Advice?

sdt1986

Could really do with advice from people been in my situation or better still experts.

My Name is Simon Im 20 years old, left school when i was 17 after dropping out of sixth form, started working in leeds from halifax doing a telesales job, I bough a laptop in January 2005 for 1k, in february i decided to get a loan for 1500, 1k to pay for laptop and 500 quid to pay for my upcoming holiday, bang this is where it all goes wrong, I got made redundant in March, just after id got my damn loan, I was then out of work for 3-4 months, worse thing were was that i had got into the spending habit and continued going out on my loan money and borrow money off my mom.

So since then ive developed serious debt! Ive now moved to Newcastle to finally do something with my life so im currently a student hopefully to get into uni in sept but of course with my debt i need to work alot, so im currently working 30.5 hours a week get a wage of roughly 730 a month.

Heres My Debt roughly.

£7000 loan in parents name to make interest cheaper.
£700 - Store card debt! (mainly built up due to interest and charges)
£950 - Overdraft with the worst bank ever (Abbey)
£500 - coop debt, tried to open an account ages ago to transfer my wages into supposed to have a overdraft limit of 1000 and everything would be fine but i used it thinking it did and it didnt so i went 250ish over and have now ended up £450 in debt after charges!
£1000 - owe my mom which is causing so much friction!
+ various other smaller debts that go to something like a 100 quid.

Obviously im now so much more smarter with money but cant put my money knowledge to the test cos im not going to be straight with money.

Things have got so much more worse i cant afford to pay anything monthly apart from my loan repayments. So all my debts other than my o/d my loan are threatining court action and all that (well the debt collectors are)

My income is £730 PCM

- £145 - Loan repayment
- £285 - Rent
- £60 - Phone bill (some times worse because im on it alot as i dont know ne1 up here and friends and family are back home.)
- £80 Travel to work expenses.
- £100 - Shopping for a month roughly. (maybe slightly exaggerated)

Worse thing is that with me being in a new city and only 20 years old i need friends etc so would like to go out at some points etc but obviously thats difficult.

Which is what causes friction between me nd parents, i mean come on if i waited to live my life till i was out of debt i will be a 30 year old guy no lass and no friends.

I dont know what to do, im trying not to bury my head and all and im constantly looking at ways of doing stuff not that im finding nething.

Ne tips/suggestions/ideas, try not to lecture me

tigtag02

Hi Simon

There is much better qualified peeps on here to help than me but I just wanted to say hang in there - things will get better

Your phone would be the first thing - we only pay a little over this for 2 phones and a land line. Could you not get a better deal elsewhere?

Once you start Uni in Sept you will meet LOADS of new friends but in the meantime what are your hobbies? Are there any *groups* or *clubs* you could join locally?

tigtag

highguyuk

Your only working 30.5 hours a week - leaving quite a few hours in the day spare. I would suggest getting another part time job, maybe bar kinda work. Not only would this provide an extra income, it would also be a good way to meet new people - workmates and customers.

Your SOA does seem to be missing quite a bit of it. Do you have a car for example? Does rent cover everything, including internet access, electricity, gas etc.

saffronflowers

Just a flying visit - to say well done, you have faced up to your situtation and all the peeps on here will help you with some ideas etc. Will pop back when I have some time just wanted to say congrats for facing up t it

SFx

CLAPTON

need to ask a few questions first


a. do you need to live in newcastle rather than at home in halifax... where presumably you could live much cheaper?

b. its a bit unclear about what you are doing at the moment... are you studying and working or only working.. i ask because if only working can you increase your income by second part time work?

c. your spending... is that all you actually spend .. its important to work out everything you really spend because that greatly affects the options for dealing with the debts.. so e.g. no social life is unrealistic , nothing for clothes , do you really spend as little as 100 on food, anything for electricity or gas, similarly.. ok for a short while but not for the long term.

d. add up the total for spending (before any debt repayment) so you and we can see your total and so work out how much you have to repay debts

e. the debts
for each debt can you say
i. for the loan how many payments left to be made
ii. for the CC what are the minimum monthly payments and the APR.
iii for everything )including the OD) say whether you are currently up to date with the payments and if not what is the situation (i.e. paying nothing/ a little , with debt collectors etc.)


f. if you have incurred significant late fees etc it is possible to reclaim these: see this site for full details.

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/

g. if you owe your current bank money then you will need to open a new a/c with a bank to which you owe no money (i.e. no loans, CC etc). This may have to be a Basic a/c without overdraft or cheque book and get your income paid in there asap

sdt1986

highguyuk wrote: »

Your only working 30.5 hours a week - leaving quite a few hours in the day spare. I would suggest getting another part time job, maybe bar kinda work. Not only would this provide an extra income, it would also be a good way to meet new people - workmates and customers.

Your SOA does seem to be missing quite a bit of it. Do you have a car for example? Does rent cover everything, including internet access, electricity, gas etc.

College during the day, i work 4-10 in sunderland setting off at 2 and getting home at about half 11.

Rent includes all bills. No car just metros and busses and walking where possible

immoral_angeluk

Friends and women are over-rated

sdt1986

A. do you need to live in newcastle rather than at home in halifax... where presumably you could live much cheaper?

Live in Newcastle for the college. however Newcastle for me is actually cheaper than Halifax because its easier to find random people to flat share with up here rather than when i was in Halifax i was paying £350+bills before which didnt help my debt (never did pay all my bills properly and they never came after me)

B. See Above Post for hours etc. I could add Thursdays and Sundays but atm im leaving them alone to get the college work as if i dont do it all i wont get to uni and it will all be pointless. However when all courseworks done and im just studying for end of year exams i will do sunday overtime which should put me in good stead as its 7quid an hour.

c.

i spend money on the odd wastage but nothing too seriously i know that cos i try hard with it, I considered £100 expensive on food!! but we shall work it out so far i got paid on the 25th of march and have spent 37 quid, and am going to do another shop in a week or so (half way thru month) As for going out, all depends on the month nothings ever planned i went out this month on a sunday and spent £50 then felt sick the next day for doing so, even though i really needed it!

Will do the other questions when i get back from opening a new bank account (readycash with yorks)

Sus1e

I think the main thing you cut back on is the phone.

For example - are you using a mobile or land line? if a landline, look at deals where evening and weekend calls to other landlines are included in the line rental (BT do one)

If a mobile, look at getting a land line OR getting a mobile on the same network as your high call numbers - some mobile companies do deals where calls to other mobiles on the same network are free.

Better still, if you have the internet, look at using a package over the internet to do calls (Voice Over Internet Protocol). Some of these are for as little as £5 a month ontop of your broadband bill.

I hope this helps you

opalfruits_2

sdt1986 wrote: »

No car just metros and busses and walking where possible

If you are working in Sunderland and living in Newcastle then buy a Tyne and Wear Network travel ticket. A 4 weekly all zones pass costs £64 - you might not need all the zones, and you also might qualify for the student ticket which is cheaper again. You can use it on all bus companies, the metro and the Tyne ferry.

Another thing to look at is whether you need to use both the metro AND the bus. If you stick to one or the other then the travel passes for each could be cheaper again. I'm guessing you probably work somewhere round Doxford Park? If so, a Go bus card might be a good option.

sdt1986

opalfruits wrote: »

If you are working in Sunderland and living in Newcastle then buy a Tyne and Wear Network travel ticket. A 4 weekly all zones pass costs £64 - you might not need all the zones, and you also might qualify for the student ticket which is cheaper again. You can use it on all bus companies, the metro and the Tyne ferry.

Another thing to look at is whether you need to use both the metro AND the bus. If you stick to one or the other then the travel passes for each could be cheaper again. I'm guessing you probably work somewhere round Doxford Park? If so, a Go bus card might be a good option.

Have the 4 weekly metro pass it costs £40, then when i get to sunderland i have to get a bus to the business park, which is quid there quid back, so in total thats another £40 or so a month.

Yesterday what i did was return my pass for a refund and am going to get a pass that covers rail/metro/bus/ferry for £157 from 31/03 to 17/07 saving me roughly £20-£25 a month.

As for my phone i rang up threating to leave vodafone they have now changed my price plan so as long as i stay under 250 text messages i should be ok with the new upped minutes, so the phone bill will now be £35.