We are so ready!

Lemonsqueezer78

I don't think its things being taken out of context. I think its simply a case of whether your SOA accurately reflects your incomings and outgoings, or not. If it does accurately portray what you receive and what you have to spend (or even comes close) then noone is taking anything out of context.... your situation really is urgent as I (and others) are suggesting.

If your SOA isn't accurate, well then I'm afraid it becomes extremely difficult for us to give advice - and for you to make an actual robust plan to tackle this.

The question is not "are you meeting your minimum payments?" The questions is "are you meeting your minimum payments without increasing your overall debt each month?" Your SOA doesn't really seem to make that possible - unless the expenses you have put down are inaccurate or you are regularly receiving a much higher income that you have captured.

My personal opinion is that you have become so used to paying off your credit cards and then spending on them to live for the month that you have stopped seeing that as a repeated "borrowing". But it is. If you have to re-borrow every penny - or more - that you repay on those credit cards each month, just to survive, well then that tells us that your finances are broken and you literally have NO spare money to go against debt repayments.

I think your situation really requires that you start using a spending diary to capture exactly what you spend each month. And ask yourself honestly; in order to meet your monthly repayments and living expenses - are you actually borrowing more every month (whether that's CCs, PDLs... whatever). Is your total debt actually going up all the time? Have you even tracked this?

I beginning to feel that your true light bulb moment is yet to come... not because you're in any kind of denial.... but because you genuinely don't understand the true extent of things (including what you have coming in - and what you have coming out).

Answer me this - the "Best Case SOA" I posted up there.... the one I posted with everything changed (including your hoped-for pay rise), but still came out at £150 short every month. What would you say was incorrect/inaccurate about that SOA? What are you saying it's missing?

Aphidgirl

A Debt Management Plan with a free debt-help company like Stepchange is definately the solution for you. I started a DMP when I had 9 different creditors, a low income and a lot of stress and worry.

After starting the DMP I felt an instance sense of relief as the debt management company took control of all my debts, dealt with the creditors for me and I only made one affordable payment each month, leaving me enough to cover my other living expenses.

All your accounts will be closed so you can't get into any more debt and you shouldn't need to because your monthly debt repayments will be drastically reduced. You'll have a poor credit rating but in my case that was great - I couldn't apply for anymore credit cards so was forced to live only on what I earned!

For me a DMP was life-changing and I'm now almost completely debt-free. I highly recommend giving Stepchange (or similiar) a call or check out their website. You'll feel so much better! Good luck with it all

EssexHebridean

Cut up your credit cards - right now, go on, I dare you...

NOW how sustainable do things look? Worst case scenario - your CC company sends you a letter tomorrow to say they are closing your account and withdrawing your cards (oh yes they can) - what are you using to live on then?

Oasis10

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Lemonsqueezer78

Oasis10 wrote: »

Apart from 3 of the debts, they are all pretty low amounts. These will soon be cleared and that just adds more and more onto the amount available for repaying.

I do understand what you are all saying and I thank you for your advice but I have paid off around £2000 in the last 3 months so I know what I am doing is currently working.

Thanks

O

That just suggests your SOA is inaccurate, I think. If you are not able to post an accurate representation of your incomings and outgoings, it really is hard for people to help or advise.

That said, If you have cleared that much debt without piling on any more then you are doing fine considering your "on paper" situation - and there probably isn't much more folks around here can do for you, on top of that (without more accurate info).

Good luck to you - hope you see a light at the end of the tunnel very soon

lambda

I don't get it. You are struggling to make payments but then choose to make it worse by adding more debts to the cards!? That makes no sense whatsoever.

I think what you need to do is probably go on a DMP. Speak to a debt advise agency (tons of people on here can advise you on that). You can't 'live on' your CC every month. Do you budget? My guess is no. It sounds to me like you got into this mess by just spending money and hoping everything will just be enough to make the payments each month. That has to stop.

Sorry for the harsh words, but to me you have to stop using the CC completely, absolutely, finito. It just isn't an option anymore. Sorry.

Oasis10

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Pixie5740

The point is that you should not be adding to your debts at all. You live rent free with your parents so you should be in a much better financial position than you are even without the overtime. Instead you fritter £350 on takeaways, £50 on a phone and £100s more on a car you can't really afford. A £16k car on finance with insurance of £1,380 is pretty ridiculous.

I think you really need to start budgeting properly and really tackling this debt or you won't be moving out of your parents any time soon. Getting rid of the car and buying something more affordable would seem like a sensible place to start.

pelirocco

Oasis10 wrote: »

I mentioned when I first posted my SOA that I did my salary on the lowest amount I get. This can sometimes be 400-500 more than I have put above. That is how I have managed. The above was just a scenario where I get the minimum and I meet the minimums. If my CC (with a limit off £200 only) gets used I don't see that as a huge issue because it would never go over that (limits are £200&£250 only, 1 used at a time). I'm not adding masses and masses of debt. It is used for petrol and only anything else essential.

O

If your wages are sometimes 400 -500 more a month how have you paid off £2000 off your debts in the last 3 months as you stated in another post.

Your posts and figures don't add up , you don't like the advice you have been given , so to me it seems you change your situation on here to justify your reasoning

you can change your soa all you like , but if it doesn't match whats really happening it won't magically fix your life

Lemonsqueezer78

Oasis10 wrote: »

I mentioned when I first posted my SOA that I did my salary on the lowest amount I get. This can sometimes be 400-500 more than I have put above. That is how I have managed. The above was just a scenario where I get the minimum and I meet the minimums. If my CC (with a limit off £200 only) gets used I don't see that as a huge issue because it would never go over that (limits are £200&£250 only, 1 used at a time). I'm not adding masses and masses of debt. It is used for petrol and only anything else essential.

O

Hi Oasis

I was not having a pop at you, don't worry. All I am saying is, if your "real" situation is often very different than the "worse case" SOA you posted, it is just difficult to give advice, simply because people like myself will be trying to assess your situation and give you advice based on the figures presented - which you will then just deny you need to take because you'll argue that - actually - you ARE managing to make ends meet and you are managing to pay down your debts.

Which, to be fair, is exactly what is happening.

I understand your situation is very transient and difficult to capture on an SOA. But myself and others are just reacting to your posted SOA - which to be fair is completely broken and on its own, would suggest you need urgent assistance to sort out. However your actual situation must be much better than this in reality if you are able to live and pay off your debts.

Spending on your credit card each month isn't great - but it is OK I guess, as long as you are only spending what you paid off that month and nothing more. At least while you are doing that you are still paying down all your other fixed term debts (loans etc) and those balances are reducing each month.

That's not a great way to live really because it is risky and one false move could mean that the credit you are surviving on could disappear at some point. Which is why many people will tell you not to do this. But the only way to realistically get out of that cycle is to either re-structure your debts to free up more money for your living expenses each month - or make enough additional money one month so that you spend cash to live, rather than re-spend your credit card payments. But again, it's difficult to advice you how you might be able to do that without seeing an accurate SOA.