Pay ALL your debt off by Xmas 2015!

mossy

Well done to everyone who has become debt free or exceeded their targets for the year!

Keep going guys...it will be worth it!

Pablosammy, house news sounds exciting, best wishes with everything.

abba1772

Sent another £100 towards the credit card

Brings my total to £6717.75 / £6000

Aphidgirl

The penultimate payment has gone out, just £200 left to pay now on the 28th December. I could be debt-free today but I've got to spend £220 at the dentist this afternoon on a root canal and crown - gotta look after the teeth I suppose!

#9 £5098/£5298 (96%)

black_cat

Good Luck at the dentist!

blubella

Oohh..i hate dentists..having had 2 root canals in last 2 years...sounds like you have a good deal though

Well, I have just made a payment of £240.16 bringing my total debt to under £23k...yay :j

#101 £3408.48/£3000

knightley

Dizzy_Imp wrote: »

Knightley - you're making a great start and I'll be joining you on the thread next year too.

Thanks! It's not easy but it's rewarding, and I can't wait to close that MBNA card - which will leave me only with my Tesco nightmare of a debt - hopefully not more than £8.5K - which I plan to get to £0 by the end of 2016. Next year won't be an easy one but I'll do my best to wipe out my CC debt completely and start saving and/or making overpayments to my mortgage. I might even start a diary to keep me focused

Best of luck to you too! Hope you stick around and we encourage each other

Karb

Well, I've only gone and done it. Final payment made to the credit card and, apart from the mortgage, I'm now debt free.


I can't actually remember the last time I had no debt, but I'm pretty sure it was 1997. Feeling so chuffed this morning.


The yearly total for #105 is £4742.87/£4742.87

knightley

Congrats Karb, that's quite an achievement, you must be feeling so relieved! Keep it up! (or I should say low re debt? )

muppets

Congrats Karb:beer:


MUPPETS#34 Pd £16,422.00 / £15,000 - 109.48%

lexbubbles

Dizzy_Imp wrote: »

Lex - I'd love to know how to work out "actual" payments like you've done on this thread. Can you tell me how it's done please? I just make a payment that's over the minimum, but don't know how to work out what's interest or how it affects next month's interest. Do you use an accounting programme?

Nope no accounting programme. All you need is the interest rate on your card.

As far as this month goes, the interest had already been charged to my cards before I paid because it was end of the month - so in effect my debt went 'up' before it went 'down' and I could just see it outright.

But I have worked it out for the year in advance so I realistically know how long it'll take to pay.

Interest is worked out as a percentage of the entire balance divided by 12. Like, if you pay 39.9% then it would be 39.9% of your entire balance, divide by 12. If you only pay the interest every month then your actual debt never goes down and neither do the interest payments.

Balance * (1/100 interest for example 39.9 would be 0.399) / 12

ex: right now my Aqua sits at 1761.16
1761.16 * 0.399 = 702.70
/ 12 = £58.55 (interest next month)

If my statement was issued today, I'd lose that £58.55 to interest out of anything I paid to the card. So when I say 'real' payments I mean anything above and beyond the interest.

Let's say I pay £200 next month. That would put my balance at 1761.16 - 200 (paid) + 58.55 (interest) = 1619.71

The interest for the following month would then be
(1619.71 * 0.399) / 12 = 53.85

And so on and so forth.

I don't know if that made any sense? I'm bad at explaining math things. Just a pen, paper, and calculator required though.

Minimum payments will typically be interest + £5 (so in my example my minimum payment this month would be £63.55). Such a small reduction would barely make a difference in the amount of interest (a few pennies less each month)

If you don't know your interest rate, you can normally find it on your statement.

If it helps I put a pastebin of the payment schedule for my aqua showing the interest and stuff here: http://pastebin.com/MtEQAPy3

That way you can see it decreasing and how the interest is worked out each month until it's finally cleared next November.

EDIT: if you're not good with maths and you know how much you plan on paying each month / what your interest rate is, I'd be willing to work it out for you.

This offer goes to anyone who needs or wants it. I like messing about with numbers. I find it relaxing (should have been an accountant)