Solution found

PJJ_2

I posted on here a while ago that I had a lot of debt. I had some great advice and thought I would update you on what I have done.


To remind you of the situation: I had debts of £46k due to Uni and general cash flow problems (borrowing from Peter to pay Paul but forgetting to pay Paul back etc.)

I had approxiamately :

£17k as a loan from EGG
22K on Credit cards/Overdrafts
5k on a Corporate Card
1k on another Corporate Card

I earnt £2800 a month after tax.


I have done the following. Due to my credit rating my Mum has taken out a loan for 6.3% per Annum for £15k.


The first debt I have cleared is HSBC O/D as I am going to try and claim back all the charges since opening my account in October 2001. This O/D was £1500 at 16% APR a year.

I found that my biggest credit cards like Goldfish, Virgin, BOS were between 14% and 19% they were far cheaper(lol) than my smaller debts that were 20%-29%!!!

So I am in the process this week on removing these debts first.


I have a number of questions:

1) I am being pushed by A+L to get £10 a month insurance for sickness/critical cover. They are trying a guilt trip of "if you die your mum is stuck" line. I said I wanted cover for £15k only they have given me cover for £48k claiming if I die they will come after my family for my debts!!
2) Are Bank Charges worth claiming back or possible now there is a test case?
3) Should I close my credit cards after I have paid the debt off - is there scope to get 0%etc to reduce the interest rates on my debts further?

All advice welcome no matter how cruel!

trying-very-trying

Sorry can't be of much help, but
1)I would think they could only claim against the 15k that is in your mothers name.
2)I would like to know the answer to this myself.
3)I would definitely close the accounts once cleared.

Mindspace

Cut up all the credit cards and close the accounts. No matter what we may think now of not spending no more on credit cards, when the flash point comes its out of our hands. CC'S are designed to make you spend!!! Do It! you'll feel good about it!

Reg Bank charges, My personal opinion is that there is a 70% chance test case will be in favour of the consumer from what i know. I may be wrong, but if i were u i would think they are possible to claim back.

HSBC tried to sell me same sort of thing, when i took a loan from them. I felt given my age and health condition it was unnecessary. So refused to take it.
It depends on your confidence and circumstances. Have a good think through! Hope this helps!

RAS

Some thoughts

PJJ wrote: »

Due to my credit rating my Mum has taken out a loan for 6.3% per Annum for £15k.


The first debt I have cleared is HSBC O/D as I am going to try and claim back all the charges since opening my account in October 2001. This O/D was £1500 at 16% APR a year.

I found that my biggest credit cards like Goldfish, Virgin, BOS were between 14% and 19% they were far cheaper(lol) than my smaller debts that were 20%-29%!!!

So I am in the process this week on removing these debts first.


I have a number of questions:

1) I am being pushed by A+L to get £10 a month insurance for sickness/critical cover. They are trying a guilt trip of "if you die your mum is stuck" line. I said I wanted cover for £15k only they have given me cover for £48k claiming if I die they will come after my family for my debts!!

If you die and your estate is not enough to cover your debts, they will not pass to your family. It does mean that your family will get nothing from your estate, but are they expecting to and do they expect you to pop your clogs in the time scale concerned?

Do you have any sort of in-service death grant with your pension arrangments anyway?

What is more worrying is that your mum has taken out debts on your behalf, as these would remain for her to pay if you died or lost your job (they are her debts not yours). If you want to cover her in case anything happens get a small amount of decreasing term insurance for the period of the loan. Since you are reasonabley well paid, you might be better looking at short term stand alone PPI to cover tha amount.


2) Are Bank Charges worth claiming back or possible now there is a test case?

Yes, get it started even if it then get put aside until after the court case.

3) Should I close my credit cards after I have paid the debt off - is there scope to get 0%etc to reduce the interest rates on my debts further?

Close the cards when you pay them off, unless they offer any sort of incentive like a really low balance transfer that you can use. Less credit will make it easier to get better deals over time.