Thinking of consolidating debts

[Deleted User]

greensalad wrote: »

No worries. I live with my partner so it's a bit different but basically we have a joint account and a spreadsheet which shows what we each owe towards household bills. (I earn more say I pay a little more rent, but then my boyfriend buys stuff like BT sport subscriptions so I don't pay for them)

So every payday, we pay in £x towards bills and it's just handled for the month. I check it every week and tick off what's gone out and double check to see if there are any bills higher or lower than expected, but generally it's OK. We also pay a £40 buffer into that account to help with jumps in bills that are unexpected. Occasionally we withdraw part of that buffer if it hasn't been used for a while and use it for something worthwhile like something for the house.

I couldn't imagine going back to how it was before. Looking at my bank balance thinking "I want to buy something, but I might have a bill come out next week, what do I do?". I just couldn't do it.

Our groceries account works in much the same way. We buy our groceries out of it. We also go to dinner or cinema etc and we pay it from there.

This month I was able to put £1000 away into savings account which I then used to pay off a whole debt in one go. It definitely works.

So I tried opening a new account with Santander, the 123 account but my application was declined. Like I said I have a relatively poor credit score.

I've downloaded YNAB but is there a UK version? Where I can import my bank account transactions automatically?

greensalad

colinahenderson87 wrote: »

So I tried opening a new account with Santander, the 123 account but my application was declined. Like I said I have a relatively poor credit score.

I've downloaded YNAB but is there a UK version? Where I can import my bank account transactions automatically?

You cannot presently use the auto-import for YNAB. It doesn't take that long to manually add. I do it on my smartphone. You can change the currency to £ but there are still some "Americanisms" but nothing that should affect your ability to budget.

As you were declined I recommend opening a basic bank account as these are designed for people with poor credit. You don't need an overdraft facility for this account as it's purely for bills, so you should be fine with it. Also, keep the debit card at home not in your pocket!

[Deleted User]

greensalad wrote: »

You cannot presently use the auto-import for YNAB. It doesn't take that long to manually add. I do it on my smartphone. You can change the currency to £ but there are still some "Americanisms" but nothing that should affect your ability to budget.

-Yeah I thought as much, will spend a bit of time with it later on this evening.

As you were declined I recommend opening a basic bank account as these are designed for people with poor credit. You don't need an overdraft facility for this account as it's purely for bills, so you should be fine with it. Also, keep the debit card at home not in your pocket!

- Yeah I'm literally looking for an account to pay bills from with no overdraft.

Thanks

Vikipollard

Just to note, in your opening post you say you have a maxed out overdraft of c.£1800, but you have not included that in your SOA debts. You need to add this in or you risk ignoring it. OD's can be withdrawn at any time!

Also, you say you like a takeaway after a night out - but only have £7.99 in your budget for entertainment (Netflix). You need to be realistic about what you really spend here so that you capture costs and know what you have spare.

How about setting up a savings account and putting £400 into it, and see if you don't touch it by month end. If you have to go near it, your figures are way out.

(I'm not advocating saving over clearing debt btw, just trying to help you see what seems to be the case on paper isn't necessarily reality with incidental spends.)

HTH

andyfromotley

Just to clarify you can import your bank statements onto ynab in seconds (but not automatically) If you download a statement from your bank with ynab open it automatically detects it and will import it, just remember to change the date format when prompted or it all goes to rat !!!!!