Advice needed.....

Timetochange89

Hi,
I live at home with my parents. I have a credit card debt of £4000 and a current account overdraft of £1500, my wages go into the account with the overdraft so I'm finding it had every month to pay bills and pay off my credit card! Should I open up another account for my wages to go into or move my overdraft to another credit card?
Any advice would be really helpful!

thecassman86

Hey!

If you're struggling to pay the bills then opening a new account isn't going to change that.

Moving your overdraft onto a credit card isn't necessarily a good idea either as you're taking on more debt - that said, if you get a 0% money transfer card then at least you won't be paying interest for a while.

You need to provide more information for us to be able to help.

How much do you earn? Then, highlight every bill and spend you have a for a single month - you're living at your parents so there shouldn't be many - but it's important we can see how much goes in and how much goes out .

Timetochange89

thecassman86 wrote: »

Hey!

If you're struggling to pay the bills then opening a new account isn't going to change that.

Moving your overdraft onto a credit card isn't necessarily a good idea either as you're taking on more debt - that said, if you get a 0% money transfer card then at least you won't be paying interest for a while.

You need to provide more information for us to be able to help.

How much do you earn? Then, highlight every bill and spend you have a for a single month - you're living at your parents so there shouldn't be many - but it's important we can see how much goes in and how much goes out .

Thanks, here's a bit more.......
My monthly wage is approx £800 depending overtime etc, monthly bills
Credit card £100
Mobile £35
Gym £30
Car/Home £170
Overdraft payments

Hope that helps a little bit more

thecassman86

OK, so your total outgoings are £335 out of £800... Do you generally find that you have the £450+ left to go towards your overdraft etc?

Is the £100 credit card payment the minimum? What's the APR of the card?

How much of the remaining £450 do you use towards your overdraft? If you left it all in there then the OD will be gone in little over 3 months...

Timetochange89

thecassman86 wrote: »

OK, so your total outgoings are £335 out of £800... Do you generally find that you have the £450+ left to go towards your overdraft etc?

Is the £100 credit card payment the minimum? What's the APR of the card?

How much of the remaining £450 do you use towards your overdraft? If you left it all in there then the OD will be gone in little over 3 months...

When it's put like that it all doesn't seem that much ? Yes the £100 for the credit card is the min. I'll give you an example, so this month current account overdraft is £1500 my wages £800 so after that my overdraft is £700 and it seems to just go in a circle every month? Hope that kind of makes sense!

thecassman86

Timetochange89 wrote: »

When it's put like that it all doesn't seem that much ? Yes the £100 for the credit card is the min. I'll give you an example, so this month current account overdraft is £1500 my wages £800 so after that my overdraft is £700 and it seems to just go in a circle every month? Hope that kind of makes sense!

Yeah i know what you mean. I was in a similar scenario after Uni, i had a large overdraft that my wages never took me out of.

It might mean a boring few months in terms of spending but putting as much of that spare cash towards the debt as possible will get it cleared really quickly... Like i said though, you might find that the interest rate for the credit card is higher than the OD so it might be better to plough money into there first. Depends on what rates you have for each.

Timetochange89

thecassman86 wrote: »

Yeah i know what you mean. I was in a similar scenario after Uni, i had a large overdraft that my wages never took me out of

Sometimes feel I'm the only one too! Do you think it's wise to just stick with the credit card and my current account instead of moving the overdraft?
How did you get out of the circle of the large overdraft and wages never taking you out of it? Thanks for your help

thecassman86

Timetochange89 wrote: »

Sometimes feel I'm the only one too! Do you think it's wise to just stick with the credit card and my current account instead of moving the overdraft?
How did you get out of the circle of the large overdraft and wages never taking you out of it? Thanks for your help

Well i didn't have a credit card so i actually got a loan to pay off my OD, but, i wish i hadn't as i'm now paying interest on the loan which i wasn't paying on my OD!! ... The amount i'm paying on my loan too, if i'd have put that towards the OD then i'd have been in the black within 1 year, yet, i have a longer loan... Sometimes we're so desperate to not see that negative balance that we rush into things.

So, from my own experience, if you can get a 0% credit card then feel free to transfer it across to that, but, as you only earn around £10k per year and already have over £5k of debt, i'd be very surprised if you could get another card.

My advice: Pay as much as you can each month towards your debt. You live at your parents, best possible time to pay off debts when you have less bills... I'd personally concentrate on your credit card debt though; it's most likely to incur the most interest charges.

Timetochange89

thecassman86 wrote: »

My advice: Pay as much as you can each month towards your debt. You live at your parents, best possible time to pay off debts when you have less bills... I'd personally concentrate on your credit card debt though; it's most likely to incur the most interest charges.

I always pay at least the min of my credit card, even though it's from my overdraft, but if I keep track of my spending hopefully my overdraft the following month will be about £200-£300 less, if I carry on like that it should clear it eventually! Does that sound right what I'm doing?

GingerFurball_2

What are your overdraft costs and what is the APR on your credit card?

You seem to be far too focussed on getting out of your overdraft when your credit card will probably be more expensive.

Timetochange89

GingerFurball wrote: »

What are your overdraft costs and what is the APR on your credit card?

You seem to be far too focussed on getting out of your overdraft when your credit card will probably be more expensive.

My overdraft is about £60 should I be concentrating more on the credit card than the overdraft although I'm using the overdraft to pay the credit card - I'm cutting down on my spending so hopefully eventually it will balance out