machsmum Debt-Free Diary

machsmum

Thanks momisa. I didn';t know that about teh life insurqance. We have only just renewed it for this yesr but will def look into this so i am prepared to change next year if I can get it cheaper. Thanks
We don't have any of the PPI'd the CC's or Loans. Like you said, we realised its cheaper to have seperate cover!!

Good news, had the first CC statement through for this month show a £0 balnace. YAAAAAHHHH!!! So excited. Rang them up straight away to canx the card, (I have already cut it up) but it kept disconnecting :mad: How frustrating!!!! Was sooooo looking forward to making that call, now will have to wait till monday as they are now closed.

Rec my cheque from greasypalm for this months cashback, £26.35. Went straight to the bank and can;t wait till it clears on Thurs so we can pay another little bit off the Abbey card. Be good to chip away at that one as its got the highest balance & APR, so will take the longest to pay off, but once thats gone and we just have the smaller ones with lower APR's should hopefully see the end in sight. Been snowballing away and now think we can clear all teh CC debt in 19 months, but hoping for before Xmas 2008!! That would just leave the loans, but with the extra we will be able to pay each month they shouldn't be more than a year after the CC.

YYYAAAAAHHHH!!!!

Sorry feeling a bit delirious about first £0 balance CC statement :rotfl:

mae

Sorry if you've already said this but can you apply for anymore credit cards with either 0% or low interest rates so that you can transfer the high interest rates?

hypno06

No need to apologise - I will be delirious when one of our CCs goes down to £0 too!

Keep up the good work, you are doing fabulously :T

machsmum

Hi mae, no we did recently apply for the m&s card, think it had 3.9% lob, but did not get it. We haven't tried anymore as I know lots of applictions can have an effect on you credit score. The reason we were turned down was purely that we have alot of available credit - none of our CC are up to the limit - our Ccd ebt is approx £10.5k but there is potential for £25.8K!! So hopefully once a few of the cards get paid off and canx that option may be open to us again.

However, with most of our APR's around 17% it jst makes us even more determined to pay it off asap. Alot of our debts stems from being card tarts in the past and then after a while spending on cards that we shouldn't have, transfering balances to 0% and not canx the cleared card and spending again. We have seriously learnt lessons from that and PROMISE NOT TO DO IT AGAIN!!!!!

mae

Have you tried ringing your existing cards and asking them if they have a better offer as you have been advised to balance trasnsfer to other cards..... Its worth a go and I know some others on here have tried and been successful.
You're doing really well and I feel frustrated for you that your rates are so high.
Keep up the good work, good luck.

machsmum

yeah we did try that with Abbey but they were having none of it! But in weird way that just spurs me on even moe to clear it quickly. I fear that if we got a 0% card it would stop us being so determined and we might slip back into our old ways. With them all being so high it makes us want to get rid of them as the interest is obscene really. But at least all thoise nasty store cards have been paid off now, and thet were by far the worst up to 30% apr!!

Sandy.l_2

"The reason we were turned down was purely that we have alot of available credit - none of our CC are up to the limit - "

It might be worth ringing up to reduce your credit card limits for two reasons:

1) It will mean you can't spend on them (I don't believe you will anyway - you seem very determined!:D) .

2) It will make that credit available when you apply for a new card to transfer balances (it takes a few months to filter through I think)

Sandy

machsmum

Thanks sandy.i,
do you know what, that is so obvious but it never even occured to me!!! Will do that and then hopefully we will be able to try again for the 0% in a couple of months time.

Thanks!!

machsmum

Well not alot to report from the last couple of days really. We are in limbo waiting for our ebay money to clear into the bank from paypal and also got a few cheques that we are waiting to clear. The days seem to be going SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOWLY!!! :mad: Can't wait for it all to be available to pay off a bit more on the CC's. It feels so good to keep making extra payments on top of the Min monthly and am getting really impatient!!!!

Have started a little spreadsheet (yes I know I'm a geek!!) to keep track of the amounts we are paying off each month. For June it was nearly £1200 :j , but for July its only £200 so far. Hoping that seeing it in black and white like that will keep us motivated to always pay as much as possible each month. I know we won't be able to do as well as June all the time- that was a one -off due to having lots of stuff to sell on ebay, but making such a positive start will give us something to aim for each month.

Having said that, we were a bit naughty and had a Chinese saturday night :embarasse, I know, there is no excuse, but it was just a little treat to keep us motivated!! (Thats what we convinced ourselves anyway) I tell you what tho, it never tasted so good, knowing we wouldn't be having that again for a while!!

Am still waiting to hear back from the banks and CC companies re: charges. It will be the 2 week deadline at the weekend. I was really hoping that the smaller ones would just pay up!!! Naive, I know. :rotfl:

Oh well, guess I will have to progress to the next level with them after all.

My ebay stuff is due to end on Sunday and so far only 2 itmes have been bid on, a measly £5.98 - that won't even cover my fees. Hope they get a bit more interest over the weekend - really don't want to end up out of pocket.

Have been studying the OS board and getting lots of recipe ideas for tea. Got a list of 30 + dishes, so we could have something different every night for a month. Did the weekly shop today and as I was piling in all the stuff for this weeks menus was starting the think., there is know way this little lot is going to be £50 - my usual budget, thought It was going to be V. expensive, so was plesantly suorised thta it only came to £43!!

Now, if only I could cook........................

machsmum

I can't decide what to do.

The next on my list of CC to pay off is the Abbey card as it has the highest APR - 17.48% and a bal of just over £5k. However, my barclaycard is always sending me through offers such as bal transfer other debts for a 6.9% lob deal. This card curenntly has a bal of just over £1k and APR 16.10%. But should I pay off the existing bal on the barclaycard (Which I could prob do in 2 months) and then when that is cleared transfer over the Abbey bal (my credit limit is enough to do this) and then only pay the 6.9% interest for the life of it??

Even with the 3% fee this is surely going to be better in the long run?!

What do other people think is the best route to go down????

Many thanks in advance! :T