wanting to cut uni debts

sgrant82

Hi Guys,
Well good news to add... have been awarded a one-year teaching position so now have sick pay and holiday pay until Sept 08! It does mean a relocation and extra bills-
think this is all the info you wanted Annie-

overdraft: usually been taking it to £1250. From July 15th HSBC slashing it to £500. Interest rate 18.3% EAR

Graduate Loan: Now stands at £6606.68 with 38 monthly repayments left.(will be charged this amount even if pay off/close loan early. Annual %rate 7.9% under this agreement. Loan cleared some debts and was to pay for second hand car, finish lessons, insurance etc BUT failed and then had streak of failing! Hence why my whole first year salary was predom spent on driving lessons, test fees and getting to/from where taking test (as lived in country!)

M&S card: £1539.48 - at 3.9% p/a

Savings: I don't really want to touch these as I have not had a holiday since my gap year-selfish maybe but the job is stressful and the last two years have been very tough. Also need the majority of savings as rent and deposit on somewhere for Aug/Sept. Am due another tax rebate as have been overcharged since March at least due to working for agencies.

Hope this helps! My friend has some sort of loan which is specifically for her overdraft. She pays £88 a month and this works towards paying the loan that has cleared her £2000 overdraft.
Any advice welcome- don't expect to be debt free by end of the year (unless my numbers come up) but do want to be able to build upon my worldly possessions and pay less to the banks!
Thanks for any independent advice:T

Conor_3

Just to add, you HAVE holiday pay. You are entitled to paid holidays pro rata whether you work at a company for a day or a year.

sgrant82

Conor wrote: »

Just to add, you HAVE holiday pay. You are entitled to paid holidays pro rata whether you work at a company for a day or a year.

Not sure where you are coming from, but supply wages are determined by days spent in school. The wages are levied so that "holidaypay" is built in but obviously in the quiet months this higher wage may mean you are just earning what you should be if in contracted work (that's if you're lucky). As such, the summer hols are not paid and means many supply staff do not see a pay day for 6-8 weeks (hence why many supplys work the summer). I worked the whole of the last summer despite being paid through Aug to ensure I was ok from Sept when supply work is very difficult to obtain.

The point I was trying to make is that I have a steady income again until next year-

Thank you for your comment:D

jonnyboy80

Hi, am a teacher too and have been there before-left uni 5 years ago and still trying to pay it all back slowly!!! Be careful with HSBC-they offered me loads when I first left (loans etc..) but when I tried to increase my overdraft slightly they got very funny about it! By the way which year you teaching? Got loads of teaching resources if you need any-will help save some cash!!

PixiePie

Although I'm not much of a money saver (absolute nightmare is more the term methinks), wanted to pop up and say hi as another fellow teacher

If you want to snowball your payments, do you think you could tutor in the evenings/weekends to bring some extra cash in? Might also be a bonus on your CV for extending your contract/getting a new job Sept 08? Other things, in the holidays you could do those summer camp things, they always seem to be looking for Qualified teachers (especially in Eng or Languages), and especially if it's residential for a week or so would be a nice little boost to pay things off.

If you do a full SOA peeps can helps a little more (ie your full outgoings (rent, bills, hairdressing, clothes etc etc) against your full incomings) - they're generally very good at going 'you don't need sky, put that £30 towards the credit card' (sorry if that comes across as rude, I was going for light hearted not rude, but don't know if the internet always gets that across. I think the advice ppl give on here is amazing ). Are you paying into the pension? That's an extra £100ish if you're not anyways, hope we can help as much as

sgrant82

Hi JB

Thanks for your support:beer:

Well I'm now going into my third year of teaching (still crazy then!) and my new post is a complicated one lol- I will be in Reception 4 mornings a week, in Nursery 1 day a week and in Years 1 and 3 across the remaining afternoons (minus PPA time). Am also going to become the science co-ordinator minus the TLR point- all v v good experience (especially as I trained as Key Stages 1 and 2!
Kinda figured that was HSBC's way of working- I cleared my credit card once and told them to keep the limit to a specific figure for emergencies and then they upped it (moments of weakness led to me using it e.g. more driving bills!)

Interested in De'Bono's Thinking Hats or KS 1+2 maths posters (I'll let ya have them for free as not selling on Ebay anymore):A

sgrant82

Glad to see more teachers! Yeah:T

Have thought about doing extra things in hols but I think this summer is going to be busy enough with house hunting. Don't wanna rush in-have had bad experience with landlord who held my deposit back:mad:

It is something I want to pursue tho so if you have any details that would be great! I did the sch holiday club last year but after the tax man I wasnt left with much (and was commuting 40+ miles as had moved back home by that point)-
Sorry being dumb SOA? (Planning all day takes out of you-)
Do pay the 100 into pensions and was advised by older collegue to keep up with it (though wasn't paying when on supply with agencies)
Don't worry you didn't sound rude and thanks for advice- :j

PixiePie

sgrant82 wrote: »

Glad to see more teachers! Yeah:T

Have thought about doing extra things in hols but I think this summer is going to be busy enough with house hunting. Don't wanna rush in-have had bad experience with landlord who held my deposit back:mad:

It is something I want to pursue tho so if you have any details that would be great! I did the sch holiday club last year but after the tax man I wasnt left with much (and was commuting 40+ miles as had moved back home by that point)-
Sorry being dumb SOA? (Planning all day takes out of you-)
Do pay the 100 into pensions and was advised by older collegue to keep up with it (though wasn't paying when on supply with agencies)
Don't worry you didn't sound rude and thanks for advice- :j

Well, good news on the deposit - from now on they can't do it as by law the deposit has to be held with one of the three gov overseen Tennancy Deposit Schemes, so you will be getting it back this time (and if the LL isn't part of one of the schemes, you know straight away he/she/it is a lying cheating scumbag and will only cause you problems ).

THe SOA - statement of affairs. Basically it's a list of all your monthly (or weekly if you want) in and outgoings like this:

Income:
Pay £400
Tax credits £40
Child Benifit £20 (I don't have kids, hence no idea about the amount for that lol, just put it in as an example )

Outgoings:
Rent £600
Gas £20
Elec £30
Water £30
Telephone & Internet £35 (on BT call plan, locked into contract for another 12 months)
Food £100
travel.....

and so on - note I put a note by the Telephone and internet, this is helpful for you so that people don't go 'get rid of xyz' when you can't.

The pension is good imho, and as I very much doubt there will be *any* state pension by the time I reach pensionable age (late 20's now) it is a very good idea for teachers, as the LEA put so much in on top of what you do.

I don't envy you - I'm secondary, and feel so bad for the way primary teachers were told they were needed and now there just aren't the jobs (plus I have no idea what I would do with a 5 year old who was having a tantrum lol, but getting to do all the different subjects would be more fun ).

You could always do the competitions/mystery shopping/scan and buy/suurveys/money back sites things that are on this forum - theres a sticky at the top about mystery shopping and loads of threads about the others, just do a search for them Not huge amounts, but every little helps, and with the MS you get free food depending on the assignment so helps with things like tht as well.

Anyway, hope some of that helps

PP x