Absolutely terrified and in a jam

amorge

Coffeekup wrote: »

I wish you the all best (with a little bit of luck in there) in getting rid of the debt's, or at least making them more manageable over the next few years.
Seen some good points on here to help make it more affordable, i.e. renting garage/rooms and drives get on that band wagon a.s.a.p.

Something that may help you over the next few years is. I personally find it easier to manage cash than debit/card payments, as with £XXX in my wallet i know i have to make that last XXX amount of time. Where as paying for goods with a debit or credit card, feels to me like you hand over no cash and you have some goods at the end of it.

Anyhow back to what i was originally going to say is.... I'm going to try and throw you a little luck. As i haven't seen it mentioned here yet, have you paid insurance on loans/cards over the last 18 years? If so you could be in line for some PPI payout/s if you haven't checked that route out yet, if you think you are in line for some use the help from this website and it's forums. Don't use a 3rd party to get the payout for you, as after there take and tax your 50% down on your pay out.
I wish you all the best, and have been in a very similar situation to you 11 years ago, it was a long 8 year haul to get out of the mess i got into, but proud to have paid back what i owed which has taught me a valuable lesson where i look at money in a totally different way.

Thank you
Sadly no PPI

VanyaHargreeves

Not sure if it's been mentioned before but it seems a bit silly to have a £30 present fund and no emergency fund.

Is it possible to split this up so you have £15 into the present fund and £15 into the emergency fund every month?

Otherwise you run the risk of having to borrow money if an emergency occurs, touch wood!

amorge

I don't actually have a present fund but was advised to put something here - up to now I've whacked presents on the credit card.

Fingers crossed no emergencies as there is no money for any!

gfplux

This is anal but frankly to get out of debt and stay out of debt you have to be a little anal.
So ref electricity bill. Get an app for your smart phone and read the meter weekly. That in itself does not reduce your consumption but will bring your usage in to sharp focus.
I use Meter Readings by Christian Melchior, it's FREE.

amorge

Hi all, I have posted this on another hread but without all my SOA details not all the comments are relevant. It is suggested I don't take on more debt; I'm not taking on move, I'm shifting what I've got to be 0% rather than paying interest.

OK, so today Santander have sent me a 123 credit card. It's 0% for 23 months on Balance transfers or purchases and 0% transfer fee (the card costs £24 per year but that's fine).

The limit is £2100 so I can't shift a full CC on to it sadly

Debts are:
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Barclaycard....................9903.71...231...... .0
Barclaycard (2)................4700......112.......18.9 - came off 0% yesterday
Shop Direct....................1886.31...20........0 £900 will be 34.9% at the end of November
Santander......................2487......30....... .0
Barclays Finance...............920.......71.5......14.9

I am struggling with the barclaycard debt so am wondering, if I transfer the max possible from Barclaycard 2 onto the new one.
Or should I pay the Very (Shop direct) account?

So confusing!

Thanks in advance for any advise
Anna

plunt

well work out if you can pay off 900 before November on the Very card, if so then its worth moving barclay debt to the 0%. Keep in mind moving it will lower the barclays payments which may result in you starting to chip away at the barclay payment! Also did you open the santander current account with it? as it would then be free for a year. I ask you this because it may then be worth leaving some limit on the card to do your traveling and food shops as it offers cashback too!

cte1111

I would transfer £2000 from your non 0% Barclaycard and then set yourself the target of one way or another raising the £900 to clear the November debt. You're doing so well already. Have you managed to sell the rings that you'd agreed with your parents? If not, then these would make a big hole in the £900 hopefully.

patman99

amorge, have you considered contacting someone like Stepchange or Payplan with regards to going on a DMP?.

They will work-out what you can afford to pay to your creditors and still be able to live.
Yes, it will increase the length of time it takes to pay off the debts, but as each account gets added to the DMP, the creditor will freeze the interest rates so saving you even more money.

amorge

cte1111 wrote: »

I would transfer £2000 from your non 0% Barclaycard and then set yourself the target of one way or another raising the £900 to clear the November debt. You're doing so well already. Have you managed to sell the rings that you'd agreed with your parents? If not, then these would make a big hole in the £900 hopefully.

Hi, I went into the jewellers with the rings and he offer £150 for one and not much for the others, I'm going to get a couple more prices for them, I am off work next week. I did sell a random brooch for £50 so that was good

amorge

patman99 wrote: »

amorge, have you considered contacting someone like Stepchange or Payplan with regards to going on a DMP?.

They will work-out what you can afford to pay to your creditors and still be able to live.
Yes, it will increase the length of time it takes to pay off the debts, but as each account gets added to the DMP, the creditor will freeze the interest rates so saving you even more money.

Yes I am looking at DMP's will be contacting people next week. I'm kind of digging my heels in as I am so reluctant to enter one but I know that I need to bite the bullet - I've managed to cut about £800 off my debts in the last couple of weeks via various methods. I have a week of from Monday so will be tackling it all head on then!