£22k in the red

SomaSkint

New to forum.

Mainly putting up a thread to get raise the seriousness of the issue in my own mind. The debt is managable at present. Expenditures have been on educational courses, but also some unnecessary !!!!!!!! -- holidays, computer components, books. Not sure what I'm asking, just stamping it down for now. Any encouragement, further info, or advice welcome; I'm happy to put up more info when I have time.

- £13,750 to bank loan
- £8,399 to credit cards (at 0% interest)
= -£22,149

Debt payments: £577 a month

Income: £1,900 month
Monthly outgoings: £609

asparagus1968

http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php


hi, well you've come to the right place:)
start by filling out the above, think your outgoings may me more than what you think.
if you post it here on your thread the lovely MSE'ers will help you anyway they can.
good luck

National_Debtline

Hi

I agree with asparagus that posting a SOA here is a good place to start.

James
@natdebtline

Sazzie23

Hi Somaskint

Well done for making a start at facing up to your debts. I can see you are managing the repayments within budget but I have 2 questions that might make you think?

1. How long will it take for you to pay the debts off at the current payment rate
2. What happens if tomorrow (God forbid) something happens illness/accident etc that means you can only claim benefits ?

As the others say, post a SOA, use the snowball calculator and revisit where you are going with the budgets.

Saz

enjoyyourshoes

Hi

don't use the 0% cards for any purchases

calculate how much monthly you need to pay off to eliminate the debt by the free period end.

Set up DD to cover this

See if you can search for a cheaper loan to bank once that deal finishes and pay off as much as you can (if interest rate is above the rates you can get on current accounts and regular savings). If rate is below these, start adding in as much to the RS and accounts and then get to a point to pay off tranches of the debt to the bank when its financially in your benefit.

Work out why you spend and work on nullifying these triggers so you spend less.

Stop the fags, mags, coffee late, snacks, booze, lotto etc