I need to help my mum!

RAS

hereistheguy wrote: »

To RAS:

The £170 is child benefit and working tax credit she gets atm, however in september this will all stop becuase i will be 19, and im going to uni.

Why is she losing £170 benefit when you go to uni, and only receiving £14 now?

Mum gets £7.70ph and saturday and sunday are paid unsocial hours (with each day being different).

Ok, so there are quite few other types of work that would pay as well as her basic rate.

Mum loves her job, she's been a nurse for 25 years and has a really good contract with the NHS (she's on an old contract which gives her better benefits).

How many years service does she have? And does she appreciate that at present her pension is probably based on her last three year's income, so she would be wise to increase this if at all possible. She could live another 20 years and this would make a big difference.

Is she entitled to any part of your father's pension as part of the divorce settlement

I've suggested moving to a clinic working 9-5 mon-fri but she said she'd be bored and doesnt want to train to a higher grade nurse becuase she retires in 3 years.

Sorry but in her current financial state, she is going to have to work after her retirement age, even if she takes her work and state pensions.

Plus finding funds for that etc. would be a waste.

Only if she was able to stop working

The house has 2 bedrooms (used to have 3 but extended mums room by combining 2 of them).

what a pity. She could get upto £4,500 from a lodger without having to pay any tax. Any chance you can relace the wall or let out your room when you are at uni? that would be her best route to clearing her debts.

She gets the single person rebate. -good

We have lots of energy light bulbs in all the lights we can have, but it will go down loads when I leave becuase its all my technology etc that uses it up :S

OK. Tonight go round the house and turn off everything that is on stand by, computer, mobile charger, TV HIFi, everything. And do it everytime you stop using a pice of kit.

Yes the phone's landline, I think we are going to try and sort the phone sit out to get a better deal.


The piano is nearly paid for, its for me, my parents have paid for it for like 3 years or somehting then mum took it on. So it is hire purchase? When does this

Club was for a table or something, its intrest free. Then please get her signed up to freecycle. There are always masses for furniture and white goods. She cannot afford to buy new stuff. When does this stop ?

Will ask about the gym thing.

"My dad left her with 2 cards (barclaycard) in her name, which he used for businesses, when they got divorced. She's been paying £50/£55 a month off each however one of them is £30 interest a month (the other one isn't too bad)."

The barclaycards are only being paid their minimum. B**g*r nothing there to divert to pay off the other one quickly.

Any chance of you getting dad to cough up anything?

Hi

Can you get the minimum for all the cards?

Also the final payment dates for all the loans?

If she really has £300 per month then she could be debt free in about 6 years, but it look unless she really reins in the unnecessary expenditure, she is going to be in long term trouble.

Can you look at the stickie at the top re free debt charities? Think she needs to talk to one.

hereistheguy

Her pensions good with the NHS, that's another reason she wont leave. When she finishes she get's about £19,000 pay out or something im not quite sure how it works, but she went on a study day and they explained it all.
I think she wants to pay off as much as possible then pay the rest off with her lump sum.
Oh with the benefits, sorry that was unclear. Atm, mum gets about £180 a month, but when i go to uni that goes down to just £14 a month.

RAS

Hi

Thanks for sorting out the benefit query.

Would not suggest that you mum leaves the NHS at this stage that would be unwise.

What I am saying is that her pension and therefore her lump sum would be about 20 percent higher if she worked a full week instead of reduce hours.

Also, she needs to increase her income and decrease her expenditure if she is to sort out her debts.

She might not want to extend her existing job to full hours if it is affecting her health but there may be other things or areas where she could get extra hours?

if that is not an option, there must be other jobs that she could do for a few hours a week that have nothing to do with nursing but would give her extra income. She would probably be really good at customer relations for instance.

Given the state of her current finances, unless she really cuts back on her expenditure and increases her income, her lump sum may not pay off her debts.

I stuck them in the snowball, assuming that she has

1. mimimum payments 2 %
2. There are no cash advances on her Mastercard so the APR is 19.9
3. She actually put in £300 per month

it will take her 7 years to pay it off and the cost will be £25,600 including interest.

That is assuming that she does no accrue any further debt over the next three years!

This is what the snowball said

It will take you 86 months to pay off these debts if you snowball correctly. During that time, you'll pay £11,219.00 in interest.It will take you 86 months to pay off these debts if you snowball correctly. During that time, you'll pay £11,219.00 in interest (nearly as much as she owes!).

hereistheguy

eeek thats scary. :eek:

So do you think there's any way that she can reduce the APR on anything or switch around?

Tashja

Most places are crying out for Home Carer's and the pay is good too - she should have no problem getting a few extra hous a week doing this.

Could she advertise in the local shops as we have a lot of adverts around here from elderly people needing cleaning/shopping/somone to chat too and with your mum bein a nurse she should again have no problem finding some extra work.

T xx

RAS

hereistheguy wrote: »

eeek thats scary. :eek:

So do you think there's any way that she can reduce the APR on anything or switch around?

Guy

First thing is that that the snowball assumes that she pays off the most expensive debt first, so her payments are most effective. She could do it more expensively if she does not take advice.

It also assumes that she does not incur any further debt from today. How likely do you think that is? Seriously, not a rhetorical question. You are on here, where is she?

If we are to help, we really do need the figures I asked for earlier

Can you get the minimum for all the cards?

Does she have any cash advances on the Mastercard? This affects which card to kill first.

Also the final payment dates for all the loans?

With respect to moving around the APRs etc, she has just been refused for a loan, she has already nearly all her CC debt on high interest cards. Not a lot of flexibility there.

You could suggest that she check her credit rating with all three agencies. it may be that there is something on there from when your folks were together or when they divorced that is affectig her rate now. See martin's article under cards and loans.

However, it could just be that she is regarded as a bad risk and will struggle to get loans or cards with lower APRs at the moment. The only option is to increase her payments in the short term and then try to get better deals in a year. Even a few hundred on low interest cards would help, but if you apply now she will be refused.

The other possibility is that you get set up on e-bay and sell stuff that neither of you use. Even only get a few hundred, you will start to see the minimum payments drop.

Plus the lodger, student lodger etc and the extra income.

hereistheguy

Thanks for all your tips, gonna take it all in and try and get stuff sorted.
Mum can't use the net so that's why im on here. She wants to get it sorted, she's not in some kind of denial or anything! lol
Im gonna get her to check her credit files then go from there! Thank you!

RAS

hereistheguy wrote: »

Thanks for all your tips, gonna take it all in and try and get stuff sorted.
Mum can't use the net so that's why im on here. She wants to get it sorted, she's not in some kind of denial or anything! lol

Great - you would be amazed at how many people come on here trying to sort out relatives who are quite happy with their parlous financial state.

Im gonna get her to check her credit files then go from there!

A couple of other things

1. Suggest that she signs up at the local library. Almost all of them offer free internet access. Then teach her how to search the internet and set up a free e-mail account for her. Then you can keep in touch for nothing when you go away (and deal with it when it suits you).
She is only a couple of years older than me BTY.

2. When you have more information come back here if you want more advice. It has been a quiet day so you have not had a lot of input.

3. There are loads of really good places on this site - mystery shopping and survey links for which she can be paid. Only a £20 a month but...

Once you know about the cash advances, pay any extras onto the Mastercard if that has cash advnces (29.9%). If it has not, plug away at the MNBA card.