Dealing with a credit card bill

[Deleted User]

unabatedshagie wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned....................

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1375
Partners monthly income after tax....... 575
Benefits................................ 680
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2630

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 240
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 200
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 120 - Is this over 10 or 12 months?
Electricity............................. 60 - This seems high, given that you also have gas. Check comparison sites.
Gas..................................... 35
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 100 - This is HUGE. Go PAYG ASAP and, in the meantime, see if you can reduce the tariff.
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 45 - This is also quite high. See if you can reduce it.
Groceries etc. ......................... 240
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 50
Childcare/nursery....................... 480 - A large chuck of your partner's salary is going toward this. Is there any way to reduce this?
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 40
Contents insurance...................... 0 - You need this.
Life assurance ......................... 15
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0 - You need something in here
Total monthly expenses.................. 1677


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 70000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 70000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 34000....(240)......2.4
Secured Debt.................. 10000....(200)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 44000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Credit Card....................7500......200.......0 - Is this really @ 0%? If so, for how long?
Total unsecured debts..........7500......200.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,630
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,677
Available for debt repayments........... 953
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 200
Amount left after debt repayments....... 753

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 70,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -44,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -7,500
Net Assets.............................. 18,500

A few comment and a few questions.

unabatedshagie

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

A few comment and a few questions.

Starting from the top

1. Over 10 months
2. The gas and electricity are together, AFAIK we are on the lowest tariff.
3. I've explained this above, in a few months this will be lower. I can't change the tariff.
4. This includes phone line rental.
5. No way to reduce this. Have two children under 5 that need childminder.
6. This is included with the building insurance price.
7. I know but it feels like I have no money as it is without trying to save money too.
8. No it's not. I just have no idea what the rate is. It's probably quite high.

spitandpolish

If it was me I'd take out a new 5 year fix rate mortgage with say HSBC at 3.29% and pay £950 a month and have all your debts cleared. If you want breathing space do it over 25 years and all you will pay is £255 a month for the next 60months but do make use of the 10% per annum overpayment feature.

Cut up the cards though and be sensible you should never need a loan ever again. We have a similar income and money does appear to snowball in our account.

Good luck!!!

[Deleted User]

unabatedshagie wrote: »

1. Over 10 months

Ask to switch to 12 months.

That will give you an extra £20pm, to put toward your debts.

4. This includes phone line rental.

It's still high. Check out U-Switch for a better deal.

Broadband and calls packages start from £16-50pm, including line rental.

Indeed, you may not even need to switch. Many companies will offer a better deal, when they realise you intend to leave them.

8. No it's not. I just have no idea what the rate is. It's probably quite high.

The APR will be on the monthly bills.

Once you have that, play around with the figures on the snowball calculator.

You will be amazed how much difference, even that extra £20 saved from the CT (let alone anything saved on your Broadband), will have on the length of time and interest paid.

unabatedshagie

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Ask to switch to 12 months.

That will give you an extra £20pm, to put toward your debts.



It's still high. Check out U-Switch for a better deal.

Broadband and calls packages start from £16-50pm, including line rental.

Indeed, you may not even need to switch. Many companies will offer a better deal, when they realise you intend to leave them.



The APR will be on the monthly bills.

Once you have that, play around with the figures on the snowball calculator.

You will be amazed how much difference, even that extra £20 saved from the CT (let alone anything saved on your Broadband), will have on the length of time and interest paid.

As far as both my gf and I are aware CT can only be paid over 10 months. We are in Scotland so I'm not sure if it might be different if you live in England etc?

I'm on an 18 month contract, still have 6/7 months to go (I think) and I'm not willing to really drop the speed/monthly cap I'm on.

I'll check my cc bill and see what the APR is.

ellesbellesxxx

@Spitandpolish: Never ever should anyone turn an unsecured debt into a secured loan against their house!!!!!

Op: A lot of great advice here about reducing spending. You could go via a cashback site to do switching of utilities and make some money back too.

spitandpolish

ellesbellesxxx wrote: »

@Spitandpolish: Never ever should anyone turn an unsecured debt into a secured loan against their house!!!!!

Op: A lot of great advice here about reducing spending. You could go via a cashback site to do switching of utilities and make some money back too.

Don't talk cobblers.

There will still be a substantial amount of equity held in the property and no longer will the OP be paying up to 30% APR on 1/3rd of their total debts. I doubt that you are one to reason with and will more than likely want to get the last word in but I will not be drawn into this debate.

Unsecured lending can very easily become secured via a charging order any way so there is no benefit in keeping these debt separate unless they sell the house first, spend or conceal the proceeds then default on the unsecured debt.

Cycrow

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Ask to switch to 12 months.

That will give you an extra £20pm, to put toward your debts.

Or, what i do is use the money from the 2 months im not paying it to pay up my tv licence and contents insurance for a year

luckily for me my contents insurance was started in march and my tv licence in april

katsu

At the moment you don't really know what your outgoings are, so you aren't in control of your money. Find out where your money is going and people here can help you reduce your spending so you have more money free to reduce your debts.

affordmylife

as someone else mentioned your gf is coming home with barely £100 for working a whole month and your two small kids are in childcare.

unless this is a situation that will ease soon or her money will go up/do more hours this seems like a complete waste of time to me.