My S.O.A. ~ Have I got any chance?

spurs501_2

Hi Everyone.

This is my SOA, please could you have a look over it and give me your honest opinions if I've got any chance of getting out of this mess!

Just for your information, my mortgage balance is £94,000 and the value of my property is £165,00 so I DO have some equity!

Okay, here goes:

INCOME:

Salary £30,000 +paid overtime: Bring home approx £2,000 per month.

OUTGOINGS:

Mortgage: £660.00
Unsecured loan: £450.00
Gas: £35.00
Electric: £35.00
Water: £35.00
TV Licence: £12.00
BT Phone: £12.00
Mobile: £50.00
Car Insurance: £22.00
Petrol: £120.00
Shopping (Food/Cleaning Products etc) £100
Council Tax: £90.00

TOTAL: £1621.00

DEBTS:

Personal Loan (mentioned above): £22,850.
Various Credit Cards etc: £35,000!!!!!!!!!!! (Oh S**t)

That's me!! Is there anyway I can work through this??

thecornflake

Hi,

Can you let us know how much you are paying on the credit cards each month?

Plus your gas and electric sound quite high. How big is your house?

poorbutrich

thecornflake wrote: »

How big is your house?

Any space for a lodger?

Tashja

If you live alone do you get the single persons council tax allowance ???

Will also need to know the APR's on the credit cards

Welcome to DFW Board though - if anyone can help these guys can !!

T xx

david_hellier

Hi,

Before we can help, we need a list of the CC debts and APRs.

thanks.

Gemmzie

Yes definitely, you have £829 per month there for debt repayments, that's very do-able.

What you need to do is find out the balances and APRs for each of the credit cards.

I see there's a few things missing from your SOA though, car tax, car repairs, birthdays, nights out?

spurs501_2

Gemmzie wrote: »

Yes definitely, you have £829 per month there for debt repayments, that's very do-able.

What you need to do is find out the balances and APRs for each of the credit cards.

I see there's a few things missing from your SOA though, car tax, car repairs, birthdays, nights out?

OK, HERE GOES WITH THE CREDIT CARDS:~

CO-OP: Balance: £5160.00 APR 18%
VIRGIN: Balance: £3000.00 APR 29%
SONY: Balance: £1800.00 APR 12%
AMEX: Balance: £3100.00 APR 6.9%
CAPITAL 1: Balance: £3200.00 APR 9.9%
GOLDFISH: Balance: £5650.00 APR 11%
LLOYDS: Balance: £9900.00 APR 14%
EGG CARD:Balance: £1400.00 APR 21%
SKY CARD: Balance: £3500.00 APR 21%

All looks very scary I know. I've written to all my creditors to ask if I can make reduced payments and have interest frozen for a while to give me a chance to get myself back in order.

Please all feel free to have your say (critisism will not offend me!!)

Gemmzie

Okay there's a variety of APRs and balances, so you need to work out realistically how much you can afford to pay the cards and then work out a pro-rata payment. This is the most effective way to get them to accept reduced payments and freeze interest

gollygosh

o.k. don't panic, it's doable. firstly we need to get those outgoings down, writing to creditors is a good idea. Had you asked about moving debt onto life balance cards? the interest rates are much lower than the ones you've got. have you checked your credit rating? don't want to sound condescending (believe me I'm not) but can you increase those incomings? lodger, e-baying, part time job?

thecornflake

spurs501 wrote: »

OK, HERE GOES WITH THE CREDIT CARDS:~

CO-OP: Balance: £5160.00 APR 18%
VIRGIN: Balance: £3000.00 APR 29%
SONY: Balance: £1800.00 APR 12%
AMEX: Balance: £3100.00 APR 6.9%
CAPITAL 1: Balance: £3200.00 APR 9.9%
GOLDFISH: Balance: £5650.00 APR 11%
LLOYDS: Balance: £9900.00 APR 14%
EGG CARD:Balance: £1400.00 APR 21%
SKY CARD: Balance: £3500.00 APR 21%

All looks very scary I know. I've written to all my creditors to ask if I can make reduced payments and have interest frozen for a while to give me a chance to get myself back in order.

Please all feel free to have your say (critisism will not offend me!!)

If you can sort yourself out so you can make the payments on these the snowball method would be quite effective. You'd make a fantastic example for it actually!

Do any of them have any remaining balance, and could therefore be used to pay off some of the debt on the higher rate ones?

Also you didn't say how much each one is costing you each month, I would presume you are paying (or trying to pay) the minimum payments of 2/2.5% of the balance.

sarah0404

Hi and welcome! I agree with Gemmzie's post above. Re-do your SOA to cover absolutely everything you might need to spend money on. Car tax, dentist, the cost of Christmas and birthday presents etc. There is a very good budget planner on this site (somewhere!). That will give you a picture of how much spare cash you have available to pay back your debts.

Next have a look at the snowball debt calculator. You can find it at www.whatsthecost.com Put in all the cards you have, and their APRs etc then it will show you the best order to pay them in. If you have a good credit rating then it might be worth while applying for some new credit cards with 0% balance transfers. Close down the old accounts and cut up the cards as soon as you balance transfer though!!!!! The snowball calculations can be very motivating. Especially if you print it out and score off each debt as you make the payment every month.

It looks as if you can fix this as you do have quite a bit of spare cash available to pay towards your debt. If you'd like professional advice you can try contacting CCCS. They are a debt help charity. You can arrange to speak to someone on the phone, or just fill in a web form, which will give you a debt remedy for your situation. They can help you negotiate with your creditors or help you set up a debt management plan.

Good luck! :T