What do you think?? - please don't judge too harshly!!!

aflockofseagulls

Ok, I'm new to this and just wondered if my "plan" sounds like it could work!!!

Myself and my partner are currently living with his parents.

- We have a joint account with an OD of £600 (£300 is fee-free but at present we are nearly always at the limit). Anything over £300 is charged at £1 a day.

- We have a separate 'Bills Account' which has never had an OD on it until very recently when due to Natwest eating up one of OH's wages, we had to take an OD on it which currently sits at £1000 - charged at £1 a day.

I have a credit card with £1700 on it (currently 0% but can't increase the limit to consolidate).

I just want to get rid of all this mess!! Halifax won't let me consolidate both overdrafts onto one account, which would massively help and would half the fees :mad:

I have seen a credit card which is 0% on balance transfers for 20 months. I feel as though we could pay off a hefty amount of it during this time but would this be a bit risky??? any advice would be much appreciated and sorry this is so long winded but thought the more info the better!!!

bargainbetty

I don't know if you can balance transfer an overdraft onto the card, and you can't get 0% on cash withdrawals. You might be able to obtain a 0% on purchases card and use that to pay for everything for a month, to reduce your overdraft.

To be honest, without seeing a full statement of accounts, it is hard to know what to say, as there is no detail of your income, other debt, or expenditure. Maybe do one of those and see if anyone can advise on how to bring your debts down?

aflockofseagulls

my income at present is £17,200

We live with the OH's parents at the moment. They are kindly letting us stay there for £200/month between us.

Outgoings wise we have a phone contract each which is £25 (totalling £50) a month.
I have gym membership (£26 a month)

Aside from that the money that comes in is basically "ours" OH is self employed and often at present isn't getting paid, even when he works!! So we are often having to live off my wage between us.

I appreciate we realistically need to cut back on our personal spending in order to clear this debt. I suppose in order to "see" how we are getting this paid off I thought would be easier with the credit card, but I see where you are coming from with that!!

Thanks.

happycamel_2

I think you need to work out exactly where your money goes, it would seem that your expenditure exceeds your income, given your low rent and presumably no council tax etc I would guess that there is a lot of discretionary spending.

Starting on 1st October try to document every transaction that has gone through your account, or as close as you can. Do the same for the cash you have withdrawn, there will probably be a big "unknown" gap.

From Thursday onwards keep a notebook with you (both of you) or use your smartphones and keep a log of everything you spend and also check your accounts at least every week and write down the transactions that have gone through.

Now classify the expenditure "groceries", "car costs", "other travel", "phones" etc. Have a think about how much was necessary and how much you could have done for cheaper or not spent at all. Then start cutting back and paying off your debt, credit card is probably the priority if it will soon go up to 20% or so interest.

Can your OH get any seasonal work is his self employment isn't paying back. The post office and retail stores are recruiting at the moment.

fatbelly

aflockofseagulls wrote: »

Ok, I'm new to this and just wondered if my "plan" sounds like it could work!!!

Myself and my partner are currently living with his parents.

- We have a joint account with an OD of £600 (£300 is fee-free but at present we are nearly always at the limit). Anything over £300 is charged at £1 a day.

- We have a separate 'Bills Account' which has never had an OD on it until very recently when due to Natwest eating up one of OH's wages, we had to take an OD on it which currently sits at £1000 - charged at £1 a day.

I have a credit card with £1700 on it (currently 0% but can't increase the limit to consolidate).

I just want to get rid of all this mess!! Halifax won't let me consolidate both overdrafts onto one account, which would massively help and would half the fees :mad:

I have seen a credit card which is 0% on balance transfers for 20 months. I feel as though we could pay off a hefty amount of it during this time but would this be a bit risky??? any advice would be much appreciated and sorry this is so long winded but thought the more info the better!!!

The £1 per day charge doesn't sound much but equates to a huge apr, so if you can get a 0% card (even though there will be a transfer fee) that would save a lot of interest /charges.

If you want one where you can transfer straight into a bank account you need a one that does 'super balance transfers'

http://www.stoozing.com/sbt.php

writerlilly

It does sound risky, but that might be your best shot. If you can transfer both of your overdrafts to a 0% credit card for the first 20 months then do that immediately. 1 Quid a day is eating you alive. With 0% balance. It's just sitting there not collecting anything for the first 20 months.

But you must make an attempt to pay the minimum at the very least. In fact, I would pay more than the minimums. Minimums keep you in debt the longest. Other wise. Your other option is to pay down one of your two balances as quickly as possible. Start with the 300 quid.

LondonGirl252

I struggled to escape my £1 a day £1000 overdraft for so long. I rang up Halifax to ask them what on earth I coulddo and they informed me my credit card (also with them) had an offer of it for a 9 month balance transfer to a current account at 0%.

Did it immediatley and made sure I paid it off within the time. Once your saving £30/£60 in your case thats a fair bit more a month to see disappear from the balance. Just make sure you cancel the overdrafts immediatley and rid yourself of the temptation

aflockofseagulls

Thank you everybody!!! have some good ideas now of what to do. Definitely need to look at overall spending anyway but first point is to stop these charges, it's just wasted money!!!

Time to take a deep breath and start fresh tomorrow (1st of the month)!!!

LondonGirl252

good luck! Keep us updated!

pivotalgubbins

aflockofseagulls wrote: »

Thank you everybody!!! have some good ideas now of what to do. Definitely need to look at overall spending anyway but first point is to stop these charges, it's just wasted money!!

Don't take this the wrong way but your first point should be to look at where your money is going as this is what you have immediate control over! Credit card applications and so forth will take days and you may not be accepted so well worth taking stock of your spending now (or tomorrow, I always like to start a fresh month/week/etc with these type of things)!

Danger with a 0% card is that you slip back into old habits - please do cut up the new card once the balances are transferred, cancel the Natwest O/D when paid off and see if you can get other O/D limited to just £300 (the fee-free bit) - least you have some wiggle room this way.

Also, why isn't your OH getting paid? What can he do to sort this? Start planning for future earnings - build up a rainy day fund (vital for the self-employed).

Most importantly, good luck!

DCFC79

Maybe complete and SOA ?

Copied from another thread:

While you're at it, buy some highlighter pens and get your bank statements for the last 3 months. Dollars to doughnuts, you're actually frittering hundreds more a month than you think. If you go through you statements and highlight categories like Petrol, Groceries, Food shop etc I bet by far, the most highlighting will be for 'cash withdrawal'. You have a massive income and there is no reason on earth you should have any debt at all, even a mortgage, so now is a good time to take control once and for all.