Silverbird's Diary

Silverbird

Thanks to this great site, it appears that I'm due back a bit of money from Alliance and Leicester for mis-selling PPI insurance to me when I got my loan out.

It won't be much (possibly about £150 I think), but every little helps and I'll go through the steps required to try my best to get a refund.

I specifically remember arguing with the woman on the phone about the insurance and saying I didn't want it and she said that I had to take it or they couldn't offer me a loan. She was asking me what I would do if I died or if I got sick and I said it would be fine as I had family who would help and she said that family didn't count and told me I had to have it. She had initially requested a higher amount, but after my distress she lowered it.

Grrrr.

Hubby looks to be due about £1,000 but his is a bit more complicated due to cancelling his insurance part-way through etc.

I'm certainly going to give it a shot and have the letters printed out to send today or tomorrow (I want to send them recorded delivery).

Silverbird

Following on from my last post, hubby and I have both had responses to my letters asking for refund of insurance from our loans. Both letters stated they were looking into it.

I was also sent a copy of my whole personal statement with my loan and it appears I'm due back more than I thought! :j I should get back £326.40 in total, all being well.

That will knock over 4 months off the length of the loan, which I'm very pleased about.

I was also shocked to see that the balance on my loan is £2937.06. I took the loan out in November '06 for £3000.00! So I've been paying interest and insurance and interest on the insurance for the past 2 years before even making a dent on the total. Grrrr. Makes me mad, but I suppose I can't complain, as I needed the loan at the time and it was worth it.

I wish I could pay more off my loan, but unfortunately I don't have enough disposable income each month to pay any extra than what they're already taking.

I'm going to concentrate on tackling my credit cards first.

Working 7 days a week is taking its' toll and hubby and I have both got the starts of a cold, despite having just recovered from colds (again, at the same time) 2 weeks ago. Not good.

On a positive note, the money will be fab! Plus, we've been collecting our £10 vouchers from Valued Opinion surveys for Tesco and we have quite a collection and we intend to have a really lovely Christmas together this year and it will be so nice not to worry about the money! We can have a little bit of luxury and not feel guilty.

We're going to visit our families tomorrow and will stay until Sunday, so at least we won't be spending money on food and it'll be good to see them all. Of course, in true money-saving style, we'll be taking up all Christmas cards, birthday cards and presents from now until March, Mother's Day presents and cards and all Christmas presents (yes, we're that organised!!)

Despite feeling run down and poor, we're feeling pretty positive at present.

Silverbird

I've transferred my MINT balance (which was 16.9%) to a Citibank Life of Balance card and will tackle that next. It's much less interest and I didn't want to keep switching and changing cards all the time, so this is great for me.

Hubby and I are still awaiting the results of the 'investigations' of our respective loan companies regarding our claim for PPI refunds.

I'm feeling positive!

Silverbird

OH had a letter from Nationwide last week to fob him off and say they've investigated it and his complaint isn't justified. Long 2-page letter, which I have no doubt is a standard. Says that he signed the form and that this form explained that the insurance was optional. That's all very well, but if you're told it's not optional on the phone when you sign up, then you believe them!

We're obviously sending the second letter tonight by recorded delivery asking for refund or we're going to the Ombudsman.

OH also thinks he might be due back more than he thought, as he originally had 2 loans with them (which they mention in the letter). Fingers crossed!

I've still not had a reply from A&L after they said they'd investigate, so will chase that up soon if not heard by the end of the week.

I had a bit of a cry last night and got really depressed, as I've been so ill lately and was off work all last week as I'd lost my voice entirely. That and everything else just got on top of me. Working 7 days a week is taking its toll, as I expected, but the extra money is still worth it.

OH confessed he'd had a few sleepless nights lately due to debt and his concern that his contract might not be extended in March for his job. I told him he was thinking too far ahead and he just had to do the best he could for now and worry nearer the time. He agreed. We'll have to cross that bridge when we get to it.

I've made a bit of money via Amazon just lately selling DVDs that I no longer wanted and unwanted competition prizes. Obviously it's all going off one of my cards.

Christmas is all sorted in its' entirity. No presents to buy. Gosh, I'm organised! Only thing left to get is the food (although we already have the turkey - £7.50 from Lidl!) and the food will be 'free' because we've saved our survey Tesco vouchers. Great stuff! Looking forward to Christmas just with my OH this year.

Silverbird

OH received a letter back from Nationwide saying they were going to investigate his complaint again, as per his request.

I got a reply from A&L today (after chasing it on Friday) to apologise for their delay, but to confirm they're going to reply to me as soon as they can.

I was pleased to be paid by my weekend job last week and paid that off a credit card (Citi). It was lovely to do it and made me feel really proud.

Silverbird

Well, Nationwide have written to OH today and refused to refund. They provided an extremely lengthy (4-page) detailed letter with a lot of gobbledegook, which is no doubt intended to confuse and intimidate him.

We will be taking it to the Financial Ombudsman now.

We will just have to keep our fingers crossed.

I've still not heard from Alliance and Leicester, but I have sent a reminder letter today, as they only have 2 weeks to go. I'm feeling hopeful, but we'll see!

Hubby and I went Christmas food shopping tonight and it was so lovely to buy things without guilt or fear. We had 'earned' 3 x £10 Tesco gift cards from Valued Opinions in the past 4 months or so and we used those. We're going to have a very happy, jolly Christmas. We'll be fat, but very happy!

Silverbird

Well I did a few calculations today and I have decided to have a goal in place for a debt-free deadline.

The snowball calculator estimates April 2012 (despite my calculations in 28 October post, which were inaccurate), but I am going to really push the boat out and go for March 2011, as I'll be 30 that month and would really like to be debt-free then so that we can start a family.

It doesn't seem that far off, considering we're almost into 2009! Very exciting.

Of course, the snowball calculator doesn't take into account any 'extras' I make, such as mystery shopping, surveys, eBay items and competition wins, so I'm really hoping these things alone will really speed things along enough to be debt-free by the time I'm 30.

I also found that I have knocked £2,624.42 off my debts since my light-bulb moment in June 2007 (again, this is different to my 28 October 2008 post, due to an inaccuracy with regards to my balance on A&L loan, for which I hadn't included the dreaded PPI and interest, it seems!). When I consider that I pay all bills, rent, food and household items every single month on a £1K/month income and have done for all that time, I think I've done very well. We've also had 2 holidays this year, including a long-haul. Hubby still pays me £100 towards Council Tax each month, but he really can't afford any more and to be honest I'd much rather he overpay his debts than pay minimum payments and be in debt longer. The sooner we're both out of debt, the sooner we can start a family and be 'free'.

Plus, I am a true MSE-er these days, whereas it was all very new to me back then. I'm even more thrifty and careful these days, so I'm hopeful that the debt will fall away at a much quicker pace this coming year. I'm confident it will.

It's great that I've decided on a goal and I am going to try my absolute hardest to ensure I am debt-free and happy well before my 30th birthday in March 2011.

pinkkaz

Well done on the amount knocked off your debts, Silverbird! And have a good christmas...

Silverbird

pinkkaz wrote: »

Well done on the amount knocked off your debts, Silverbird! And have a good christmas...

Awwww! Thank you so much! That's put a huge big smile on my face

Merry Christmas to you too and thanks for posting x x x

Silverbird

Well it's New Year's Eve and I feel I have accomplished a lot this year. I've cleared a lot of my debt.

I feel challenged but excited by my aim to be 'debt-free by 30' and although it will be difficult, I do believe it is achievable if I continue as I have been.

My current debt is £5,406.05.

I aim to have halved that by this date next year (so £2,703.03 by 31.12.09). This is a really tough challenge in itself, but it will be something to aim for and will mean I am so much closer to my final goal of being debt free by 30 (March '11). According to the snowball calculator, I should be at £3,656.97 in December '09, so I have to come up with an extra £1,000 to get to my goal of halving my current debt. I'm sure with all my comping and selling I will be able to do it and I'll take on another weekend job again if I need to (although I suffered with lots of health problems whilst doing that this year, so would prefer not to, if only to keep my health!) I'll check back at this post in a years' time and hopefully I'll be posting some positive news!

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With regards to the two PPI claims (hubby's and mine), I had to write to the Financial Ombudsman for OH, as Nationwide wouldn't refund. I presume this will take many months to be resolved, but no more leg work from me, so that's good. Mine was to Alliance and Leicester who didn't give me a final response after 8 weeks, so I've written to the Financial Ombudsman and have copied my complaint form in to A&L to try to speed them up. I'm quietly confident, as the date I got my loan was within the dates A&L were fined for recently due to mis-selling PPI. The total is likely to be around £350, so not the biggest amount in the world but it will make a big deal to my debt-free date and every last penny will be used to pay off one of my debts, so it would be fantastic if they refunded me. Fingers crossed.

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Happy New Year's Eve, everybody!