A Diary of Reinventing Ourselves

getmore4less

Forward_thinking wrote: »

I quizzed him about the interest accrued each month. He agreed it is about £600 but then went on to give a lengthy explanation about how it is rising and with compound interest very little of the actual debt is getting paid off.

What he really means is the debt is getting bigger.

About £600! he should know exactly what is was on the last statement(s).

if you pay the interest there is no compound interest.

£600pm on £31k is a rate of 1.9355% pm or APR 29.84% thats much more like a CC rate but a high one.

If you are paying £1k per month then the debt should not be going up.

This really is your first step ballance the income to the outgoings so you break even every month.

Not sure where this is going to go next, like others I am getting this feeling there is something lurking.

Eg. are you using any overdrafts

Hopefully it is just he is really rubbish with money and does not have a clue what's really going on.

YNAB will help(I prefer MSMoney which is free) but to get it to work you have to have everything coming in and going out, for that you need the data.


On the credit card front(Once you have the finances under control) I think a 0% purchase card may be the way to go, there are a few 24+months and regular rates around 20% after the 0% finishes.


on Ballance transfer cards there are 3 years options that come with a fee up to 3% over 3 years your £31k+fee would be paid off with £887pm

all depending if you can get them.

I would get your credit reports as well as do some soft searches.

Forward_thinking

Morning! Another day, another start.

Mission for today is to do some work on my website, return some things to Amazon and declutter my last room. Then the house is all in great shape in total contrast to our finances. I have reminded husband that I am still waiting for the account details - apparently he will get them this morning. They are buried in the back of the loft somewhere. His laptop with them on did break a month ago so I will give him the benefit of the doubt for a little longer.

Getmore4less - thank you for your post. I am extremely careful what I put on FB and actually don't post too much. However, you did make me think of a thread I wrote on a forum a few years ago which did mention my child's name. His name is extremely unusual and the thread does come up if you search it. Might have a look at it and see if I need to request that the thread is taken away. So thanks for that. I have always been aware about the FB thing and forums in general but am feeling a little uneasy about the name thing. Even though it was a fun thread with little to reflect badly on me. I would prefer anonymity though. Will be really careful on here.

I'm going to spend a bit of time reading up on YNAB. It looks quite complicated and I don't want to be spending all my time looking at the money we haven't got. I need to try and do something about it whether that is reducing costs, eliminating direct debits or earning again.

liuhutOz

pelirocco wrote: »

I would guess he is hiding something

I've been reading both of your threads, and just wanted to post to say your doing so well, but your hubby does seem quite reluctant to give you access to the credit cards and I feel that Pelirocco might be on to something :-( are the cards in your name too, can you not just ring yourself and obtain the details that you need. good luck with it all

Forward_thinking

Thanks for the advice Getmore4less. As you say, hopefully husband is just really dreadful with finances. But that is really strange as he is an extremely intelligent guy with huge financial responsibilities at work. Yet when it comes to home he doesn't seem to care about it at all. He is able to regurgitate numbers at me (not sure how accurate they are) but never looks at the credit card statements etc, or check the banks. Says he knows what's going out without staring at them. I've been so shocked by this. Hopefully will have the account details this morning.

Great tip about getting hold of our account history. Not sure how to do this but will explore.

Forward_thinking

Thanks LiuhutOz - appreciated. Two of the credit cards are in his name only. Perhaps I should just run off out the door......(good job I still like him after all these years). We'll do it together but he's not going to know this woman by the time I've finished hauling through our accounts. I've always let him take the reins when it comes to finances. Not any more. It feels great to know I am going to be in control too. Even the ironing made me feel somehow like it was just me. That sounds ridiculous but it is really nice to know where everything is and not wait for things to be picked up before they get ironed. I feel in control and that is something I haven't felt for a long long time. Ok, so I'm not in control at all - things are a huge mess. But at least I know that now. And with that knowledge I can get working on the solution.

liuhutOz

Sorry if I sounded negative, just sometimes it's easy to backdown when someone is being awkward!
And I know what you mean about control, you've made so many changes already and if you keep going the way your going then you will have it all sorted in no time :-)

enthusiasticsaver

Forward_thinking wrote: »

Thanks LiuhutOz - appreciated. Two of the credit cards are in his name only. Perhaps I should just run off out the door......(good job I still like him after all these years). We'll do it together but he's not going to know this woman by the time I've finished hauling through our accounts. I've always let him take the reins when it comes to finances. Not any more. It feels great to know I am going to be in control too. Even the ironing made me feel somehow like it was just me. That sounds ridiculous but it is really nice to know where everything is and not wait for things to be picked up before they get ironed. I feel in control and that is something I haven't felt for a long long time. Ok, so I'm not in control at all - things are a huge mess. But at least I know that now. And with that knowledge I can get working on the solution.

Good for you for taking control FT. If you have read through this forum you will know there are a lot of people posting that say their OH has no idea of the extent of their debt and presumably before you posted your first thread you were unaware of the amount of debt you had or thought your OH was on top of it which clearly he was not. I hope that the figures are not even higher than you think. Are you able to go on to Noddle and see your credit history as this may be enlightening, if not pleasant and will at least give you an idea if there are defaults? That is a soft search and will not affect your credit rating. Balances do show on there but they are not always that up to date.

I have said previously your OH, like many high earners has a bit of an ostrich mentality and is at the moment refusing to see how critical your situation is but presumably he has been aware of this for a lot longer than you if he has been dealing with the finances up until now. It unfortunately is a sad reflection of today's society that people measure themselves by the size of their house or the area they live in, the general trappings of wealth and I have noticed it is worse in London so I wonder if he has been sucked into this mentality. I personally think the peace of mind of being debt free and the security of your own home is worth a lot more and I hope in time your OH comes to realise that. You are lucky enough to obviously both have great earning potential but this debt is a millstone around your neck and needs to go so you can move forward. I personally don't think sitting back and just waiting to earn more as your OH is suggesting is realistic or an option as the whole house of cards could come down very quickly if sickness or redundancy became a possibility.

anna_1977

Hi, have you thought about getting credit reports for both of you online? Make him do it infront of you later - that way you will see all the active accounts and amounts online and know the extend of the debt?

Forward_thinking

Enthusiasticsaver - you speak words of wisdom. I am banging my head against the brick wall here. I really don't think husband is hiding anything - I just think he doesn't have a clue!!! Which is totally shocking as he is really respected by everyone and has a hugely responsible position at work. I'm in shock. So he has spent the whole morning wading through the garage through files to try and access our two credit card accounts. He's found them but has given me a multiple of passwords because he doesn't know which is the right one!!! (can't find an icon of little sunshine man banging his head against the wall!) He also thinks the Barclays account is now MNBA but isn't sure. He will try and dig out the details for the other four accounts tonight. Says those should be quite straight forward as he checks those more!!!!!!! So I have two to look into this afternoon. He asked me if I had done little one's teeth on the way out of the door - I told him I would do it in two weeks!!!

Thanks for the mention of Noodle - no idea what that is. And Anna, that sounds worth doing but again, not sure how to get hold of our credit history. This is a steep learning curve for me but one I intend to do only once!!!

I feel like I've just woken up from a deep sleep after years. Husband isn't going to be happy I suspect!!!!

Forward_thinking

The only problem I have is that husband refuses to let me use his details for these soft checks. He is very suspicious of them and is worried his details will go elsewhere. He also points out that these companies are not offering these checks for no reason - there is an ulterior motive and so he doesn't want to give any personal details to them. It's a shame though as they would be really helpful.