Help needed in my concerted effort to get debt free!

Dumbledore55

I've just successfully changed to a water meter - saving £20 per month

and I've used Uswitch to help me change from British Gas to Scottish Power - saving £23 per month

and I've cancelled my gym membership (hardly ever used) - saving £25 per month

**all these savings will help me achieve my target of paying of £1000 per month off my credit card debts**

Now reviewing my house and car insurance to see if I can make any savings there...this is becoming quite addictive!!

Magentasue

:jWell done Dumbledore, it makes you feel so much better when you feel in control, doesn't it? I think the awful thing about debt is that it makes you feel it's hopeless but taking steps to sort it out makes you feel you're winning.:beer:

Dumbledore55

Just had a huge row with Virgin Credit Card - they were supposed to have done a BT a month ago. In the meantime I got my Capital One card and transferred what I thought I owed on Virgin to them. Then I got a letter from Virgin saying they hadn't done my BT yet and could I ring with more info.

Rang and they said couldn't do my BT as in credit (due to Cap One BT!!). I explained that it was because they took so long. They then accused me of money laundering(!) and have insisted on refunding the credit to my current account but it'll take 5 working days.

I've never had a problem like this before and I'm glad I've cancelled my virgin card as their customer service dept was so rude to me - 3 times he said I was committing fraud or money-laundering!

Financial situation now looks like this:

Capital One - £13160 - 0% until August 06 (£13400 limit)
Lloyds TSB - £3026 - 0% until 6th August 05 then 16.9% (£3500 limit) found I'd got 12 months at 0% not 9 months!
NSPCC - £599 - 0% until 26th May 05 then 12.9% (£9300 limit) gone up as some of this should have been transferred to Virgin
Sainsburys Visa - £4540 - 6.9% for life of balance but won't accept any more BTs at that rate (6650 limit) 20.9% for any other BTs
Airmiles £776 - 19.9% - ONLY USUALLY USE FOR PURCHASES AND THEN PAY OFF IN FULL - BUT SHOULD HAVE BEEN TRANSFERRED TO VIRGIN!!

Capital One will accept new BTs at 0% throughout the 18 months - when I get some available credit of course!

Including minimum payments I have about £1000 per month I can dedicate to paying off my cards. Minimum payments are:

Capital One - £394.80
Lloyds TSB - £60.52
NSPCC - £11.80
Sainsburys Visa - £136.20

I'll pay off the Airmiles card in full when the money from Virgin lands in my current account but I will now have some interest to pay on that thanks to Virgin's slow service and insistence that they couldn't do my BT until they'd given me back the cash.

I never thought I'd be asking for someone NOT to give me cash but a BT would have been better to ensure I don't spend it in the wrong way - will power isn't my strong point - that's how I got in this debt in the first place.

Smiley_Mum

I came across this link that may be of some interest. It's to do with a new programme on BBC3 called "Spendaholics". There is someone with a major debt problem and they have the two experts sent in to help them out -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/tv/spendaholics_tips.shtml

Tony_H_3

If Capital One will accept an infinite number of Balance Transfers and you have 1000.00 per month to pay off your debt the answer is simple.

Pay minimum payment's on all cards EXCEPT those that charge you interest, pay the remaining of the 1000.00 of the interest charging card. In addition also do a balance transfer for the full amount of available credit on Capital One from the highest paying interest card. Repeat this advice monthly and your cards will get paid off in order of urgency.

By doing this you are instantly transfering atleast 394.00 worth of debt to interest free every month.

Dumbledore55

Hi

Just got my post and thanks to Martin I've managed to get a much better deal on life insurance through Cavendish Online - saving me £15 per month so cancelled my previous one now.

I'm really getting hooked on this money saving now x

Edinburghlass_2

dumbledore, what a great user name :beer:

I trust in your money saving you have looked in on the Telephone Boards

Dumbledore55

I pay £34.99 per month to Telewest and for that I get free national calls after 6pm and at weekends, extra channels on my TV and broadband internet access. I was paying BT £30 per month just for the telephone before.

Does anyone know if I can do better?

Edinburghlass_2

Not bad at all :beer:

Be worth signing up to call1899 for any daytime calls you make, 0p per minute with a 3p connection charge for cable users.

Jacster_2

Just yesterday I registered for call18866. The registration process was easy-peasy and all you then need to do is change your supplier to your basic line rental package and start saving.

Check details on using it with Telewest - I am with BT and I think there is a slightly different process.

More info here

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1095003038,99872,