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

SPANIEL36

we dont critisize?? (sp??) we offer advice! i've subscribed to this thread. good luck with this. it may seem daunting but there's a little lightdown that tunnel

mrsspendalot

Have you any credit left on any of your cards to do a bit of shuffling with balance transfers??

spurs501_2

mrsspendalot wrote: »

Have you any credit left on any of your cards to do a bit of shuffling with balance transfers??

No, unfortunately not!!

When I wrote to my creditors asking to freeze interest most of them withdrew my credit facility.:rolleyes:

mrsspendalot

hmmm ok .... did you try putting everything into the snowball calculator on www.whatsthecost.com ? You don't have a lot of room for manouevre with such a hefty chunk going to your unsecured loan.

the snowballing thing worked really well for me, but it doesn't work for everyone.

I'll keep thinking ....

mrsspendalot

right looking at your soa, i can't seem to get my head round your actual outgoings without your credit card payments being listed on there. If you don't know off the top of your head, have a look at last months bank statement and add up what you spent repaying credit cards last month, it will give something to go on. That way we can see if there is anything potentially 'spare' at the end of the month.

Also, don't know if anyone has mentioned it yet or not, but signing up for doing surveys, cashback sites and other exciting things can help generate some additional income. Have you anything you can sell on ebay to generate a bit of extra cash. All it might take to get things moving is to pay off a chunk from one of your cards and then the wheels are in motion.

how long is left to run on your unsecured loan? what is the apr on this? have you written to them to freeze interest or are you up to date with your payments.

Sorry for so many questions

spurs501_2

mrsspendalot wrote: »

right looking at your soa, i can't seem to get my head round your actual outgoings without your credit card payments being listed on there. If you don't know off the top of your head, have a look at last months bank statement and add up what you spent repaying credit cards last month, it will give something to go on. That way we can see if there is anything potentially 'spare' at the end of the month.

Also, don't know if anyone has mentioned it yet or not, but signing up for doing surveys, cashback sites and other exciting things can help generate some additional income. Have you anything you can sell on ebay to generate a bit of extra cash. All it might take to get things moving is to pay off a chunk from one of your cards and then the wheels are in motion.

how long is left to run on your unsecured loan? what is the apr on this? have you written to them to freeze interest or are you up to date with your payments.

Sorry for so many questions

Hi,
Thanks for all your input, it's very much appreciated.

In the last month I've joined Quidco (and got £25.00 tracked already!!), set up an ebay account to generate some extra income, cancelled SKY, lowered my mobile phone tariff and cut my night's out!! So I AM putting the effort in.

My personal loan has SIX YEARS left to run unfortunately (Boo!) but payments are up to date. I am thinking about cancelling the loan protector insurance which costs me almost £100.00 per month.

I really want to make a go of this so please keep the ideas coming!!

Oh yeah, I've also cut up ALL my credit cards!!!!!!!!!!!!:T

mrsspendalot

there was some advice around about cancelling and claiming back payment protection insurance kicking around on here somewhere - you should definitely cancel it - £100 more a month for your CC's

You seem to be really eager to get this sorted, which is great!

sarah0404

Hi again, was just thinking about your situation again while I was eating my tea! And actually, on second thoughts it does sound poo. I was thinking, even if you got interest on all your cards frozen, and somehow came up with £1000 a month to pay them with, it would still take 35 months to pay it all back. That's not really a massive amount of time compared to how long some people here are paying back their debts, but it would mean constant overtime, and never buying another thing for the next 3 years. Pretty miserable.

Have you considered any more radical solutions? You mentioned you had equity in your house. What if you sold and used the profits to pay back your credit cards and loan? You could walk away debt free. If you found somewhere cheap to rent or moved in with family then it wouldn't take too long to build up decent savings for a deposit on another house.

What sort of car do you drive? Is it worth anything? Could you sell it and downgrade to an old banger? You could put the money you made towards your debts. If you bought something with a very small engine you could save on petrol and road tax too. I'm currently driving a 12 year old car and very happy with it. Or could you live without a car? Find out how much it would cost to travel to and from work. We lived without a car for a year in an effort to save money. Its not much fun, but did save a lot of money. Maybe you could get a bike from your local freecycle group?

Good luck with selling your other things on ebay! There is an ebay board here where you could maybe get some tips about selling.

I also agree with what Linz posed earlier about taking in a lodger. You could make some extra cash that way.

Or, there is the even more scary option of something like an IVA or bankruptcy. I'd strongly advise getting professional advice about that though. From somewhere like CCCS or Payplan. When I had my lightbulb moment (several years back) I thought I could do it all on my own, and that I would be able cut back on everything and to pay back everything I owed. I didn't even consider bankruptcy for a second, but, after several years of really struggling to make a dent in my debts I've ben advised that it is my best option. (not saying that it would be right for you, especially being a home owner. I only rent so my home is not at risk.)

You sound very committed to sorting it all out. Well done for that. Good luck with it all!

fatbelly

spurs501 wrote: »

My personal loan has SIX YEARS left to run unfortunately (Boo!) but payments are up to date. I am thinking about cancelling the loan protector insurance which costs me almost £100.00 per month.

You were probably mis-sold this. Have you read Martin's article on it?

spurs501_2

Thanks for all the words of encouragement (and for making me face up to the seriousness of it all). It's VERY much appreciated.

I know my finances are in a real state but after reading ALL the comments I have decided to battle on and try to pay off these debts by any method I can, extra overtime at work, cutting back on any non-essential spending etc. I know a DMP/IVA might be EASIER but my pride makes me want to pay everything off. I will contact ALL my creditors with a budget sheet and try to work out reduced payments untill I am in a better financial state.

I've had a good look around the forum today and seen people with worse debt than myself and those people are my inspiration.

Thanks again to all you great people, you make me feel a part of this great community.