My Graduate (Post-Student) Debt Diary!

System

And yes, definitely keep shtum about your overdraft, the longer you're not paying interest on it, the better.. Makes sense to pay off your Credit Cards for as long as possible without stressing about your interest free debt

MrJester

>12 Months

hey! so, it looks like I've been given a raise of sorts

they were so supposed to let us know whats happening this week in a final appraisal letter, but they haven't, but I've been paid a day early and it appears to be exactly a 1k pay rise. though it may actually be slightly more, because i have the cycle to work scheme payment coming out still..
I'm sure ill find out if not tomorrow next week what the exact change is/has been

but hey potentially means more wiggle room to get more pay from perhaps my next employer, i just hope I'm able to take a slight diversion in my area of work and still earn the same

just going to sort out my budget sheet for nov pay cheque, ill most certainly be paying off my barclaycard tomorrow ! its just gonna be two cards left baby!! ill be nice and comfortable over the xmas period i think, as long as i don't be daft with my money is all heh but these past couple weeks I've been really really good except for one bad day and spend a lot whilst drunk (DOH) this is why i don't drink much anymore ha

actually screw this paying off barclaycard right now, I've got the money all in already. aaaand DONE. bye bye, will let the dust settle and then decide whether to close the card or not, but i shan't be using it anytime soon, I've got my money in check and i don't need it anymore!

MrJester

>12 Months

I'm going to be paying near £100 to the halifax card this month too, and will continue to do so from now on (it'll in fact be £125 in dec pay) as per my plan of paying £150 towards debts

the mbna can stay at £25 whilst i concentrate on the halifax

lets goooooooooo

MrJester

>12 Months

signature up to date as of now

Total debt now approx £6700

MrJester

>12 Months

i cannot believe it

they're retracting my current payrise offer of 7.5% increase

and instead giving me a nearly 13% increase

i want to cry!!

MrJester

>12 Months

just rang barclaycard to close that account
they gave me some options so they will do a balance transfer with a 0% for 9 months but my limit was only 200 cause i changed it, they just increased it to 400 and they're going to send it for further review to possibly change it to nearer £2000 limit which would mean i can 0% my current halifax card

because of the amounts of interest i have paid they have given me a good will gesture of £50 on my card for free. haha they are sneaky aren't they trying to get you into bad spending habits ! but hey thats a free £50 which means i can buy a bunch of bits i wanted from ikea and it won't cost me anything!!

anyway 0% for 9 months isn't a long time, it would mean I'd need to pay about £177 to it per month to clear it interest free, which even with my pay increase is maybe a bit much than i want to spend. the funny thing is ill probably be better off closing this card anyway because then they won't have me locked in as a customer, and i can just wait a couple months and they'll offer me a great new balance transfer deal as a new customer again - by then my credit will look dandy again and my pay rise changes ALOT

MrJester

>12 Months

havent updated in a bit, just seeing things out atm. doing ok for money, need to be a little tight until december pay cheque but i should be fine!

after discussing it on another post, might well consider using the 0% on the bcard that they offered me. im just waiting for some refunds to clear on that card to bring it back to £0. the overall feeling is that i should just get the debt onto the 0%, because in some months time i can always transfer to another 0% when my credit will be undoubtedly even better.

so should be this week, then the halifax will be gone and closed and i will have only 0% cards (after the small BT fee) so zero interest from any debt, which of course means i can make significant progress on them.
the focus at that point would be on the bcard, which i reckon i can get paid off pretty quickly.

with my pay rise, and potentially an xmas bonus coming up, i can pay off a chunk just after xmas.. somewhere in the region of £500-700 which is obviously a huge chunk.

its been a really rough year but now im at a really good point in my life to really destroy my debts this next year and not to add on top of them, and hopefully by the end of next year the money coming to me will actually be my own money.

checked my noddle, its gone from a 1/2 to a 2/2 :P
but the capitalone is still appearing, but im sure by next it wont appear at all, also by next there should only be leftover 2 cards and not the current 4 showing.

System

HELLO IT ME (Adele). Did ya miss me?!

YES to this pay rise, for heavens sake you blinkin' deserved it!!

Woohoo on your credit rating.

YES, get your debt on 0.00%. Just get it on 0.00% and buy some time. Congrats on getting so much paid off lately, you're doing well! xx

MrJester

>12 Months

haha hello adele, yes i did

thanks very much! it is obviously going to change a lot for me financial wise and will make my life easier. im still going to look at other roles that im more passionate for, and having the financial freedom/less worry will actually give me more energy and time to do that.

credit rating will come in time, not a big deal whilst im still in debt but want to get things sorted for a mortgage whenever that might be possible

yeah im going to do that soon, get it on the 0% and then I can plan for in another while to throw it at another 0% when my credit will get better for it.

thanks! its been a lot of just juggling around to cost me less interest which means ive been able to close things, but i have had to find extra money to speed things up which has helped enormously.
looking forward to that december pay cheque which will be especially large, perhaps with an xmas bonus too so we're talking maybe £600 in total i can throw off debt in one swooop wowzers!!

System

Woohoooo, I hope you get a good bonus, it sounds like your company really appreciate you so I have everything crossed they help you start combating your debt. It's seriously starting to look more management.