Please Help Hsbc Ripping Me Off???

jacksmummy1980

hi
i need a bit of advice, since having my baby i have been unable to go back to work. im currently living on £57 a week. i had a loan, o/d, and credit card with hsbc that i was struggling to pay.
hsbc arranged a managed loan for me and im currently paying £10 a month as this is all i can afford. however every month i am being charged interest last months was for £26.95 which was added to the loan amount.
I will never pay this off if the monthly interest is greater than the £10 im currently paying. this interest will obviously keep going up!
i really dont know what to do, i cannot pay off anymore than £10 at the moment and probably wont until my son is old enough to go to school which will be atleast another 2 years.
does anyone have any advice for me?

protector

Welcome to debt free wannabe.


This week I have had HSBC trying to get me on a managed loan that I really don't need. I understand that you can overpay by as much as you want at any time so reducing the length of the loan and the interest paid.

Now, I know you said you can't afford more than £10 per month, but maybe there's something you can try to change that.

There are threads in here where people are cutting their spending to as close to zero as they can. Groups who put every £2 coin they get in a saver. Those who put every coin they get below 20p into a saver and so on.


A few suggestions (and apologies for anything that's too late - I'm clueless as to what ages kids stop and start doing different things)

No more nappies - get them out of disposable ones. Unpleasant at times but heck - I lived in the things for my early years and it didn't do me any harm.

No more new clothes - similarly I lived in hand-me-downs (except school uniform and the odd gift) for a good few years too.
My little brother is about to turn 17 and even now his clothes (he's got good taste) get packaged up in bin bags and sent to some family friends with a kid who is about 5 years behind him.

Changing weekly shopping habits seem to save a fortune for some people too.

My mum used to make baby food for me. I'd eat the same stuff as my parents did, except mine had been liquidised. Could maybe save that way too.

If you go to the sticky threads at the top of this forum and read the one for first time posters it will give you an outline for how to write up your "state of affairs" including all income and all outgoings.

People (probably not me, I'm too new to all this to be of much help to you) will then be able to help you identify where you can think about ways to save money and put towards your debt, and eventually towards actual savings.



Get your SOA written up and get it posted so people can help you out with that. (Include absolutely everything you can think of for outgoings including sweets, soft drinks at work and so on)
Then have a look at the different saving schemes people on here have come up with and get some of those on the go.



Can anyone else point JacksMummy in the direction of some of the threads giving advise about changing shopping habits to save money and other things like that?


Good luck and welcome - there are some very helpful people here!

Tabby_Kitten_2

You could maybe try talking to your local CAB and see if they could help you maybe get the interest frozen?

floss2

Hi Jacksmum..... :hello:

Firstly, call CAB or Debtline and ask if they can help to get the interest frozen or reduced.

Post your SOA (statement of affairs) - see SouthernScouser's post for first timers to help you.

Then take a look at the Old Style board - they can help with living on a tight budget.

Also take a look at websites such as Pigsback & YouGov, where you can earn money for doing surveys (at no cost except your time).

On £57 a week there is no spare money for clothes or bits for either of you. Next move is to join Freecycle - you will probably be able to obtain anything you need for Jack (clothes, toys etc) and for you (household stuff, furniture, books etc) from there. I'd recommend joining your local one - I have got rid of loads of stuff when moving house, and my brother's family have had quite a lot of stuff from Freecycle.

Grab a cup of tea - and good luck :wave:

jacksmummy1980

thanks for all ur replies.
firstly i am with freecycle and use it alot. and jack does not get new clothes.always hand me downs
i dont buy baby food i make my own!
my weekly spending habits are tight i barely have enough to feed myself but as long as jacks got food im happy.
sorry but i dont do terry nappies everyone has their own opinion, i wont save any money using them anyway as it will cost me to wash and dry them
im happy with disposibles and dont get brand named ones anyway.
thanks for the advice i will see if i can get the interest frozen

tHANKS ALL XX

protector

Just a quick response, fair enough if you're opposed to them in principle somehow, but I'm not sure washing and drying will cost as much as buying disposables.
You can always air dry things - free. As for washing - laundrette fees (if that's an issue) could be negated by hand washing - grim yes, (but remember most people didn't have disposables OR washing machines a while back ) but it could make for a substantial saving.

Up to you though.


It could still be worth posting up your SOA anyway - it may well be that someone spots a way to tighten your budget a bit more than you have already. Sounds like you're doing fairly well on the budget front as it is, maybe you could squeeze a bit more out of it though (food shopping tactics for example). I dunno - you might even end up eating better while saving money.
Good on you making your own baby food too. Got to be better (and cheaper) than the stuff in pots.


At very least, putting up your SOA on here and getting input on it would give you something else to bring to the CAB with you if you go that way. A clear account of your incoming and outgoing would make things easier for them to see and advise you on I would think.


Again - good luck with it.

floss2

Not looking to start WW3, but by the time you buy 3 dozen terry nappies, plus the disposable liners for the lumpy bits, plus napisan type sterilising stuff & a bucket, plus the cost of electricity for washing at most every 2 days to be sure you have enough and plus the cost of detergent even without drying multiplied by an average of 2 years = a lot.

I did 1st child in terries, the 2nd in both, so I have tried it!

protector

Thanks for that Floss.
I was suggesting it more as a frugal return to the good(bad) old days of just using detergent and elbow grease.

Solid stuff can be flushed rather than binned.
Liners are a new thing - in days gone by (and when I was in terries) there were no disposable liners that I'm aware of.
Buckets can be got for next to nothing.

That I'm aware of, the worst of it all was a bit of a rash and the occasional stab with a safety pin.
Well, that and the joy of actually washing the things.

Still, I'm sure this wasn't posted to become a discussion about disposable vs towel nappies so let's knock it in the head eh?


Seems the OP doesn't want to go down that route anyway - it was just a suggestion to consider things in way maybe not thought of before.

protector

Actually I just did a quick search on google for cost nappies disposable terry
One of the top results was this page. It might be of interest...

http://www.ratbag.demon.co.uk/anna/babystuff/terries.html

Seems these people saved £144 in year one and £241 in year two.

Anyway - I'm outta here - work to be done and all that.



Edit - I meant to add this link...
http://www.wen.org.uk/nappies/cost_comparison.htm
The second from top normal (non paid) result on the same search terms gives a complete breakdown of the costs involved including the wear and tear on a washing machine, it even includes the use of a real nappy service at the end.


Further edit...
I just saw a passing mention that "some councils" now offer a rebate to parents using reusable (not just "terry" - just one option) nappies. That might be something that comes in very handy if tight on funds.
Something to look into maybe.
That was mentioned on the top result of the search I did (mentioned above) and looks like a really handy site.
http://www.twinkleontheweb.co.uk/

All done.