Really need help, getting stressed with my debt, no where to go :(

19lottie82

Hmmm I'm guessing the OP won't be back after the advice he received wasn't too his liking. Seriously, what do these people expect?

claret_mike

JoshyBoy wrote: »

Thanks all

Appreciated.

Just looking at it the £390 I get left with after all expenses etc, I could be putting £200 P/M towards one card.

Pay that off, then the next card.

Leaves me with £190 for going out etc, not much but I'll have to make it last.

Will take a long time, but for e.g start with my Barclays credit card.

That will take approximately 7 months to clear off.

Then I could use that credit card to transfer the 975 on my Albion Master card and still have credit on my Barclays card in case of emergencies.

Rip up the Albion card, pay off the rest of the Barclays card, then repeat the above on the other cards.

Is this viable? or should it just be a case of pay off and no transfers?

A couple of things that I would ask you to consider.

There is no quick fix to repaying debt, unfortunately you can overspend overnight but paying back normally takes a lot longer. You need to get it in to your head that this isn't something you will get sorted by the end of summer.

You need to do a proper SOA because you are clearly still thinking of things far too broadly.

What will you do when you have a birthday or an emergency - months of hard work could become undone.

When you do a full SOA then people will be able to make suggestions around how you can save money - for example, you mention buying video games - if you are spending £40 on a game a month, it may be worth joining something like love film and renting them on a monthly basis, you could save £30 there.

You have said money you have for debt includes money for haircuts - again, unless you aim to grow your hair, you still need money towards this.

The reality is that you are still thinking I will just go back into debt if an emergency. You need to start building into your budget where your money goes, the full SOA will ask you to budget for things like haircuts & clothes & entertainment. You need to be fully honest with yourself and you need to make sure that you have a realistic amount you can pay towards your debt.

Once you have done this and you have a realistic figure for overpaying your debts, you then have broadly 2 approaches towards this - pay off your smaller debts first so you can get these gone more speedily (you see progress) or get APRs for the debts and start paying the highest one first.

Clearly you should have more money each month to pay to the debts - even if only a little amount.

You say you do not have enough hours in the day, look at the up your income board, look at maybe finding something that you can do on a weekend?

You are an admin assistant - look on freelancer.co.uk or peopleperhour type website and see if you can get any work on there outside of your current job.

You have to accept there is no quick fix, you need to get your head around the fact that you will need to spend money on essentials still and a proper SOA will give you a proper understanding of where your money is.

Getting a consolidation loan is not the answer and the sooner you learn to take control of your income. The biggest way to earn more is to spend less.

Look at selling things, look at earning additional income in addition to your cut down spending and you will soon be out of debt and on the road to a better financial life.

Having a bad credit file can impact on career prospects too so if you have aspirations down the line to do more senior roles (where controlling budgets may be involved) then consider that you may need to be able to demonstrate that you can do this too.

We cannot do this for you but you have had some basic initial advice and you seem to not want to do what you have been asked to do - the best way to get support and advice around here is to be honest with yourself and be open to explore what is being asked.

FBaby

JoshyBoy, I think you need to start considering your expectations. You say:

Leaves me with £190 for going out etc, not much but I'll have to make it last.

That IS a lot when you are in as much debt as you are. It's a lot for people who don't have debts and can just about afford it.

You say you don't want to find excuses but you do. Until you can appreciate the relationship between your income and what you can afford, then you will be stuck in this frame of mind and likely to be dealing with debts for a long time.

I don't mean to sound patronising, but I have dealt with a number of people who did exactly the same as you when young, associated finally getting an income with being able to buy all they wanted, without realising that a salary only means you can support yourself and, if you are lucky, treat yourself with what you have left over.

You need to accept that you can't continue to enjoy your current lifestyle with the debts you have with your income. You need to cut everything to a minimum and sort out this debt as quickly as possible. Many young people make the mistake of getting exciting when they first earn a salary and many get into trouble. You then have those who have their light bulb moment, clear it out by having no social life, working every hours possible and repaying everything, and then learn to live within their means, and you have the others who think they can clear it up by paying a bit there and then, but continue to enjoy treats they can't afford and are still tearing their head up many years later.

You are still young without a family and isn't too late to sort it all out and start afresh, but you need to appreciate the urgency of dealing with it and the sacrifices you will have to make to do so.

Newyorkdreams

bargainbetty wrote: »

OK, in order....

1. Do a proper budget and work out what you can afford to throw at your debts every month.
2. Find out your APRs (interest rates) and pay off the card with the highest charge first.
3. Pay the minimum plus £1 on all the others.
4. Don't take out any more credit
5. Have an honest chat with your girlfriend about finding cheaper ways to enjoy yourselves.
6. Sorry, but I did part time bar work on top of a 9-6 job, twice a week for more than a year, and lots of other people do too. If you want to bring this debt down, accept that you might need to reconsider your attitudes to want and need from both sides. You might not 'want' to give up an evening or weekend day, but you 'need' to if you want to bring the debt down. It also means you aren't spending money while you are there!

Good luck

Hi Bargain Betty - I think your advice is spot on. Can I just ask around no.3 - what is the rationale for minimum payments plus £1? I'm snowballing my debt at the moment but only paying minimums on all but one, not minimum + £1 and wondered the reason for doing so.

Cheers

NYD x