Challenge Debra...life goes on

hign10pines

Just been sorting out my OH's tax codes HMRC had his bank job as the main tax code (which is was up to July) and the new perm job as BR. Sent them income estimates online and they came back with a tax code of 788L!!! Claiming he owes 531 tax. Been on online chat and think I have sorted it (I hope) otherwise he misses out on around £200 per month!

We jointly have £5300 on credit cards to pay off (1300 + 4000). Paying £100 a month to each between us isn't too bad.

enthusiasticsaver

It looks like your budget will be fairly tight with a significant proportion of your income going towards debt repayment. Is it feasible to delay going to University for a year and throw everything at reducing your debt?

Is it right that your £5500 loan has only reduced by around £500 in one year in spite of paying almost £150 per month? What interest rate are you being charged on that?

hign10pines

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

It looks like your budget will be fairly tight with a significant proportion of your income going towards debt repayment. Is it feasible to delay going to University for a year and throw everything at reducing your debt?

Is it right that your £5500 loan has only reduced by around £500 in one year in spite of paying almost £150 per month? What interest rate are you being charged on that?

My loan started August 2016 and interest is between £81-95 each month.I think it's 29.9%!

One thing I have noticed is that I cancelled my direct debit set up from my natwest current account to the loan and set it up from my lloyd account. Ther is still a payment going to my loan from somewhere at natwest then being taken back out as an unpaid direct debit! It's not from my account so I'm not quite sure what is going on. Maybe I should just transfer the amount to my natwest current account each payday and cancel the lloyds direct debit

In fact the status of the direct debit is 'cancelled' but the last requested date is 3rd July 2017!

hign10pines

Think I'm going to re-evaluate my finances Jan 2018 to see where I stand. You never know, I may get a balance increase on one of my cards to pay of a loan at a much lower APR. Or be able to re-finance my natwest loan.

Natwest loan 4937 @ 20.9 APR @ 148 per month for 5 years (4 to go)
Credit Union 1500 @ 42.6 APR @ 120 per month for 22 months (20 to go)
Avant 2000 @ 49.9 APR @ 92 per month for 36 months (36 to go)

I wait for the day I can get a 0% credit card! I have 2-3 years left of defaults before I have a clean credit history, by that point I'll be down to one loan and wont need it lol

hign10pines

Social events left in July:

17th - Toy fair
21st - Beer festival

hign10pines

What is best to have loan, credit card or overdraft? Does it just depend on the APR?

hign10pines

Yay have interview for a theatre role! It would mean commuting therefore travel costs and a hard look at my finances.

Sometimes I feel that I should just get an office job (or 2 part time) even if it's less than I make now, start a DMP and a 6 year STEM Open Uni degree, in either sport & fitness or IT.

I just don't think I'll ever see the back of this debt, at least this way I'll have a clean credit file by the time I finish my degree.

hign10pines

Been thinking I don't really need to think abouut my credit union loan. It gets paid through my wage (gross) and I budget everything from my net wage.

Loan balances (estimates) at end of Jan

Natwest - £4531/550
Credit Union - £1234/1705
Avant - £1919/2000

I'm thinking it is best if I concentrate on the Avant loan and try to pay an extra £10-20 per month. Had another thought I'm going to *try* to make an over payment of the previous months interest.

It is a nice feeling that if I can keep up the normal payments I'll be debt free by the time I finish uni. If I go into a DMP (can't do a DRO, I live in rented) it could be 3+ years after finishing uni that I'm debt free.

I wanted to potentially buy a house by the age of 44, meaning in 9 years times. Would that even be possible with a DMP? The free companies seem to be very restricted with allowances for various things. If I go this route I will do a self managed one, aiming to be clear when the defaults drop off.

Oh I don't know, it's all very confusing

Todays plans

Dismantle the wardrobe so can get the new one up tomorrow
Micropub as a reward

hign10pines

So I have decided to stop investing in the fund where I already have 100 units.This will free up £50 that I can then pay into the Avant loan.

hign10pines

Snowball calculator would have me paying off both credit union and avant loans Feb 2019 + Natwest loan off by Dec 2019. That is if can keep up the payments.

I have 'save the change' with my bank but I'm not sure what to do with it. Thinking of saving till Jan 18 and maybe paying towards a loan or holiday, maybe it will become my EF.