The Beginning of the End

Perpetual_Miser

Hello all,

Like many on here, I've decided to come out of the shadows and share my own debt-experience in the hope that tracking my progress will provide extra-motivation and support on the road to being debt-free.

I have been on a debt management plan (DMP) with StepChange since November 2015. Since this time I've paid off £744, leaving the following amounts outstanding:

On Stride - £2,130.33

HSBC (Personal Loan) - £1,371.94

HSBC (Overdraft) - £1,006.90

Capital One - £979.53

MyJar - £959.32

Wonga - £493.56

WageDayAdvance - £480.60

Different Money - £464.60

Satsuma - £455.00

HSBC (Credit Card) - £454.87

WizzCash - £331.86

TOTAL - £9,128.51

I will not go into much detail regarding how this debt came about. Suffice to say, it was a combination of poor budgeting, a gambling problem, and living beyond my means.

As my borrowing stacked up I eventually reached the point where I could no longer afford the minimum payments. When this happened, I made the fatal error of taking out further loans to try and pay off the others (this is how the smaller payday loans came about).

After a few months of treading water this way, the bubble burst and I defaulted on a few of the repayments.

This was when I had to take drastic action. I consolidated my debts via StepChange, shifted my spending habits and kicked the gambling.

Fast-forward to August 2016, and things are looking so much better. Whilst the debt is still there, it's decreasing month-by-month. There's still room for improvement in terms of my spending habits, but I'm getting better.

Overall, I hope this diary will help me to track my transformation from debtor to saver. Circa £9000 seems astronomical at times, but once it's gone I'll be 100% debt free (barring student loan).

That's an incredible motivation for me, and I hope to achieve it within the not too far flung future.

Wish me luck!

louby40

Good luck and well done for starting a diary it's a good motivator to keep going.

Perpetual_Miser

Slight set-back today:

Having received a statement in the post, the Satsuma amount outstanding is actually £836.96. They have added the interest for the entire term onto the starting balance which I did not take into account.

This puts my revised total outstanding at:

£9510.47

Not a huge increase, but still a bit of a downer.

On the plus side, the Satsuma debt has still decreased overall and they don't appear to have any problem with my current payment plan.

Onwards and upwards!

fourthtimelucky

Good luck, similar story to mine with living beyond means and bad money management. The clarity of having it all written down does seem to help.

nextyeartina

Could you not write to Satsuma asking them to stop interest?




Tina x

MyLastFiver

Welcome and good luck. You're in this for the long haul! What's your debt-free date?

Perpetual_Miser

Unfortunately the interest was pre-calculated and added to the total from the start.

Because of this I don't think I'm in a position to dispute it.

Could be worth a try though?

Perpetual_Miser

So I've made an extra payment of £20 towards the Wonga loan (in addition to my usual monthly DMP amount).

My reason for doing this is that I'm targeting the payday loans first, as I consider them to be the worst/most risky.

It's a good feeling to be able to pay off a bit extra for the first time in almost a year.

Will update my totals accordingly!

StokieBecks

Perpetual Miser

Have you had lots of payday loans? If so I recommend you find the post on the debt free wannabeboard about reclaiming money from pay dayloan lenders and also have a read of debt camel and their templates for reclaiming some of the interest on your payday loans. I am not saying you will definitely get a result but I think you should look into it and see if it may apply to you (advance warning this is not a quick process but may help you a little more long term if you could get some redress or existing balances wiped)

Perpetual_Miser

StokieBecks wrote: »

Perpetual Miser

Have you had lots of payday loans? If so I recommend you find the post on the debt free wannabeboard about reclaiming money from pay dayloan lenders and also have a read of debt camel and their templates for reclaiming some of the interest on your payday loans. I am not saying you will definitely get a result but I think you should look into it and see if it may apply to you (advance warning this is not a quick process but may help you a little more long term if you could get some redress or existing balances wiped)

Yes, I managed to pay off a few - sometimes by rolling them over/taking out loans with different lenders. This happened until the bubble burst. I've had a quick tally-up and around £3,500 of my current outstanding debt is with payday loan companies, so quite a substantial amount.

I had a quick read of the information suggested and it seems very promising. I'm particularly keen to give this a go with Satsuma, as I'm still paying off the full term's worth of interest despite the fact that I'm on a DMP.

The other payday companies have frozen interest, but I could claim for interest I've already paid.

Thanks for the advice! This could prove extremely helpful.

Perpetual_Miser

I've had the opportunity to dig a little deeper into my loan history and I think I definitely have strong claims with at least a few of the lenders.

Different Money, for instance, did freeze interest. However, they have not refunded me for interest already paid. Prior to starting my DMP I'd already taken out/settled two loans with them. I will argue that the most recent loan should not have been granted to me as I was clearly in an untenable position financially (rolling over loans to pay off others, resulting in defaults).

I will be sending them an e-mail tonight outlining this position and making a formal complaint and requesting a refund for interest paid. If successful, I'm hoping to reduce the outstanding sum by around £200 on this loan.

There are similar claims that I will be making on the other loans. Whether I will have any success with this I don't know, but I do genuinely feel that I have strong evidence to prove I was granted loans which I could not afford.