Fed up

wigglers

No she looks after our 14 month old son but works a cleaning job and gets up at 5 am to be back before I have to go to work and if we earnt much more we would lose most of it in child tax credits I'm just trying to work out how and what to pay people tempted in Jan when the loan ends to get another 1 and clear everything but have 1 loan to pay off over 2-3 years if hsbc will give me another 1 anyway but I'm rubbish with debt but they set it up as a dd so no chance of it not being paid

Cat2011

wigglers wrote: »

Also my fiancee has a Virginia credit card with 0% balance transfer offer at the minute so thinking about transferring the 5530 on that and then at least it's balance free but it would be 3.5% and can't garuntee It would be the best thing to do??? As the 0% will end at some point!

How much space do you have on the virgin credit card?
How long is the 0% rate for?

If it was for e.g. a year, that means that you would effectively pay an interest rate of 3.5% (the fee) instead of up to 30% that you are currently paying, so it would be a very good idea to do the balance transfer.

Depending how much they will let you transfer - I would do the highest interest credit cards first.

So Capital One first, then Barclaycard or Matt HSBC credit card etc. You can balance transfer just some of the outstanding balance, you don't have to clear the whole card, every little helps.

Then CANCEL the credit cards that have been paid off.

You have a lot of debt built up. Is this because of over spending a little every month for a while? (That's how I built up mine). If so, then I would strongly advise you keep a spending diary to see where your money goes each month. Parking, coffee, drink and sandwich at a garage etc?. Then you know where to be more strict.

Cat2011

I think it might be best to hang on in there for 3 more months, until you stop making the personal loan payments. Then throw this extra money at the debt. Then you will be able to make repayments on all your cards.

Can you get a second job to increase your income? I worked Saturday at a retail store which earnt me an extra bit each month that went straight onto the debt. With kids, you might want to keep your weekends free (assuming you already work Mon-Fri) so maybe an evening job would be better for you - two nights a week bar work would really help you out.

During the 3 months to the end of the loan, get your spending inside the £1600 that your SOA says you spend, then you can start to make inroads.

wigglers

There is 6k free of a 6k limit it is 0% and yeah the debt is thru using cards to get little things like shops and petrol each month also a few balance transfers but they have ended noe and back up from 0% to 19 odd % when the loan ends I will still only have 250 to throw at the debt thinking at least if I transfer the barclaycard and capital one balance it will be 0% then work on paying off the highest next debt? but what is 3.5% as a cost would I save much? with the tesco 1 we don't spend on it and that is a balance transfer so I can do it.

wigglers

virgin 1 is 0% until April 2016 a 3.5% charge applies

[Deleted User]

wigglers wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1500
Partners monthly income after tax....... 260
Benefits................................ 519.2
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2279.2

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 500
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 117 - If this is over 10 months, switching to 12 months will reduce it to £97-50.
Electricity............................. 49
Gas..................................... 49
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 29
Telephone (land line)................... 15
Mobile phone............................ 62 - If this is for less than 3 phones, then you are overpaying. Swap to PAYG/sim only (about £10pm) ASAP.
TV Licence.............................. 12.5
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 7
Groceries etc. ......................... 320 - As mentioned, this is a lot for 4 people. You should easily be able to trim £100 (maybe more) off this.
Clothing................................ 0 - Nothing?
Petrol/diesel........................... 120
Road tax................................ 30 - £360 per year for Road Tax?
Car Insurance........................... 31
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 165
Other child related expenses............ 40
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0 -Never?
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0 - You need this. Costs about £10pm.
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 200 - This is £2,400 per year. :eek: Buy token presents for all but the children.
Haircuts................................ 45
Entertainment........................... 0 - Nothing ever? Not even a bottle of wine, trip to the cinema, DVD rental?
Holiday................................. 0 - Not even days out?
Emergency fund.......................... 0 - You need something in here, or you will be straight back to borrowing, at the first appliance breakdown.

Total monthly expenses.................. 1821.5


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 4000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 4000

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
partners barclaycard...........5218......115.......8.9
barclaycard ...................1750......45........19.9
matt hsbc credit card..........1978......48.68.....19.9
car loan payment...............1950......270.......0
tesco credit card .............1317.83...25........0
capital 1 credit card..........172.31....6.79......30.34
halifax credit card ...........869.35....24........18.9
Total unsecured debts..........13255.49..534.47....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,279.2
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,821.5
Available for debt repayments........... 457.7
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 534.47
Amount short for making debt repayments. -76.77

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 4,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -13,255.49
Net Assets.............................. -9,255.49

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

forgot the balances : partners barclays card 5218 (limit £5350)
barclaycard 1750 (limit £1800)
matt hsbc credit card 1978 (limit £2000)
matt halifax cc 869.35 (limit £1500)
cap 1 cc 172.31 (limit £200)
tesco credit card 1317.83 (limit (£1750)

thanks for your help guys :S

oh dear i also forgot to add on my £250 a month payment for my personal loan which has 3 payments left and is taken out by dd on the 1st of each month, so december will be the last payment that goes out.

You are spending over £10 per day on groceries, which is a LOT.

Try to get it down to £200, which is still around £6-50 per day.

Likewise, spending on presents is HUGE.

At the very least, halve it.

Those two actions alone, will give you £220 extra per month.

That £220 would allow you to more than balancing your budget, and put a lot more toward clearing your debts.

[Deleted User]

ViolaLass wrote: »

And £1200 a year on presents?!

It's not £1200 on presents.

It's £2400.

Cat2011

Assuming you transfer all the credit cards with high interest rates - so about £4800. It will cost you £168 to do the balance transfer (which will be added to the card balance). Then no interest will be added til April 2016.

If you don't do the balance transfer and stay as you are - you will pay around £1100 in interest on those cards.

If this was my debt my plan would be:
-Do the balance transfer to greatly reduce the cost of my debt.
-Monitor every penny I spend to work out where I am over spending.
-Browse the forums on here to hear other peoples stories and get help to work out how to live more cheaply.
-Increase my income. You can take on 1-2 evening shifts a week, as can your wife (whilst you are home to take care of the kids), Then you both get to spend all weekend together. Or work out a pattern that suits you. But for a short time (perhaps dedicate a year to annihilate the debt, then have a re-plan) you really need to focus on this.

Good luck

wigglers

I spend max £200 a year on presents thats like £50 each birthday and or Christmas in made a mistake on the soa

Aloofdragon

Hiya I am in in a similar state to yourself and was also looking down the IVA route to the extent of filling in all paperwork and due to posting on the Monday morning I had a meltdown (hormonal stressed and worry) came on here read for hours at others amazing stories and tales of clearing a hell of a lot more than I have to clear and sat my hubby down with every bit of info I could find and we devised a plan ourselves.


Our debt has been mainly built up through stupidity and an IVA I thought was going to change our lives but so glad we stopped and thought first, after Christmas we will have a few more hundred pound in the pot a month so I am going to use this next two months to set up a self managed DMP and sort this mess out.


I also was offered a few days work a week so grabbed it this money is going straight off debts as it wasn't accounted for we can't miss it, luckily hubby has been given promotion and my SS maintenance ends in Dec so in a space of a few hours it went from blind despair to attempting to sort things out...


Have you got anything to sell?, definitely meal plan boring but necessary I am an avid s/w'er and know exactly how expensive it is and if necessary for a few months follow slimming world in the group on MSE sometimes we have to put our spending on hold I know for me by the time you have paid for group, bought mag, raffle ticket a pack of the bars an extra £15 a week on top of shopping you can write off £25 a week at least doesn't seem much but that's £100 a month and even if that is put in the xmas spending pot rather than on the C.Cards it could be a bonus.


Stepchange has a fab debt calculator on their website that gives you good solid advice of best way forward, as do Payplan but I was advised that they often push IVA and they did with us alongside a DRO for myself on £3k of debt that is causing me very little distress so what I am saying is read read read ring more than one company, the CAB has an amazing online chat helpline too but the main thing we done was step back and realise that we are small fry and as we have no utility bills we are also very lucky as our home is secure..


I am not to bothered about my credit rating in fact if I am never allowed credit again it will be a bonus to be honest with you, and my hubby feels the same so if we gain a few markers on credit file so be it I am tackling 1 credit card at a time and paying minimums on everything else as per the snowball theory on here, but at least I am facing upto it all and not hiding letters from hubby anymore.


Good luck lovely whatever you decide there is help out there and remember your health and families health is what is important if you want to fight to keep your credit rating good go for it but I know for us it will do us good to reduce spending and save for what we want.