What to do with £1200

Helvetica_Van_Buren

MallyGirl wrote: »

There are so many threads about people getting the Very interest free deal wrong as the 0% runs out unexpectedly, or not in line with the statement date ...

This is really easy to avoid - plan ahead; check and check again. There's really no excuse.

sourcrates

MallyGirl wrote: »

I'd get rid of the Very account and then put the rest somewhere earning interest until you use it to pay off the next expiring 0%.
There are so many threads about people getting the Very interest free deal wrong as the 0% runs out unexpectedly, or not in line with the statement date, and then you don't just start incurring interest but instead get hit with interest from day 1 at a pretty high APR. I would remove this from my life and never go there again.

And there is a very good reason for this.

Most catalogue accounts run off a statement every 28 days, so your payment due date will differ every month.

Even though most people are paid either month end, or a specific date or day of the month.

Even if your payment is one day late, you are charged £12.

This is a deliberate money making exercise on behalf of the catalogues companies, they make thousands in profit from these charges, plus added fees from late interest payments etc.

There's no buisness reason why they can't run there statements for the full month, it's just a cash cow they keep exploiting, at the customers expence.

f0xh0les

I would also get rid of Very and put the rest onto FD and next month pay FD off entirely - then it is 2 down 3 to go!

Andyjflet

abby1234519 wrote: »

I have just paid off all of my interest bearing debts. I am left with the below

BarclayCard £1,944,72 45 min payment
MBNA £2,162.89 25 payment
HSBC £4,993.89 120 payment
First Direct £1,298.41 41 payment
Very £225.00 0 payment

They are all currently 0%

BarclayCard interest free runs out in 2017, I think MBNA runs out in Nov 2017, First Direct Runs out mid 2017 (not sure on date) and HSBC has another 25 months interest free as well.

Very is 10 months interest free

I have £1200 cash. Do I do the obvious thing and pay off Very (but I'm not currently making a monthly payment to this so it won't really snowball it in a sense) and then allocate the rest to the smallest debt? Debt running out of interest free period first? Spread it evenly? Whats the best method

I have £350 a month allocated to pay the above off which allows for a small snowball as well.

Can you stretch the £1200 to cover the Very debt and the First Direct Card, this would feel very satisfying clearing two debts and push you on further in my opinion.

abby1234519

Ok sooooo I've sort of taken bits of advice....

I've taken £50 off the Very debt just to bring it down a little. I know when the 0% runs out, and I'm going to pay it off 1 or 2 months before - reminder is set. However, I've got a few bits on ebay (old ipad, computer etc) and will use anything I make to chip more bits off it. Just got an email to say my credit account has been increased to £1300. No please don't do that!!

I've reduced the First Direct Card down to £700 and then I've kept the rest of the money to one side. After messing around I've got about £7-800 left? Need to work out exactly - just waiting for rest of the payments to leave my account.

BarclayCard 1944.72
MBNA 2162.89
HSBC 4993.89
First Direct 798.41
Very £175

Is left - all 0% at the moment. It's still over 10k but down from 22k so that's an achievement for me!! After all the mistakes I've made over the last 8 years

Question - Should I make sure all credit accounts that now have no balance are completely closed? I don't have a good credit rating - am worried that I won't get another 0% deal next year. How can I try to get the likelihood up? For instance the HSBC card has a limit of 5.5k with 4993 balance, that is quite high - this would have a negative impact surely? So should I focus snowballing that or is it better to get rid of the smallest one first? For example clearing First Direct and then asking them for a new 0% deal when I need it.

abby1234519

So this is my SOA. It's accurate - I've looked through it to see if there is any room to squeeze more money out of it to get rid of debt faster and well I don't think there is really. I have missed Netflix off though just realised. We have netflix as we don't pay for sky tv or virgin tv.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1436
Partners monthly income after tax....... 631
Benefits................................ 251
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2318


Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 600
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 190
Electricity............................. 65
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 43
Telephone (land line)................... 31.5
Mobile phone............................ 44
TV Licence.............................. 13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 28
Car Insurance........................... 59
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 50
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 50
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 20
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 10
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 7
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 90
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Pocket Money............................ 35
University Funds........................ 100
Company Social.......................... 10
Total monthly expenses.................. 1765.5


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 2000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 2000

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
All credit cards at 0..........10000.....300.......0
Student finance................1300......10........0
Husbands PayPlan........................12000.....105.......0
Total unsecured debts..........23300.....415.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,318
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,765.5
Available for debt repayments........... 552.5
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 415
Amount left after debt repayments....... 137.5

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 2,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -23,300
Net Assets.............................. -21,300

MallyGirl

hi - my only comment would be do you really spend £90 a month on haircuts?

abby1234519

MallyGirl wrote: »

hi - my only comment would be do you really spend £90 a month on haircuts?

Whoops should be £45!! So no....I don't

anna_1977

what are the Uni funds of £100 per month for?

Muttipops

This is just an aside to the haircuts bit, but I pay £19 every six weeks for 4 of us to have our haircut by using a mobile hairdresser; they are much cheaper as they don't have the overheads of a salon to pay for.