I am really proud of me!

pigsmightfly

I had my lightbulb moment just before Christmas (:eek: ) and knew it was time to get something sorted!

I sat down and went through my banks statements and made a list of all my monthly outgoings/direct debits etc.

I then decided to try and get some monthly payments lowered.

I claimed bank charges back on my current account which cleared my overdraft thus stopping charges as well :T

I contacted my opticians and got my monthly contact lens payment reduced by telling them I was going to go elsewhere

Then, a loan that I had got passed to a DCA because I had missed a couple of payments. I contacted the DCA straight away and was told they were keeping my monthly payments the same and would not lower them.
This seemed a bit stupid to me because obviously I was struggling to pay this amount or it wouldn't have been passed to them in the first place!
So, I sent them a letter explaining I was struggling with payments etc. and offered them a different monthly figure. Got a letter back today saying they will accept this change so I have now lowered that payment by £40 per month. :j

I know it might not sound much and there is still a long way to go but it just shows if you try and put your mind to it, you can and will get it sorted.

I was just a little proud of myself for trying to sort things out so thought I'd share it

Snaggles

You SHOULD be proud, you're making great progress, well done! Your debt total is coming down nicely too.

art_student

:T Great progress!:T Getting in control of your finances is the most important step and it sounds like you are doing that!
Keep up the good work!

pigsmightfly

Thank you!

Think I still would have been digging myself into an even bigger hole if it wasn't for this site though so well done Martin

Lazy_Line_Painter_Jane

That's fantastic! Well done you! :T

Do you mind if I ask you a question? How much were you paying for your contacts? I am paying £12 a month, but I have quite a few months at home as I have had recurrent eye infections since October last year and so haven't been wearing them.

Should I cancel or negotiate?

Thanks

pigsmightfly

Lazy_Line_Painter_Jane wrote: »

That's fantastic! Well done you! :T

Do you mind if I ask you a question? How much were you paying for your contacts? I am paying £12 a month, but I have quite a few months at home as I have had recurrent eye infections since October last year and so haven't been wearing them.

Should I cancel or negotiate?

Thanks

I was paying £15 per month for my contacts and checkups inclusive.

I would cancel for now until you get sorted because there's no point paying for it if you aren't using them.

Once you get sorted, then go back to your opticians and just set up your payments again. If they keep the monthly payments the same, just say you have shopped about and can get exactly the same elsewhere but you want to saty with them because of their customer service etc. etc. (suck up a little).

Hope you get better soon

Funky_Fudge

Well done you :beer: I have only found the forum today and am already sat here - in a mountain of statements trying to get my act together. It's all good. Going to get my brother sorted out as well... I think he is an IVA candidate though, I need to go find some moretails about how you go about that though :cool:

Best of luck to you... hope you stick to it and get sorted :T

pigsmightfly

Funky_Fudge wrote: »

Well done you :beer: I have only found the forum today and am already sat here - in a mountain of statements trying to get my act together. It's all good. Going to get my brother sorted out as well... I think he is an IVA candidate though, I need to go find some moretails about how you go about that though :cool:

Best of luck to you... hope you stick to it and get sorted :T

Thank you and good luck to you too

redsquirrel80

Well done - it does feel good (though scary) when you finally get your head out of sand and start dealing with things. Keep being firm with the DCA if you need to - some will try to hassle you to raise your payments again after a few months. Stick at it!

Skint_Catt

:T :T Well done you!!!!

Catt xx

pigsmightfly

redsquirrel80 wrote: »

Well done - it does feel good (though scary) when you finally get your head out of sand and start dealing with things. Keep being firm with the DCA if you need to - some will try to hassle you to raise your payments again after a few months. Stick at it!

Thanks!

Yes I have a funny feeling I will hear from them again soon. But I can only pay what I can afford. Something is better than nothing :rolleyes: