Where to start with tackling this?

united4ever

Here's the situation:

Tesco Credit Card: 8k at 0% until May 21st 2016
MBNA Credit Card: £2300 at 0% until November 2016
Current Account Authorised Overdraft: 3k (paying about £30 a month interest)

So the logical way to tackle this is overdraft first right since I am paying interest on it?

At the moment my income and outgoings are more or less on a par so I cannot seem to eat into this 3k overdraft (comes down after I get paid then creeps up and up to more like 3.5k as the direct debits come out).

Was thinking I could apply for another credit card and get some balance paid into my bank account to clear some of the overdraft....not sure what's that called but I believe you can get a balance transfer paid into your account for a fee of course (but maybe that fee will be less than paying £30 a month interest on the overdraft.

Any other ideas to reduce the overdraft charge?

Long term my plans are to get a second job at weekends to increase income. I am due a bonus in April of around 2k and have about 1.8k in a savings account (stupidly put it in last February in a 6% savings account but got to keep it in there until February to get the interest - should have just kept it in my current account to ease the overdraft charges).

Finally, my mortgage fixed term comes to an end in September 2016.....will this all impact badly on my mortgage application should I apply for a better deal? I have no defaults or other negative stuff on my record.

Thanks in adavnce:)

fatbelly

You've got £13300 of debt and income/expenditure balance while you spend £30 per month on interest.

So if you can kill interest you can pay £30 per month on a 37-year debt management plan, which, of course, is far too long.

A DRO and bankruptcy are out as you are a homeowner.

On the positive side you have 2k coming and 1.8 in a savings account so combining those two means you can clear your overdraft and stay in the black!

Then we just need some more surplus income. It might be an idea to post a statement of afffairs

EssexHebridean

Definitely post an SOA - there might well be savings that people here can suggest that you wouldn't have even thought of, it's funny how additional sets of eyes over something can find you wiggle-room, sometimes!

You're absolutely right about clearing the overdraft first, too. No sense in paying interest where you don't need to. Also a good idea to think about increasing income, but I'd change that from a long-term plan to a "get on with it as soon as possible" plan, if I were you!

Playing_with_Fire_2

If I were you I would apply for a Christmas job now, loads of temp jobs available at evenings and weekends.

Agreed with paying off the overdraft first, but you'll need to reduce what you're spending as well. You say that incoming and outgoings are on a par, but I would guess that this is because of your optional spending rather than your essential spend being exactly the same as your income. Unless you cut down on optional spending any money from another job will be eaten up.

You might find it easier to open another basic bank account (without an overdraft), and transfer the money you allocate for spending into that. Then when the money is gone the spending stops, and you should see the overdraft start to go down.

Check the T+Cs for the 6% savings account. You might be paying more in interest on the overdraft than you would get from the savings account.

Good luck