Small Steps Out Of Massive Debt!

GeorgianaCavendish

Nearly everyone from my office has been asked to work from home next week, they will have a skeleton staff running to keep the place ticking over but 90% of us will be out of the office and we are expecting to receive more news tomorrow about the plan beyond next week. 

Today I am spring cleaning and making sure that I have an "office" (kitchen table!) space set up for tomorrow. I've already tested that I can access all the systems I need from home, and I've rescheduled meetings to Skype or phone calls. Not much else to do now!

I have been able to get my normal shopping in Wilkos (cleaning supplies, laundry detergent etc) but the local Tesco has more and more gaps on the shelves - cleaning supplies, soap, pasta, pasta sauce and now eggs have all been sold out for days. I asked one of the staff if people are buying it up every day but they said it is because the store is still receiving their usual number and type of deliveries so certain things are not being restocked to cater to the new demand. This is a small high street Tesco though and we are lucky in that there are a lot of alternatives close by, but I wonder how much of the empty shelves is the logistical side of things being slower to respond to the change in demand. 

GeorgianaCavendish

Naomim said:

I'd be interested to know too as I was thinking of doing a money transfer for the balance of the overdraft. 

Naomim 

I put a question in the Credit Cards forum about this and was told that no, Money Transfers are not treated the same way as cash withdrawals on credit cards.
I wish I had a money transfer balance on one of my credit cards so that I could check if it appears differently on my MSE Credit Club Credit Report (there is a space for "cash advances" on the report, but I think this is withdrawals from ATMs ... I don't have any of those either so I can't tell for sure!) I might try ringing Experian customer services if I can't find anything else online. 

astrocytic_kitten

That’s really interesting @GeorgianaCavendish. I’ve been thinking of doing a credit card money transfer for the balance of my loan (if the offer is still there in a few months when I’ll be ready to do it) and I’ve been wondering about the implications for my credit. I’ll hopefully be getting a new mortgage in a year or so. It’s so hard to find any information on though, and I’ve never done a money transfer before so don’t have anything to check either.

GeorgianaCavendish

Ahh! Hold the phone! I remembered that I did a £660 money transfer from my MBNA account back in July 2017 to pay off a catalog debt. Looking back through my Credit Report for the relevant time period I can't see any cash advances showing up, so it would seem that it wasn't flagged then. 

Edited to add : I decided that instead of getting more and more anxious, I should just call Tesco and ask them. They said that all they do not report money transfers the same way as cash withdrawals from a credit card, and that there would be no marker to indicate that a money transfer has been made, so that is a weight off my mind! 

DrSpendingLittle

Just to follow up, I remembered that I did a money transfer in early 2017 from my barclaycard into my Barclays Bank account (to clear an old student overdraft) and it is showing on my credit club credit record as a cash advance. 

GeorgianaCavendish

I wonder if it depends on the card issuer? Seems strange that there is a variance though! 

GeorgianaCavendish

It feels like much longer than 8 days since I last updated, so much has changed. I hope that everyone is staying safe in these very strange and scary times. 
I'm doing ok so far. DH and I are both able to work from home & after technical teething problems last week, we are back to normal working hours. Both sets of parents are self-isolating as in at-risk categories and have good stocks of food and medicine to keep them going for the next couple of weeks. I spent extra money sending a few things to my parents (including a Fire tablet so that we can Skype) and some costs will be higher because we're staying in all day and we're spending a bit more on groceries because the cheaper brands aren't often available (and I can't get to my beloved Aldi - I usually go on my way home from work and would need to get the tube, which seems like an unneeded risk right now) but I'm counting myself fortunate that we are all healthy and are able to meet our bills etc. 
I won't be posting too much on this diary while this is going on, but I'll be popping over on The Diary & Teacake thread  

EssexHebridean

I think counting our small fortunes on the "healthy and can manage" fronts is what a lot of us will be doing for the next little while GC. Catch you in the "cafe" for a brew then! 

GeorgianaCavendish

EssexHebridean said:

I think counting our small fortunes on the "healthy and can manage" fronts is what a lot of us will be doing for the next little while GC. Catch you in the "cafe" for a brew then! 

Thank you for setting up the cafe! it's a great resource for us all  

GeorgianaCavendish

I'm feeling a bit more resilient today so I have a few more MSE style updates. 

I was able to clear the last of the Tesco balance this month as scheduled. 

I have been able to transfer my Barclaycard balance over to MBNA (0% until April 2021) ; and after paying off the Tesco balance I did a money transfer (also 0% until April 2021) to pay off the PayPal balance. I was debating about the money transfer and the potential impact on my credit file, but ultimately decided that it was worth the hit to stop incurring interest. All my debt is now on 0% 

Our plans to move house have officially been shelved for 2020. We didn't have anywhere lined up, we wouldn't be in a position to even look at properties for at least 12 weeks and the urgency was moving before the summer. If we are stuck here for another summer then we should do what we can to make it as comfortable as possible (purchasing additional fans now before they are the next thing that is panic bought!) and lean in to the decision. We are ok for the moment, both able to do our jobs from home so no change to income but who knows what will happen in the next 3, 6, 12 months as this situation develops, so it seems more sensible to stay in this place with lower bills etc and kick the moving decision down the road a bit.

Financial focus at the moment has shifted to building up our emergency fund, but also continuing with debt busting (but a more low-key effort as EF comes first) and revisiting budgets in a couple of weeks when the 'new normal' has been established.