My get out of debt by Dec 2008 plan!

chocolatechipcookies

I got a new job, which pays well so now I can start my get out of debt plan! I'll let you know what we have left to pay then what my plan is.

Apple loan (MBNA)- £250
HSBC 0% interest credit card- £260
Barker and Stonehouse furniture 2 year interest free- £1,872
NPower (money we owe from closed account)- £530
Abbey overdraft- £65

I'm getting £405 back from Abbey (bank charges) after complaining to the financial ombudsman. £65 of that will go straight to my overdraft. I'll have £340 left. Then we'll pay off the Apple loan, and will have £80 left. We'll pay the remaining £80 to the HSBC card then when I get paid, pay the rest off.

With the company we've gotten the Barker and Stonehouse loan through, I'm going to call and ask if in January, we can pay more than our monthly payment than we signed up for. What I'm going to ask is, instead of paying £78 like we do now, if we could pay £123.50 to clear it by December 2008. 7 months early. I thought since we aren't paying any interest, they would allow it, since they aren't losing any money. I did want to put £45 a month aside for this, and I might as well just take £45 in cash out every month, put it in the husband's account so he can use that to pay more on the loan.

I'm going to pay NPower as much as I can. They said they aren't fussed about the amount as long as I pay something. So when I get the Apple loan and HSBC sorted and paid, I'm going to pay NPower. That should only take a few months. I was thinking about £50-£100 per month, depending on bills.

So if my plan goes how I imagine, we will only have one loan left, but we can't pay that off any sooner because of penalty charges, so we'll leave it. I'm quite chuffed, I can't wait to have these little debts off my head. :money:

Snaggles

Hiya, congratulations on the new job!

Re the Barker and Stonehouse loan, if it's interest free you would be better to keep making the minimum payments and then put the extra into a savings account, so you're earning interest on it in the meantime. It depends if you'd be tempted to spend it though!

Likewise NPower, as I presume they wont charge interest either?

chocolatechipcookies

Snaggles wrote: »

Hiya, congratulations on the new job!

Re the Barker and Stonehouse loan, if it's interest free you would be better to keep making the minimum payments and then put the extra into a savings account, so you're earning interest on it in the meantime. It depends if you'd be tempted to spend it though!

Likewise NPower, as I presume they wont charge interest either?

Thanks! :T

NPower won't charge anything. I called about 2 weeks to let them know what was going on regarding payments. I told them how my job pays peanut and that I'd pay as much as I could, wouldn't be much, but I was trying. She told me it was fine, as long as I pay something, they'll be happy. I told her I'd get it paid one day! Now that I will be able to afford it, I really want it out of the way. I'd rather pay as much as I can and get them out of my hair finally.

My husband wants to get the B&S stuff paid off as quick as we can, then we're going to open an icelandic savings account. We were talking and if we start paying £123.50 per month from August, it'll knock two more months off. I'm going to put a little aside so when November 2008 comes around I'll have a small pot to open an Icelandic savings account, I think you have to put in £300 initially.