What to pay first?

fed_up_of_debt

I am in a position where at last I have some money to tackle debts I started by wanting to reduce my overdraft - I rang to reduce by £50. I cant believe how complicated this is!

I cannot do this myself online - I have to ring and it takes 10 minutes and they treat me suspiciously , like I have done something wrong!

Then I get a letter with the new odraft amount on - and they say its the same process as I want to reduce by £50 every week. Now I know that I can just leave the £50 per week in my account but the temptation to use it is too great:o

I have overdrafts/credit cards/loan - I have paid off Next/ K&Co and closed the account Paid my first £50 off my odraft and overpaid my loan for the first time ever:j .. but Ive got a LONG way to go and my aim is 5 years....

I dont know how to do the signature line...help please?? As I think this will be an inspiration to see things reduce before my eyes;)

I will read others diaries for help too and its feels good to join a bunch of like minded people:D

DawnW

Ooh a new diary :T
To add a signature click on the 'user cp' tab above and choose the 'edit signature' tab from the list on the left hand side of the page

Don't be surprised at the bank treating you 'suspiciously' when you want to reduce your debt - if you look at it from their perspective, they are concerned that they will be making less money from you in future :rotfl:

If you are concerned about having to go through this rigmarole every week :eek: then why not open an easy access savings account, putting the spare money in there, out of reach of your regular current account, and reducing when you have a lump sum to pay off, or every month or whatever? You should be able to open a basic savings account online. Why not consider a cash ISA, so that any interest (puny though it is at the moment) goes to you without the taxman taking his share?

Good luck and I look forward to following your progress

fed_up_of_debt

Thank you I have a savings account so could save £50 weekly in this account but I dont trust myself to pay it off overdraft!! Maybe if I did £100 reduction every two weeks this way? Will update how I get on

fed_up_of_debt

Ok so I left the £50 in my account which brought it to £100 and I had £36 already in... what did I do? Reduce the overdraft by £100 as Id planned??? No, that would ve been too easy!! Got distracted by somebody elses mortgage reducing overpayment calculator.

Rang the mortgage company to find out how to do this.. and paid £117 off my mortgage - closing 1 of 3 sub accounts!

So I feel happy and annoyed at the same time! Happy 1 mortgage gone but annoyed overdraft still the same.

Plus it is so easy to overpay mortgage online.. no further phone calls to make and future payments are automatically reduced.

Is this normal to jump from one debt to another?? My debts usually are in round numbers as I pay the odd amounts off to round them down.

I was shocked by the mortgage overpayment calculator - and this has inspired me to try harder to reduce debts

fed_up_of_debt

Feeling positive Been to clothes bank with outgrown kids stuff and made |£4.56, took back a pair of sandals £8, took a gold necklace from the back of a drawer to a gold buying place £19.50 and a tiny silver bangle£0.50 and discovered that the clothes place takes soft toys ( of which we have a lot) Saved the above monies to pay towards another debt on Monday Total of £32.56 with little effort - this may become addictive.

Called in to an electrical type buying shop (cash converters) anyone any experience of selling like this? I am trying to keep away from ebay as I dont like the outlay of postage fees and also the trips to the post office!

Any advice of selling electrical stuff welcomed

fed_up_of_debt

Started checking out interest rates, as this may give me the direction I need to pay off highest first
Halifax cc 20.95%
Mtg 1 2.5%
Mtg 2 6.04%
Lloyds od 19.94%
Santander od ? £20 per month
Lloyds cc 0% atm but will change to 25.44% - need to check when :O
Flybe cc? Paid £17.33 on £900
Mint cc 23.95%
Lloyds loan 17.6%

fed_up_of_debt

Joining this group has helped me loads! Its made me focus and pay off as much as possible and live on as little as possible!
:TI have paid off one sub mortgage £117
Reduced Mtg 1 by £359.20
Reduced Mtg 2 by £478.29
Reduced loan by £50
Flybe reduced by £50
Halifax reduced by £250:T

I have bought (and not yet paid for concert tickets) £109.25:D:mad::eek: Old habits die hard:o:p

Desperate_to_be_debt_free

Hi fed up of debt well done on all your efforts, your in the right place for support.

Make sure you keep checking in so we can keep an eye on you

fed_up_of_debt

Thanks DTBDF Yes definitely need to check in more, hahaha didn't realise the power of writing this stuff down, I am like an excited kid. When I have made a payment and can update my signature and have become a bit obsessed!! Sometimes in the past couple of weeks, leaving myself with too little cash in my purse!! I am pleased with the results though

LAM2011

I would try and get rid of the Mint card - I know it seems hard - when I started my journey 3 years ago I had an MBNA card that had £4k on it and I was paying £85 a month which was just the interest! As soon as you start making a dent in it - it starts to get easier and the money used to pay it off becomes less interest and more off the balance. I also used every spare penny to round it down every month.

Good luck on your journey - its always hard in the beginning but keep on here and you can do it

fed_up_of_debt

You have done so well LAM2011 Ok will have a go at that one. It seems so hard to know which way to turn - I get more of a "kick" out of paying payments to the loan or mtg as I am informed of how much interest I have saved and by how many months it is shrinking!

Credit cards just seem that much harder to get on with!