To consolidate or not

enthusiasticsaver

the overdrafts are the smallest but difficult ones to pay off (that's what my head is saying as its easy to dip back into)

The best way to solve this is to open a basic, fee free account with NO OVERDRAFT and have your wages paid in there and reduce the overdrafts alongside credit cards by monthly payments.

DCFC79

lovelylass wrote: »

We are just hoping our son gets into a good secondary school, as the ones by us are terrible. It would also be good for him to be with his friends but again we have screwed this up!

so here goes the SOA - I've always been too frightened to face doing this hence the delay.

Salary Adult 1 £1717
Salary Adult 2 £1600
Child Benefit £82.80 (always keep this separate to pay for son's birthday and Christmas)

outgoing
Swimming club £20.50
Netflicks £7.49 - going to cancel That's good
Rent £450
Debt management £20 (old debt management - partners from 15 years ago) Its only £20 a month but its still £20, what are the DM doing for him
Water £51.81
Gas £70.00
elec £56.00
Tv licence £12.12
Sky £73.68 (reduced now to £50) Could get rid of this and get yourself a Now TV box or continue with Netflix, depends what you watch, if you watch the soaps could you do without them ?
Mob phone 1 £75.60 (reduced now to £45) How close to end of its contract is it ? reduce it considerably.
Mob phone 2 £56.50 (reduced to £45) As above
Mob phone 3 £9.99 As above
Home insurance £23.91 (cheapest for shopping around)
Gym £9.99 (being cancelled despite being used)
Council Tax £89
Spec savers £15.50
Car Service plan £23.08
Household appliance insurance £59.98 (2 policies and ageing items) Id get rid of this, if you get your finances in order you could set up a savings account to stick say £10 a month for an appliance needing replaced.
Car insurance £56.30 (again shopped around and this was cheapest)

Debt
Family loan £200 pm (£4400 outstanding)
Santander loan £552.73 pm (£3791.70 outstanding)
Asda visa £250 pm (£7578.61 outstanding)
Santander visa £96.08 pm (2959.17 outstanding)
Barclaycard visa £179.64 (£7496.14 outstanding)

Overdrafts
Santander £1000 £5 account fee
Natwest £3000 £16 account fee £47 interest and £6 OD usuage
Halifax £1000 £15 account fee and £22 OD fee

Total Income £3317
total outgoing £2570.90

this does not include food, hair, petrol (although that's about £100 pm) dog insurance (got to get it)

Seems Ive pointed out some of the same outgoings as others.

Really should include food, hair, petrol, pet insurance so it gives a better picture.

Do you find you have £746 left each month, well probably not as food etc not included.

lovelylass_2

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

How much are you reducing the overdrafts if at all?

Focus your attention on the highest interest rate charging debt and pay it off first while paying minimum on the others. Snowball and find out debt free date by using snowball calculator.

the loan finishes March 2017 which will free up£553
we use the whole of the overdrafts each month - so no reduction

We've had the credit cards for sometime so the interest rate will be high. I'm going to get the statements out as the online account is not showing the interest rate.

lovelylass_2

DCFC79 wrote: »

Seems Ive pointed out some of the same outgoings as others.

Really should include food, hair, petrol, pet insurance so it gives a better picture.

Do you find you have £746 left each month, well probably not as food etc not included.

Food is normally around £350, hair is £40 (for 3 of us), petrol £100 and dog insurance I've got to purchase the plan as the trial is up so not sure at the moment.

We have been having a lot of take aways but this has now stopped.

We rang up sky yesterday and got the tv, phone and internet reduced to £50 so don't think we will be able to cancel. Mob 2 & 3 expire Sept 2017 and then we will move onto a sim only card. mob 1 has only just been taken out so another 2 years.

MrsSave

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

The best way to solve this is to open a basic, fee free account with NO OVERDRAFT and have your wages paid in there and reduce the overdrafts alongside credit cards by monthly payments.

Was just about to make the same comment. Get a new, basic bank account with no overdraft. Get your wages paid into it. Get rid of debit cards from overdrawn account and then just pay the overdrafts off as you would the credit card debts.

I'd use this link for the soa, and fill it in completely to give you a full picture.

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

Good luck.

DCFC79

lovelylass wrote: »

Food is normally around £350, hair is £40 (for 3 of us), petrol £100 and dog insurance I've got to purchase the plan as the trial is up so not sure at the moment.

We have been having a lot of take aways but this has now stopped.

We rang up sky yesterday and got the tv, phone and internet reduced to £50 so don't think we will be able to cancel. Mob 2 & 3 expire Sept 2017 and then we will move onto a sim only card. mob 1 has only just been taken out so another 2 years.

OK so 2 mobiles are up for renewal next year.

Can't comment if you would be allowed to cancel Sky if you reduced it to £50, no harm in asking them is there.

Where is it you shop ? You looked at shopping elsewhere eg Aldi etc ?

[Deleted User]

lovelylass wrote: »

I agree that the consolidation seems a quick win - bit like winning the lotto to clear off the debt.

Unfortunately, unlike winning the Lottery, a consolidation loan doesn't clear the debt. It just moves it.

You can't borrow your way out of debt.

enthusiasticsaver

Can you speak to the banks with which you hold the overdrafts and see if you can get them downgraded. It looks like you are paying for the Halifax ultimate reward account which gives you very little for your £15 per month and is charging you £1 per day for your overdraft. If you have the Santander 123 account then make sure all your utilities/council tax are paid from that to at least cancel out the fee. Same goes for Nat West, see if you can get the account downgraded. You seem to have gone for every fee paying account out there and as far as I can see are getting very little benefit of any use to you. What you need are low overdraft charges and no fees.

[Deleted User]

lovelylass wrote: »

Salary Adult 1 £1717
Salary Adult 2 £1600
Child Benefit £82.80 (always keep this separate to pay for son's birthday and Christmas) - This is almost £1,000pa, on Christmas and Birthdays, for one person. :eek: I suggest you divert some of this, to cover things like the Swimming club.

outgoing
Swimming club £20.50
Netflicks £7.49 - going to cancel
Rent £450
Debt management £20 (old debt management - partners from 15 years ago)
Water £51.81
Gas £70.00 - This and the Electricity adds up to £126pm, or £1,512pa. :eek: Check comparison sites and cut back.
elec £56.00
Tv licence £12.12
Sky £73.68 (reduced now to £50) - This is still £600pa. Cancel ASAP and go Freeview or Freesat.
Mob phone 1 £75.60 (reduced now to £45) - The three phones are costing you £100pm, or £1,200pa. Go PAYG/sim only on the first two ASAP.
Mob phone 2 £56.50 (reduced to £45)
Mob phone 3 £9.99
Home insurance £23.91 (cheapest for shopping around)
Gym £9.99 (being cancelled despite being used)
Council Tax £89
Spec savers £15.50 - £186pa seems a lot.
Car Service plan £23.08
Household appliance insurance £59.98 (2 policies and ageing items)
Car insurance £56.30 (again shopped around and this was cheapest)

Debt
Family loan £200 pm (£4400 outstanding)
Santander loan £552.73 pm (£3791.70 outstanding)
Asda visa £250 pm (£7578.61 outstanding)
Santander visa £96.08 pm (2959.17 outstanding)
Barclaycard visa £179.64 (£7496.14 outstanding)

Overdrafts
Santander £1000 £5 account fee
Natwest £3000 £16 account fee £47 interest and £6 OD usuage
Halifax £1000 £15 account fee and £22 OD fee

Total Income £3317
total outgoing £2570.90

this does not include food, hair, petrol (although that's about £100 pm) dog insurance (got to get it)

My comments in red.

It's difficult to advise on the debts, without APRs.

There's also quite a bit missing, such as entertainment, holidays, etc.

I suggest you re-post the SOA, using the MSE template.

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

However, just as a starter, paying for the swimming club out of the Child Benefit, getting rid of Netflix, cancelling Sky, and putting the first two mobile phones on £10pm PAYG, will leave an extra £148pm (£1,776pa) in your account, which you can put toward your debts.

If you put it toward the family loan (assuming no interest being charged), you could clear that loan in a year, instead of the current 22 months.

lovelylass_2

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

My comments in red.

It's difficult to advise on the debts, without APRs.

There's also quite a bit missing, such as entertainment, holidays, etc.

I suggest you re-post the SOA, using the MSE template.

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

However, just as a starter, paying for the swimming club out of the Child Benefit, getting rid of Netflix, cancelling Sky, and putting the first two mobile phones on £10pm PAYG, will leave an extra £148pm (£1,776pa) in your account, which you can put toward your debts.

If you put it toward the family loan (assuming no interest being charged), you could clear that loan in a year, instead of the current 22 months.

No interest on the family loan. I'm sorting the apr's for the cards and will post them on here. I will complete the soa that's online but in terms of entertainment, we don't tend to budget for it as we don't budget. We haven't had a family holiday for 5 years and then it's normally a sun £9.50 holiday.