Taking the plunge... Wanted - advice please!

lil_redhead

Ok here goes,

Im a newbie to this and am finally taking the plunge to try and deal with my situ once and for all! I would really appreciate any help, advice anyone can give as well as share experiences with those of you who have gone through what Im contemplating.

I live on my own in a 1 bedroom flat in London. Im employed full-time and here is a list of my monthly outgoings...

Rent £736 pm
C/Tax £70 pm
Water £28 pm
Gas £15 pm (meter)
Electricity £15 pm (meter)
TV Licence £12 pm (pay quarterly)
Mobile £35 pm (flext t mobile)
Phone/TV/Net £30 pm
Travel £50-£60 pm

Food £60-80 pm

HSBC Loan £376 pm (2yrs & 10mths left - £12793 remaining)
Sainsburys Loan £152 pm (2yrs & 10mths left - £6660 remaining)

Lloyds TSB £130 pm (minimum payment - £6400 remaining - limit £7500)
Virgin £110 pm (minimum payment - £4500 remaining - up to its limit)

Tescos £60 pm (minimum payment - £1880 remaining - limit £2500)
Egg £30 pm (minimum payment - £1250 - up to its limit)

Overdraft £330 (always up to this by the end of the month)

I earn £1900 after tax per month... however there is unlimited overtime (at present in my job) and my take home for well over a year now has been in the region of £2600 after tax.

I was very silly when I was younger with store cards and credit cards... hence the loans and now everytime I try to get on the straight and narrow... something happens and I end up back at square 1... I'm sure some of you are very familiar with this...

If I ring my bank (HSBC)... I can guarantee that before the call has ended they will always say "miss ???, I've noticed you have a number of outgoings on your account... have you thought of consolidating them into your loan... at this time we are authorised to lend you up to £12,000...".

It does my head in... as if I did this it would be the 3rd time in about the last 5yrs.

I have spoken with CCCS and after doing a list of my outgoings they advised because of my job and my monthly salary and the fact I've never defaulted (I have a "good" credit history) that it was not recommended to do an IVA... They advised me to speak with my bank and to see what they can do to help as Im still on the right side of things...

This does not help me... as Im only keeping my head just above water... Im always paying at least the minimum payment on my cards with say an extra £20 or £30 on top but sometimes I think whats the point as you never notice it when the bill comes at the end of the month.

Also if I went down the route of an IVA I would have to disclose this to my employer who frowns upon this and bankruptcy considerably. So this is not really an option.

I have thought about trying to go down the mortgage route and incorporate a loan with it... Spoke with Northern Rock who advised they could give me a mortgage of £153,000 but £30,000 of this would need to be used to cover my debt. This would leave me with £5000 left over and a mortgage of £123,000. I would need to move way out of London... such as Southend way (Essex) or Sittingbourne way (Kent) in order to get anything... this would then have an impact on my travel expenses, £4000+ and my travel time and I work 12hr shifts.

I could try and do a keyworker scheme - part buy part rent but I would need £4500 savings - which I definitely do not have at this time... I would only own 25% of the property and for a 1 bed flat central london, after paying mortgate, rent & a monthly maintenance fee Im looking at £1200 a month... which is an absolute ridiculous amount. Plus each year you have the option to buy more shares but you have to pay for a valuation each time and also the price of the property will have gone up.

I decided just very recently that I would try and take out a loan for £21000 with northern rock to cover my sainsburys loan & 4 credit cards over 5 yrs... This would mean that I would pay £394 pm which would save me in the region of about £190 pm... My idea was to then save the amount that I would have normally paid... finish off the HSBC loan in 2yrs 10mths time - then save the £376 each month until I had enough to cover whats left with Northern Rock as their deal at the present time is no penalty fee for early repayment...

I spoke to an op on the phone and she advised I've been declined... and a letter would be coming out to me shortly as to why... I believe its because I said no to the payment protection... or it could be that I was not registered on the electoral roll which I discovered in march on doing a credit check on myself... I have since completed the form and the details will be updated on 1st june.

This month has also been a bad month... Im over my overdraft limit by a tenner... plus I went over my egg limit and virgin limit so I'll have repercussions on that... It was a complete balls up on my part and Im really worried about my credit score being effected...

I've thought about seeking independent advice about my situ but not sure how much they can help me and really not sure about the whole fees and charges thing...

Definitely want to do the reclaiming bank charges thing but would like a plan of action first!

Sorry its soooooooo long... and thanks for reading and hope to hear something soon.

x

Spendi

I took everything away from your income with overtime and got that you have £600+ a month to spend on everything else

Keep a spending diary for 2 weeks, find out where all this money goes, and look at your interest rates on the cards, bt some of the smaller balances to the cards with higher limits if the APR's are lower, then cancel and chop up the cards that are empty.

You need to change your spending habits, or even if you got a loan it wouldnt be long before the cards came out again and the spending crept up again

emzig123

Hiya, nice to 'meet' you! Your SOA looks OK but you havent added things like Haircuts, holidays and christmas. Can be quite revealing!

Also, start a spending diary to see where all your money is going, you'd be surprised how that coffee each morning adds up!

hypno06

Hi there and welcome. OK so things are tight but I think that if you have a spending diary for a couple of weeks and are really honest with what you are spending, then you will soon be able to see areas that you hadn't considered, that you would be able to cut back on.

But don't worry, you are amongst friends here. You will get through!

lil_redhead

Ok cool... I get paid on monday... so no better time to start my spending diary hey?!

x

taxi73

Hi there and welcome and well done on your LB moment....I think you know consolidation is not the answer...we have all been there...as you have money surplus at the end of the month you need to see where you are spending it(it will be a surprise as well, mine was anyway)....so a spending diary is a real eye-opener....also when you're on the electoral roll you can try for 0% deals ...and BT some of those high rate cards...good luck

nonsensefactory

Is it possible to share instead of renting for maybe a year ?

lil_redhead

yes its always an option... i shared for a year and a half when i 1st moved to london... but the idea of doing it again gets a groan im afraid... however on the upside as im a keyworker i am eligible for subsidised rent and have just been accepted this week on my application... now its just a case of saving up a deposit and finding a place...

or... the company that i rent through currently does assist keyworkers as well so im going to ring them monday to see if its possible to switch to one of their keyworker places and then hopefully they can just transfer my deposit... this will mean rent of about £400 - £550... i would much rather do this option 1st if I can... so fingers crossed!

yellowmonkey

Hi.

Just like to say welcome and well done.

Good luck

ym

danno_4

Hi redhead
i'v looked at your situation i know everone talks about different ways and methods ie cccs etc and they do help some but in this industry i belive(and i do)every case should be solved.anyway lets move on.forget iva's to expensive.list all you creditor's,then right to each one informing them that you have a problem at the moment and they except token payments for 3 months say £5 per month alsoask to freeze interest on the account,i know you are worried about your credit rating but to be honest i would not worry about that at the moment other things are far more inportant,Do not borrow any more!!! you should now have a little bit of breathing space.
good luck.
danno

RAS

Hi

Spotted your more recent post. Think it might be easier for people if you keep it all together.

One point on your SOA, without the APRs on the CC above, it is impossible to advise where you should put your money. Can you add them?

And when you say you are on meters for gas and electric, do you mean the supplied is metered or you have pre-payment meters?