My SOA

darktimes

Hi All,

Thought I'd do one of these, see if you can give me any hope!!

Debts;
£19048 - Egg Loan - 6.6% (with 5 years left from an 8 year loan)
£1950 - Barclayloan - 7.9%
£1900 - Barclays Overdraft
£450 - Smile Overdraft
£14340 - MBNA Platinum C/C 0.0% currently, but runs out in june
£480 - MBNA WWF C/C
£100 - Barclaycard C/C
Total: £38748

Incomings;
£1460 Salary

Outgoings;
£383 - Egg
£70 - Barclayloan
£150 - MBNA Platinum
£6 - Barclaycard
£50 - WWF cc
£45 - Smile - Repaying od
£200 - Rent
£250 - Petrol (i work a long way from home)
£50 - Vodafone
£29 - Internet
£100 - Cigarettes
£150 - Food (including lunches)
£69 - Car insurance

I've not even budgeted for Clothes, Xmas, Birthdays, MOT's, car repairs, beer money etc. usually they go on the CC!

I dont wanna do any scheme which will stop me getting a mortgage. I understand with an IVA you cannot get credit for ages?

Thanks for any help in advance.:T
DT:cool:

Swishter

How much is the interest on the OD of the bank you use?

What about gas/electric/water etc? Do you have to pay for these?

Swishter

Sorry, forgot to say hello! I'm new to this to but am feeling inspired already, its amazing how much better you feel when you start to sort things out!

jamesd

Please add the interest rates for the overdrafts and other credit cards. Have you been declined credit recently or is it still possible that you may be able to get a 0% deal to replace the MBNA credit card 0%? Are those all the minimum payments on the credit cards? If not, what are the minimums?

So far you're at 1460 salary (after tax and NI?) and 1543 outgoings, so that's not a good picture.

Do you currently have any savings or investments?

What does renting a room near work cost? Is it practical and cheaper than petrol to do that and commute weekends only? Is it practical to do that and rent out your current place?

Lunches probably need to switched to packed lunches to try to get your expenses below income. The smoking is a luxury you can't really afford at your current debt level - have to cut back on it.

What's the Vodafone deal and when did you last try to get a better one? 50 is quite expensive.

Swishter

I've just looked at your other posts, well done for fighting you addictions. I'm a recovering alcoholic and understand how tough things can be. I only had my LBM three days ago, since i've started making small practical steps to improve my debt and I have a plan in place I am finding everything much easier to cope with.

Good luck.
xx

Biffa

Hi, well done for posting first of all!

Outgoings;
£383 - Egg
£70 - Barclayloan
£150 - MBNA Platinum
£6 - Barclaycard
£50 - WWF cc
£45 - Smile - Repaying od
£200 - Rent
£250 - Petrol (i work a long way from home)
£50 - Vodafone Is this on contract? Can you switch to a cheaper call plan?
£29 - Internet
£100 - CigarettesTry buying tobacco and papers and rolling your own. You'll save money and probably cut down on how many you smoke - I find it impossible to roll and drive, so no longer smoke 7 on the way to work!
£150 - Food (including lunches)Is this for buying lunch at work as well? If so, try taking a packed lunch to save money.
£69 - Car insurance - this is high! What on earth are you driving? This is nearly £900 a year - can you get a smaller car/smaller engine/ have less accidents???


One of the first things I would recommend is cutting up all of your credit cards. There's no point keeping them when you're in this much debt - you'll only get yourself into a bigger hole. You also need to start trying to get a contingency fund on the go, so that if you have any big repair bills for the car, you don't need to panic.

Do you have anything collecting dust that you can sell on ebay and make some money from?

There will be loads of other people along to give some other ideas on helping out, I just can't think of any more at the moment as I have two [STRIKE]elephants [/STRIKE], sorry, children, running around upstairs when they should be in bed!

Prisonshepherd

DT,

Hats of too you for over coming your past:T I work closely with people that are still there, if you can overcome that you will overcome this. I had my LBM today and already have had some good advice.

"£29 - Internet" I would check that badger out, loads of others around, have a look and maybe try and tie it into your TV or landline?

"£69 - Car insurance" :eek: Have a think on this one......that is way OTT. If it is a sporty number.........chop it in! A A-to-B is good enough. If it's because of prangs :eek: ....speak to your boss about going on theirs/ or try the Train....I do the train now and i save £100 Mth and am more relaxed!:cool:

findingmyownway

darktimes wrote: »

Hi All,

Thought I'd do one of these, see if you can give me any hope!!

Debts;
£19048 - Egg Loan - 6.6% (with 5 years left from an 8 year loan)
£1950 - Barclayloan - 7.9%
£1900 - Barclays Overdraft
£450 - Smile Overdraft
£14340 - MBNA Platinum C/C 0.0% currently, but runs out in june
£480 - MBNA WWF C/C
£100 - Barclaycard C/C
Total: £38748

Incomings;
£1460 Salary

Outgoings;
£383 - Egg
£70 - Barclayloan
£150 - MBNA Platinum
£6 - Barclaycard
£50 - WWF cc
£45 - Smile - Repaying od

are the payments above the minimum payments?
£200 - Rent what about council tax?
£250 - Petrol (i work a long way from home) this is a lot of money. can't you get the train?
£50 - Vodafone give them a call. even if you are in a 12month contract you could still reduce your package to prob nearer £25/month
£29 - Internet this can be reduced. check out the utilities board on here for the best deals. off the top of my head you can get basic broadband for around £10.month
£100 - Cigarettes a luxery you cannot afford
£150 - Food (including lunches) is this for one person? have a look on the Old Style board for plenty of ideas for eating healthily on a budget
£69 - Car insurance quite a lot on money - can you downsize your car? shop around for a better price?

I've not even budgeted for Clothes, Xmas, Birthdays, MOT's, car repairs, beer money etc. usually they go on the CC!

I dont wanna do any scheme which will stop me getting a mortgage. I understand with an IVA you cannot get credit for ages?

Thanks for any help in advance.:T
DT:cool:

Well done for posting SOA darktimes, i hoped you would when i read your posts on my thread. I can see you have gone through some tough times recently but it seems you are now coming through the other side!

You earn a good wage and with some careful management you can get your money to go a lot further.

Do you have any bank charges you can claim back?

I know there are some free organisations who you can talk to and will help you manage your debt. I havent had dealings with them myself but someone hopefully will post the details on here shortly....

darktimes

findingmyownway wrote: »

Well done for posting SOA darktimes, i hoped you would when i read your posts on my thread. I can see you have gone through some tough times recently but it seems you are now coming through the other side!

You earn a good wage and with some careful management you can get your money to go a lot further.

Do you have any bank charges you can claim back?

I know there are some free organisations who you can talk to and will help you manage your debt. I havent had dealings with them myself but someone hopefully will post the details on here shortly....

Hiya, thanks all for your encouraging replies.
I know deep down I'm doing well and have come so far. I just feel as tho I'm now stuck in a deep deep pit of debt and it is so depressing it makes my recovery so much harder. I'll try and answer some of the questions...
I'm trying to recover my bank charges from Barclays... Over the last 6 years I must've spent thousands on these! I've sent off my cheque for £10 requesting my unauthorised fee statements, so we'll see how that pans out...

I live with my Dad currently, so dont have to worry about coucil tax, gas, electric etc. just yet. But I'm in arrears to him & am currently paying £250 (£50pm catch up for 4 months).

findingmyownway wrote:

are the payments above the minimum payments?
£200 - Rent what about council tax?
£250 - Petrol (i work a long way from home) this is a lot of money. can't you get the train?

If I got the Train, it is 2 trains, 2 buses. I've worked out that even if I manage to get all connecting times with no delay's, it's still going to take me 2.15 hours each way!
I could move closer to work, but for 1 room in a flat or shared house it is £350pm. I dont want to end up miles from home & my friends to end up depressed by myself all week and turning back to drugs. I realise that it's slightly more expensive to stay with my Dad, but just now I need the support (what little i get) but just being in my Mum's old house is comforting.

findingmyownway wrote:

£50 - Vodafone give them a call. even if you are in a 12month contract you could still reduce your package to prob nearer £25/month

I'm on a stupid 18month contract. I tend to use all my free minutes & text's as it is, but have spoken to them & they are going to do an "analysis" to see if I'm on the best deal for my usage.

findingmyownway wrote:

£29 - Internet this can be reduced. check out the utilities board on here for the best deals. off the top of my head you can get basic broadband for around £10.month

I am tied in for 12 months due to this new company picking up my line when my previous ISP got into trouble.

findingmyownway wrote:

£100 - Cigarettes a luxery you cannot afford

Tell me about it!! I'm getting good at giving things up tho, so once I've defeated the dreaded H, I'll be moving right along to kicking the nicotene's !!!! (i'll try getting rollies in the meantime :O])

findingmyownway wrote:

£150 - Food (including lunches) is this for one person? have a look on the Old Style board for plenty of ideas for eating healthily on a budget

I'm useless with food. Really good at bargain hunting though.
£150 was a guesstimate really, but having checked my reciepts & banking online, since being clean of drugs I have spent at least £10 per day on food. Comfort eating I think you might call it. Anyway, I'm eating sarnies from home today.

findingmyownway wrote:

£69 - Car insurance quite a lot on money - can you downsize your car? shop around for a better price?

I'm renewing my insurance this month. But am not hopeful, as having points on my license along with a write-off last year and several other dings the year before doesn't help. I do a lot of miles and need to have breakdown cover included. Being able to pay this monthly is a big help, but I'm sure the interest on it is something stupid.

Speaking of interest, I've no idea what I am paying on my overdraft(s).

I feel like giving up just thinking about all this. it really does seem like I'm sinking fast. I seem to be constantly over my wages & subsidise this with credit cards. I've already sold everything I could possibly get my hands on. Ebay has been constantly open on my pc. Raised about £300 which quickly got swallowed by my overdraft.

Someone else asked if I can still get credit...
So far I've only ever missed (paid late) 1 credit card payment and that was only about 2 months ago and I knew I was going to have to start sorting something out to do with it before it gets too silly.
So I can probably try & shift my 0% CC balance to another 0% deal. Failing that, it may be possible to take a payment break with Egg(i had one a year or so ago, so I'm not sure about this). I'm not sure if then it would be better to get another CC or a Loan to consolidate the rest of my CC's & OD's.

Hope I've covered everything.
DT

jamesd

You'll need the interest rates on the overdrafts because one principle of debt repayment is paying off the highest interest rate debts first.

You should also show this to your father. You can't currently afford the rent you're paying so if he's willing a reduction to 100 a month for two years to be repaid by an extra 150 a month for two years after that would temporarily get your repayments to roughly match your income and give you about 50 extra to use to pay the interest on the overdrafts and maybe reduce them a little.

Taking a payment break with Egg or extending the term by a couple of years at the same interest rate (make sure they don't change it to a higher rate!) would also help, giving you some surplus to use to reduce the debt levels. This one may be the last loan you pay off because it has a good interest rate.

You will need another 0% credit card deal once the MBNA deal runs out. Your credit rating still sounds decent so you have a change at that. Getting this replacement card is critical so don't risk more than one other credit card application before you do it, even though I mention two possibilities below.

A card offering 0% for spending would also be helpful because you could put many of your monthly expenses on that - petrol, tobacco, maybe phone and internet. This would help you to pay off the overdrafts with this money instead, saving you some interest.

An Egg Money card may be useful because you can balance transfer from it to another card to generate cash to pay off overdrafts if you get another 0% balance transfer card. Don't ask for this one until you know that you have the replacement 0% card.

You'll need to reduce spending or increase income by a minimum of 150 a month to break even. Any more than that can pay off the highest rate debt - probably overdrafts.

You're currently just over the edge of being unable to handle the debt you have. It's recoverable without IVA if you work at it - going to be hard for a while, but you know how that goes.

darktimes

Cheers Jamesd, :beer:

I will investigate the OD interest rates. Just to clarify tho, did you say i should try and put my OD's onto a 0% CC? (and if I do, then reduce the OD limits straight away!)

I'm going to try asking for a payrise asap. The firm I work for usually only does this every december, so I'm not holding out much hope... How much do you think I need to ask for (yearly) in order to make my incomings match my outgoings? I have crudely estimated that I need an extra £1800, based on £150 per month. So before tax I'm guessing I need a third more than this? So in total before tax I need £2400pa ?

As for asking for a rent reduction - no chance!! My Dad is not very understanding when it comes to money matters. He would just tell me to stop smoking (as if it's that easy!) :eek:

I am a little worried that I wont be able to get another CC with as high a limit as my current 0% balance transfer card. Specially if they ask for my current SOA!! :S if this is the case, then what would be the best way to go? Multiple cards? or a Loan to cover the total? I was thinking about leaving my egg loan and putting all my other debt on 1 loan. Maybe a really long term one so that I can put some fun back into my life and remember why I've put so much effort into my recent life battles.

For anyone who has ever beaten an addiction, or tried & failed, I have the utmost respect for you and would say to never give up trying, you only get better at it for next time. I've realised that I will always be an addict for the rest of my life, the difference being that I will be a non-using addict. Never the less, I will wrestle the urges to use daily and be fighting a constant mental battle. I feel lucky that I have managed to put that part of my life behind me, but feel so sad and sick with worry for the people who are in a worse position than i was. Even tho I have had sad news and harsh events to deal with which I could blame for making me situation and mind-set worse, I cant imagine how difficult it must be for others suffering from addiction and simply cannot see a way that the situation can get any better. There must be more people getting addicted daily than people getting clean. All the while, this is putting a lot of money in a lot of really nasty peoples hands. I cant believe I'm saying this, but I would much rather the government legalised drugs and put tax on them. At least it would be going back to good causes such as the NHS or the saint-like-people who have decided to help people in my situation to start the immensely difficult road to becoming a worthwhile member of society again, either by running rehab clinics\classes etc or voulenteering to support in other ways. The bottom line at the moment is that most rehab programs or other NHS methods of detexing from drugs just does not work. Its underfunded and the options quite often are just abused, they put you in a room with other people who are just as weak as you. If you've managed the hell-like initial phase (cold-turkey) and are attending a rehab clinic, then the last thing you need is 10-20 other people in the same boat as you, all dying for a fix and all getting kicked out onto the street together after a session.. then it's always "oh, I'll just have 1", the famous last words that you remember yourself uttering after you've just spent another 3 weeks doing the same old things.. before you know it, your suffering the withdrawl symptoms again and back to square 1. It's so easy to do, especially when the options are to go home & sit there feeling like crap because you've not used for 2 months (it can take 6, sometimes 12 months for the physical withdrawls to subside fully - the mental effects as I've said can stay with you forever).
I seriously fear for society. I have seen 1st hand this plague spreading at an astonishing rate. and I can only think of 1 other person who I knew was an addict, who has actually managed to get clean and stay clean. I dont think the government has any idea the actual scale of this problem and if they do then the should be ashamed as it's going to take a miracle to slow down, let alone stop this cancer from spreading.

Oops, Sorry, rant over! As you can probably gather, this is something I feel very strongly about. I wish I could do something about it, but I know how much effort this mammouth task takes just for 1 person to beat, its no wonder noone wants to try and tackle it on a national scale... On one hand, I think legalisation could be the way to solve it, but on the other hand, look at the Uk's binge drinking! which is already legal!!
I would welcome a debate on this, but maybe in another thread\forum? as for this topic, I think i need to concentrate on sorting out my own New mammouth task.. debt!
DT