Help for a newbie

AdamFly

Good afternoon,

I've been coming on this forum for a while to seek bits of advice but now I finally feel the need to sign up and ask for some more personal and tailored advice as I feel my debt is getting out of hand.

Firstly apologises if I have posted this in the wrong forum, it's a bit of a general post and not about anything specific at the moment.

A little bit about myself, I am 27, male and currently live in the south east of England, I am originally from the north but I moved down to London around 2 years ago to start my new job with a large UK airline. Around a year ago I moved airports and airlines and am now living in West Sussex where I now have a "permanent" job with my current airline, which to be honest is a very rare situation in the aviation industry. I also must say I absolutely love my job, although the first year or so of working for an airline can be very difficult financially as I am still on a probationary wage, I am also permanent, however with my current airline I only work 10 months out of 12, those 2 months I don't work, I still get paid my basic salary, around £750 a month, this will change in May once I've been here a year, it will go up to around £900pm, on top of this I also get sector pay (a payment per flight, depending on the length of the flight, this is between £12-£45 per sector, we usually do between 2-5 sectors a day, again depending on length of flights) and on top of that we also receive commission based on what we sell on board, this ranges anywhere between £5 on really quiet "business" flights to £100+ on mega busy, super tiring holiday flights! I work out of a very large base and my roster is usually very busy, and I usually take home a decent wage. Again once I have been here a year in May my sector pay will increase too. During the busy summer months last year I took home between £1400-£1600 a month after tax. Also worth noting I recently accepted a job offer to become cabin manager but I am waiting for a training date, I am expecting it to be in May sometime, once I start flying as cabin manager (CM) I will also receive an extra £25 per sector on top of all the rest of my payments!

My problem is this; after my 2 months off, with just basic salary, I am really starting to struggle with my money to be honest I am like a lot of you guys and not very savvy when it comes to spending, I have recently moved house also, I now live with my 3 friends in a brand new house, which is actually £4 cheaper than my previous house, the cost of moving, paying for new things, getting my deposit together and all the extras I have had to pay for has took me over my £600 overdraft, and now I have had 3 payments bounce.

My EE phone has bounced, £45, my Tesco loan, £95 has bounced and my talk talk broadband has bounced, £25. I am currently £180 over my overdraft and I have £130 of informal overdraft fees due to come out on Tuesday. I am only getting paid £1069 this month as I had leave and didn't have a lot of flights in February.

I also owe my sister £130 as she lent me it to help with my deposit for my new house. I owe my mum £111 as she took a loan out on my behalf last year to help me pay off an old car and also help me afford to move to my current airline, which I needed to do as my old airline was temporary. I owe my dad £40 as he lent me some money for food! And I need to pay for my old house's water, around £25. I also need to pay my credit card for the last 2 months as I have not paid it and I am obviously going to need to use it for the next few months for basics such as food and travel to work, as my current wages are not going to cover it.

I have a few questions; my 3 bounced payments: will they attempt to take them out again? Or will I just carry on paying and they will just add an extra month on? For example my EE bill, will they take £45 this month or £90? I understand I will get late fees or penalties for defaulting.

Also my talk talk contract, it was from my old house I'm London. What will happen if I just cancel my direct debit? They do not have any of my other details, for example my current address, I know this is really bad but if I can just get them off my back for a few months until I start getting paid properly will this work.

As you can probably tell I am not very clued up on my finances, I do have loans and a credit card, also an overdraft which I am currently over, however last year I did manage to pay off my overdraft of almost £2000 and reduced it to £600, I know I am capable of doing it, and I guarantee you, and myself, I will become debt free in time, I just need some support and advice.

I feel things are on the up. I have a gorgeous new house, I am waiting to start my promotion, which I cannot wait for! And I am actually a lot happier than I was this time last year. I feel like it's finally time to start tackling my financial problems and I hope with the help from this forum I can do it!

Does anyone have any advice or questions they think can help me?

Sorry if I babbled on a bit too!

Thanks guys!

Adam

National_Debtline

Hello Adam,

Congratulations on the job, it looks like you're really going places (excuse the terrible joke). I can appreciate that budgeting can be very difficult when your earnings are seasonal, and when your workload changes on a daily basis. What's really important is to try and stick to a budget which considers the quieter times. You may have seen other folks suggest filling in a statement of account (SOA). It allows you to post up your figures, this way we can all make suggestions about your budgeting. Here is a link to the preferred MSE statement: http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php

Most firms will try and take the bounced direct debit again, watch out for that so you do not get charged once more. If you are struggling to get out of the overdraft you may wish to look into moving banks to someone new. This will be a bank that has no connection to any existing debt, this means that no creditor will have the automatic right to take money out of your account.

You may wish to look at our website. We have a guide to dealing with debts in four simple steps, you can find that here: https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/steps/step1/Pages/default.aspx

Once you've popped up your SOA we will be able to provide you with some practical ideas about getting your situation sorted!

Best wishes,

David @ NDL.

Bublin1

I think you may need to change your mindset. £1400-£1600 is an average wage. Could you be living like you're earning more?

Ive read on here many times people stating their 'decent' wages but really, with today's cost of living, it really is average to low.

Also if you work a 10 month year you're going to have to work out your average yearly take home salary and divide by 12. During the months you are earning more, you set aside an amount for when you're not.