is paying itself off now (i have paid back the interest).

The M&S cc is costing me about £3 per month interest and the rest is paying off the balance (i balance tranferred to this from a HSBC card that was costing me a lot in interest!)

My main worry is the Halifax account;

i set this account up sneakily as a student account when i was at uni, even though i already had a HSBC student account. This meant my £2000 overdraft became interest free, until last month! Luckily i checked my statement last month to see that i was being charged £29 interest and next month i would be charged £30. I dont often check my statement (i know i should!) as i do not get my wages paid into this account (they go into the HSBC account)

what i need to know is what can i do to get the interest down? I can afford to pay off around £50-75 per month but it seems silly that £30 of that (say) £70 is just purely interest! i am tempted to see if i can extend my current loan with hsbc to pay off the account entirely (its set at 7.9%)
or can i ring up halifax and ask them to freeze interest as long as i start paying it back?

please help! im confused as to what i should do!

Cheers,

WIll......

extra info:

Income = £1053 per month wages


Out:
Rent: 305
household bills: £90
Car (petrol and insurance): £100
Phone: £20
food: £80
Going out: £120
total: £715

AJolly

Im confused you seem to be living quit comfortable from thos figures.

Wages = £1053
-
Outgoing = £715
-
Debt payments = £146

Still leaves you £192 a month spare, thats extra cash just hanging around? Why not devided that by 4 (£48) and add that on too each of your debt payments?

EDIT
Just realised you also have a budget of £120 a month to go out with i wish i had £5 a month to go out with, so that could be cut in 1/2 at least to add to the other £192 not doing anything.

findingmyownway

Its always worth phoning Halifax to ask them if they can reduce interest rate.

Apart from that, there may be savings you can make to fre up more income to pay debts but you need to do a full SOA for maximum help on here. A word of warning - a 'going out' budget of £120 a month will be the first thing to be slated on here!

What does 'houshold bills' cover? You may be able to save money by switching energy supplier etc. In your exisitng SOA you havent accounted for clothes, broadband costs, tv licence, and many other things. Read southernscouser's sticky for first time posters at the top of the DFW board for advice on how to do it.

CLAPTON

i would suggest you start by drawing up a proper and full budget that includes all your spending.. not just this particular month but everything you spend in the course of a year... for annual or one offs work out the annual figure and divide by 12 and add to your budget (and of course actually save this figure so you have the money when required and dont need to use those CCs again.)
and do you really only spend 80 on food?

Start to keep a spending diary and write down everything you spend... then review that budget.

so break down bills 90 and petrol and
insurance 100 and itemise all those things so petrol, insurance, car tax, mot, RAC/AA, servicing, allowance for repairs, also clothes, lunches, optical/dental/medical, xmas, presents, holidays, haircuts, DVDs, newspapers/magazines, hobbies etc etc

once you have done that you will be able to work out how much you actually have left to repay the debts... i'm sure it wont be £330 per month.

then gather the APRs of the debts... I don't understand what you mean about the HSBC loan.. if you haven't cleared it you are still paying interest on it.

It makes sense to try to transfer the high APR debts to lower APR debts but you need to look at the full details. can you apply for a 0% CC or another low LOB CC?

In any event pay the minimum on each loan except that with the highest APR..on that pay the maximum you can afford.

poststudentblues

Ok here is a more accurate SOA! (sorry new at this!)

Monthly Incomings:

My salary - £1,053


Total - £1,053

Monthly Outgoings:

Rent - £305
Council Tax - £54
Gas - £12
Electric - £12
TV License - £6
NTL (tv and broadband): £10
Phone - £20
Food - £150
lunches - £25
Car Insurance - £28
Petrol - £80
Loan - £80
CC - £30
Halifax OD - £30

Pub - £100
Football (playing) - £25
Car repairs - £15
Car Tax - £15
MOT: £4.20
clothes - £10
public trans - £10
presents - £15

thats how it would break down if i saved for presents, car repairs etc..... however i tend to pay for these at the time and save money elsewhere (i.e. going out less)

i go out about 1-2 times a week to the pub and spend up to £30 per week but often less (this can obviously be my main place to cut money!)

my hsbc loan is a graduate loan, and the £80 per month reduces the TOTAL debt by £80 per month - when i took it out the TOTAL debt was more than i borrowed (borrowed 2500) and it has slowly been going down.

my food bill is quite low as i live with my girlfriend and we actually cook everynight and very rarely get take-aways. Also i always take a packed lunch to work and very occasionally get lunch at work if the bread is mouldy or something!


at the moment i am living fairly comfortably, just plodding along paying minimum repayments. But i am getting more and more concerned with the debts (these dont even include my student loan! which come straight out of my wages) i want to start paying them off asap, if that means cutting back then so be it!
Im just getting scared that one day one of the banks (halifax or HSBC) will turn around and say right we want our money back now! (Halfiax have actually done this to me twice but i managed to wrangle my way out of it at the time) It also annoys me that;
a. i got into this situation in the first place (im here now so gotta deal with it)
b. im paying back £30 per month to halifax and my balance is staying the same!

cheers for the replies so far :-)

OberonSH

poststudentblues wrote: »

Ok here is a more accurate SOA! (sorry new at this!)

Monthly Incomings:

My salary - £1,053


Total - £1,053

Monthly Outgoings:

Rent - £305
Council Tax - £54
Gas - £12
Electric - £12
TV License - £6
NTL (tv and broadband): £10
Phone - £20
Food - £150 We only spend £120, and that's with 2 adults and a chil, plus a nice bottle of wine every now and again. You can cut this down. Check out the Old Style board for help with this.
lunches - £25 Gotta stop. Our food budget included packed lunches. Doesn't have to be sandwiches, make wraps, soups, salads etc.
Car Insurance - £28
Petrol - £80
Loan - £80
CC - £30
Halifax OD - £30

Pub - £100 You know this has to go!, and I doubt anyone here will agree with it staying. You're drinking money that can go towards your debt. You could double your samller repayments and still have £20 left over for a crate of beers. If you can't live without your socialising, why not get the boys round for a few beers and a DVD, or a night on the XBox? Cheaper, and shorter distance to stagger to your bed.
Football (playing) - £25 Thought kickabouts with your mates was free?!
Car repairs - £15
Car Tax - £15
MOT: £4.20
clothes - £10
public trans - £10
presents - £15

thats how it would break down if i saved for presents, car repairs etc..... however i tend to pay for these at the time and save money elsewhere (i.e. going out less)

i go out about 1-2 times a week to the pub and spend up to £30 per week but often less (this can obviously be my main place to cut money!)

my hsbc loan is a graduate loan, and the £80 per month reduces the TOTAL debt by £80 per month - when i took it out the TOTAL debt was more than i borrowed (borrowed 2500) and it has slowly been going down.

my food bill is quite low as i live with my girlfriend and we actually cook everynight and very rarely get take-aways. Also i always take a packed lunch to work and very occasionally get lunch at work if the bread is mouldy or something!


at the moment i am living fairly comfortably, just plodding along paying minimum repayments. But i am getting more and more concerned with the debts (these dont even include my student loan! which come straight out of my wages) i want to start paying them off asap, if that means cutting back then so be it!
Im just getting scared that one day one of the banks (halifax or HSBC) will turn around and say right we want our money back now! (Halfiax have actually done this to me twice but i managed to wrangle my way out of it at the time) It also annoys me that;
a. i got into this situation in the first place (im here now so gotta deal with it)
b. im paying back £30 per month to halifax and my balance is staying the same! Can you write to them and se if they'll freeze the interest, or swap to a 0% card? Then 100% of your cash will go towards the balance.

cheers for the replies so far :-)

Basically, if you make some cuts you could save £145 a month ie the same amount again as your current payments, and pay off your debt in HALF the time!! You need to weigh up the pub, or being debt free a lot quicker...

poststudentblues

Sensible brain says - pay off debt

Bad brain says - PUB!!!

poststudentblues

ok next question can i transfer money from a bank account (i.e. this halifax account) onto an interest free credit card

in theory balance transfer an overdraft onto a credit card?

anyone know?

robnye

i think there are still some credit cards that allow you to do transfers to bank - egg being one of them

i think the term is 'a super balance transfer' , but as i dont have one of them i dont know, check out the credit card balance shuffle page

findingmyownway

If you live with your girlfriend, are your amounts for rent/bills etc half what the total bill is? Check out the utilities board to check you have the cheapest provider

If so, that takes you food budget to £300 which is a lot for 2 people. Check out the Old Style board on here for some great advice on reducing this. Definatly start taking packed lunches to work.

You know the pub spending has to be cut down!!!

£80/month on petrol is quite a lot. Can you walk/bike more often? Why do you need £10 on public transport as well?

back soon

Uniscots97

You should have a look on the OS board for recipes to get your food bill down. I take it from the cost you buy a lot of convenience food? also why not take packed lunches? By doing this I got my expenditure for lunch down from 30 quid a week to a tenner and I eat much better/nicer food.