Natwest debt collection forced lightbulb moment!

random__hero005

Hello everyone.

My name is matt, i'm a student at plymouth university and i have debts (not including student loans) of £4100. My SOA is not so good, and i just wanted to tell someone.

I had a lovely phone call from a not-to-articulate chap from natwest this evening asking me to give him £1250 (the amount i'm overdrawn by), or else he would default my bank account, which apparently isn't good for credit ratings. After about half an hour talking with him and my parents, trying to work out what was going on, my parents reluctantly agreed to pay the amount, on the agreement that I return the money to them on saturday when my account & overdraft are reactivated.

Needless to say, it's entirely my own fault, as all I had to do was credit my account occasionally to avoid this mess. Unfortunately, I was ignoring the problem, hoping it would go away. (It doesn't however much i hope it would.)

Paying back the debt is something I've been avoiding for a while, but now I know i need to start and stop avoiding it, else it's gonna ruin me.

My SOA:

Monthly income =

work - £425

Monthly Outgoings =

rent - £0 (spoke to parents, they want me to clear my debts first, i'm v.lucky to have them)
mobile phone - £15
travel to university - £80
food - £100
newspapers - £3
save the children - £8
kickboxing - £12
other - £50

total - £268 (i'm hoping this will be my new montly expenditure amount from now on)

Debts =

hsbc overdraft - £1000 (0% student overdraft)
natwest overdraft - £1250 (0% student overdraft)
halifax credit card - £1350 (15.9% APR)
hsbc credit card - £500 (18.9% APR)
my brother - £160 (the worst debt as i told him i'd pay him back 2 weeks ago)

total - £4260

Nobody knew until I had to tell my parents today. It's rubbish, as it's all I ever really think about, which isn't good for the old mental processes. I tell my girlfriend that i don't want to go into my overdraft when the reality is i have literally £0 to my name. This week i haven't eaten while at university because i wanted to join the mountaneering society (£20). Plus i have no funds to actually get to uni next week, let alone eat, and i have a credit card bill to pay on monday, which is kind of rubbish as well. The worst thing is I've been so stupid and done this all to myself.

But i'm gonna hopefully change that ASAP. I snowball calculated my debt, it will take me 29 months to pay it all off if i pay £150 a month, which i think i can manage, or at least try.

Wish me luck!

liz105

Is the £1250 natwest overdraft authorised? if so, why did they want it back so suddenly????!!!! Is it because nothing has gone into it for ages? Im curious...

Regards the SOA, save the children needs to go I think, & read your newspapers online.

can you take food to uni? make you own lunch etc? assuming from your comments that you are living at home and travelling each day so have the facilities there at home to use. Take advantage. cook pasta salads, leftovers, sandwiches etc. you could get that £100 down to £40 easily, so thats £60+£8+£3 = £71 to go towards debts already.

CLAPTON

what happens to your student loan?

random__hero005

thanks for th advice liz 105. the overdraft had been dormant for too long, i basically was hiding from my debts by not opening letters, which was a mistake. i'm going to put the food idea into practice, i think thats one place i could save a lot of money.
clapton my student loan merely covers my tuition fees,