Struggling to meet repayments

Tortured_Soul

I am struggling to meet repayments on my Barclaycard. I currently owe £12157 and my limit is £12000. I stupidly let them keep increasing my limit and spending up to it, and now added charges are taking me over it. I am overdrawn at the bank by £800 (I have one of those accounts where you pay for privileges and an overdraft) and I am getting charges as I am past my agreed overdraft limit. I am losing sleep with worry about not being able to reduce the debt as my wage is barely above the minimum pay rate, and it is also affecting my health. I just wish I had never got a credit card in the first place.

sourcrates

Hi,

I've moved your post to the general DFWB forum, where, hopefully you will get a few more responses.
In the meantime, as previously advised, an SOA (statement of affairs) is the start of the process, so if you'd like to crack on with that, then the good forumites will be able to offer advice to you.

Link here :

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

glasgowm148

Call StepChange or use their online tool: (Calling is better as they can give you personalised advice)

https://www.stepchange.org/

This will let you make monthly repayments you can afford.

The general advice ontop of that is cut out all spending you can & try and increase your income.

Tortured_Soul

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 3
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 0

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1112
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1112

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 380
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 0
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 32.18
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 10
Groceries etc. ......................... 80
Clothing................................ 30
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 50
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 5
Entertainment........................... 60
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 667.18


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

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Credit card....................12157.6...330.......25.6
Overdraft......................800.......0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........12957.6...330.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,112
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 667.18
Available for debt repayments........... 444.82
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 330
Amount left after debt repayments....... 114.82

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -12,957.6
Net Assets.............................. -12,957.6

Created using the SOA calculator
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

It shows no utilities as these are included in the rent (board).
I have no assets.
Live with pensioner parents.
I am over my credit card limit (£12000)
I pay for my bank account (£18/month)
Currently paying fees on my credit card ((£12) and bank account (£16-£24)

Where do I go from here?

Tortured_Soul

Cheers, guys. Started with the SOA. Let's see what happens next.

National_Debtline

Hi

Your spending is generally on the low side so I can see why you’re feeling stretched. Are the utility bills included in your rent?

EDIT - sorry, you did actually clarify that you're boarding with your parents.

Entertainment is the only thing that stands out to me as being a bit high relative to your other outgoings such as the low housekeeping figure. You could also try to reduce your mobile phone bill.

Ideally you need to be able to allocate more towards anything you need to ensure your budget is sustainable, perhaps housekeeping and other bits and bobs such as an emergency fund, and then look at reducing your debt payments. One way to do that is a free debt management plan (DMP), which is what glasgowm148 was suggesting.

If you contact Stepchange they can set up a free DMP where you make one affordable payment each month and they deal with your creditors for you. Often interest is frozen too. The only real downside is that you’ll default on your debts which will have a negative impact on your credit history for 6 years. That probably isn’t too much of a big deal at the moment if you can’t afford your debt payments anyway.

James
@natdebtline

nkkingston

The first thing is do you really have £114 left in your bank account at the end of every month? if not, you need to figure out where that money is actually going. Get out your bank statements for the last three months and go through them. Now's a good time because you'll cover Christmas in it: you've budgeted £2400 a year for presents, but I suspect you're not actually putting that aside, and just spending in lumps, which means it may not reflect your actual spending. I wonder if £80 a month on groceries is right, too - if you're living with your parents it's easy to fall into the habit of doing a high proportion of top up shops because you're the one who's walking past the corner shop on the way home from work. Have you and your parents ever budgeted as a household? It can be an awkward thing to do, but living with your parents doesn't have to be different to living with flatmates or a partner - you want to share a standard of living and you have different means available to support that, so you need to decide what's a reasonable contribution from each party.

Sit down and figure out if the fee charging account is saving or costing you money. Are you paying for perks you don't use, like far flung travel insurance? If your utilities are in your rent, are you getting any cashback from bill paying? I think there's a good chance this isn't the best bank account for you right now. Close the account and open a new basic one with a different bank to your credit card (very important! if it's the same bank they can empty your current account to pay your credit card). Basic accounts do not have overdrafts or any credit facilities, so don't involve a credit check.

Tortured_Soul

I could do with getting rid of the current account, really, as I don't need the 'perks' they offer. However, I'm usually maxed out with the overdraft at the end of every month trying to keep on top of things, so I don't know how I would be able to close the account and move to a different bank. There are things I can cut out, mostly music and gig related as I do a radio show and often need to go to gigs for interviews and reviews - this involves travel fares and sometimes tickets.

Dobbibill

Tortured_Soul wrote: »

I could do with getting rid of the current account, really, as I don't need the 'perks' they offer. However, I'm usually maxed out with the overdraft at the end of every month trying to keep on top of things, so I don't know how I would be able to close the account and move to a different bank.

You can downgrade your account, contact your bank and they will arrange for this to be done.

You won't be able to close your account while it's overdrawn but a basic account will help you to budget and you will then be able to put a set amount into the account with the overdraft for the bills, but also the fees for using the overdraft, and any amount you are going to put towards paying the overdraft off. This will keep your spending money separate in the basic account.

MrsTinks

Tortured_Soul wrote: »

There are things I can cut out, mostly music and gig related as I do a radio show and often need to go to gigs for interviews and reviews - this involves travel fares and sometimes tickets.

SO... you are self employed?

You might want to see where you are with making sure you can claim some of this back? if the show is a hobby then I'm sorry it probably needs to take a back seat for a while. Sorry but debts need addressing...

Can you increase your income? better job/second job?