Your ideas

QuietOne

Hi guys, long time since I last posted and my last post was to celebrate being debt free. Now that's not the case but it's pretty minimal compared to what a lot of you guys are going through.

I have two balances on two credit cards, both interest free until middle of next year.

Barclaycard £1,700 at 0%
Virgin credit card £1,900 at 0%

My SOA is pretty short.

Income £1,300 p/m
Rent £500 p/m
Broadband £46 p/m
Phone £40 p/m
Barclaycard £100 p/m
Virgin £100 p/m

I had other debts which are now paid off, hence paying £100 on each card.

My question is, should I pay the same amount on each card every month (£300/£300)? or or minimum on one and the rest on another? Probably a stupid question but I wanted opinions from others.

Allocating £600 for the cc will leave me with just over £100 for myself for the month which I can do.

enjoyyourshoes

Can you save in a high interest current account the ammonite per month required to pay off the full 0% balances by the time the term ends?

The you will have the cash to pay off the whole lot plus any accrued interest.

If its over 1 year look at maxing out some regular savers that will mature before the 0% term ends? If not a high interest account as described.

QuietOne

enjoyyourshoes wrote: »

Can you save in a high interest current account the ammonite per month required to pay off the full 0% balances by the time the term ends?

The you will have the cash to pay off the whole lot plus any accrued interest.

If its over 1 year look at maxing out some regular savers that will mature before the 0% term ends? If not a high interest account as described.

Never thought of that, just pay the minimum every month and put the rest in savings. I will check Virgin's interest free period. Barclaycard is until July 2018.

EDIT.

Just checked virgin and it ends on 13th of March 2019.

Bumblebear

Hello QuietOne :wave:


When you say "middle of next year" - do you know the exact dates? Your signature says Barclaycard 0% 'til November 18?


This may sound harsh, but I mean it kindly, and I mean it as someone who has peaked and troughed between debt, and nearly-out-of-debt-but-not-quite, back to debt again ALL my adult life. You've been debt free before, what happened to get you back into debt? What did you spend £3,600 on?


I ask this pertinently as you've said you're OK living on £100 a month - but not given any details of any transport costs (how do you get to work, social things, go shopping?), personal insurances, clothing, haircuts, presents to buy etc. If you're throwing £600 a month at your debt you'll be clear in 6 months. But you're talking about £100 a month for all the food you're going to eat, transport to get anywhere you need to go, toiletries you need to maintain hygiene, cleaning products to maintain your home and health, medicines (OK, I generally survive on 40p ibuprofen, ready salted crisps and a hot water bottle, but you get my drift!). I like sums, so I'll point out that's 182 (and a half) weeks to survive on £600. That is tight, and depending how you've spent the £3,600 it could be a massive change in your standard of living.


I completely understand the desire to live like a saint to clear this, I have been there, I get it. It's almost like wearing a financial hair shirt. But it's so hard to do and if you slip up, will you give in slip up big time?


I'm making both points together here, because depending on the answer to the first point, have you really addressed the reasons for over-spending to get you in £3,600 of debt?


I applaud everyone for dealing with their debts and making sacrifices to deal with them, but do make sure you can survive, look after yourself. I say that from my own personal experience.

QuietOne

Bumblebear wrote: »

Hello QuietOne :wave:


When you say "middle of next year" - do you know the exact dates? Your signature says Barclaycard 0% 'til November 18?


This may sound harsh, but I mean it kindly, and I mean it as someone who has peaked and troughed between debt, and nearly-out-of-debt-but-not-quite, back to debt again ALL my adult life. You've been debt free before, what happened to get you back into debt? What did you spend £3,600 on?


I ask this pertinently as you've said you're OK living on £100 a month - but not given any details of any transport costs (how do you get to work, social things, go shopping?), personal insurances, clothing, haircuts, presents to buy etc. If you're throwing £600 a month at your debt you'll be clear in 6 months. But you're talking about £100 a month for all the food you're going to eat, transport to get anywhere you need to go, toiletries you need to maintain hygiene, cleaning products to maintain your home and health, medicines (OK, I generally survive on 40p ibuprofen, ready salted crisps and a hot water bottle, but you get my drift!). I like sums, so I'll point out that's 182 (and a half) weeks to survive on £600. That is tight, and depending how you've spent the £3,600 it could be a massive change in your standard of living.


I completely understand the desire to live like a saint to clear this, I have been there, I get it. It's almost like wearing a financial hair shirt. But it's so hard to do and if you slip up, will you give in slip up big time?


I'm making both points together here, because depending on the answer to the first point, have you really addressed the reasons for over-spending to get you in £3,600 of debt?


I applaud everyone for dealing with their debts and making sacrifices to deal with them, but do make sure you can survive, look after yourself. I say that from my own personal experience.

Hi there,

Just checked Barclaycard and it's until 1st of July 2018, My signature was my previous offer which I took when I applied for the card and now paid off, they offer different interest free BT's every month.

I'm a bit of a PC nerd so I accumulated more debt by buying PC parts with the credit card(s) which I now regret but it's one of life's lessons. I have a tendency to buy on impulse.

As for the £100 a month, I actually live at home still and £500 a month rent is a lot more than what a lot of people I know pay to live at home. But everything is included, so the £100+ a month is for whatever I need. The company I work for you get a company vehicle with a fuel card for business and personal use. I don't pay anything for it, apart from more tax.

I completely understand where you're coming from though. The reason I want to do it this way is to clear it as soon as possible and start saving for a car of my own and not rely on finance or PCP like I did years ago.

The other option is to get my own place too.

Bumblebear

Thank you for clearing that up - if that's £100 for fun and personal items for a limited time then I shall pick my jaw off the floor wish I had a fuel card now! :rotfl:

Are you ready to put a hold on your PC part purchases? I too have made multiple impulse purchases; for me it was on the house. The first purchase might have been legitimate, needed and a good deal, it was typically the other stuff that spiralled off it that was the issue! I have had to change my mindset on this, if something goes wrong, needs mending or replacing, if I don't want to go back into debt I need to accept that I need to fix it myself, put up with it, or repurpose something else. Different product, same problem! Well done for admitting it was an issue though - not easy.

QuietOne

Haha yeah the fuel card has its advantages and that £100 is what I think is a reasonable amount for fun personal stuff. As for buying more PC parts, I can easily hold that off. I am happy with how it is now and I have basically 'moved on' hence in my previous post about getting a car

Your reasons are legitimate though, even if you spiralled from it. It's your home

I'm not afraid to admit any issues as it's the first step to recovery. Well done on becoming debt free too, apart from the mortgage I take it

Bumblebear

The mortgage is big, even with a good size deposit - the joy of living in an expensive part of the country.

My biggest bugbear right now is a broken curtain pole; in the past I would have rushed out to replace it and probably bought something else whilst I was at it. Now I'm making do and will bodge it with gaffer tape soon. It's a curtain pole, it's just not worth going down the slippery slope for, I get that now.

The main thing is there is a solid roof over our heads, running water, and we're warm - what we put underneath the roofs has to come further down the list.

I wish you all the best with your plan, maybe 6 months is good length of time to help you reset, I probably spent 6-8 months clearing the last "oh *****" statements and I think I really understand now.

EssexHebridean

Probably the biggest question here QuietOne is - have you cut up the cards now? Until you learn to curb the impulse buying tendancies you need to accept that you're simply not a good candidate to have a credit card.

Half the battle is that you now regret the spending and understand where it all went wrong - and with the surplus you have you can definitely claw things back relatively fast - hammer the shorter term 0% card first with just minimums to the other, then divert everything to the second one. Close the accounts as and when they are cleared off.

Good luck!

enthusiasticsaver

A couple of red flags have come up to me re your post.

You have said you are an impulse buyer and you got debt free but are now no longer debt free. I would agree you are not really a good fit for a credit card. You have lots of disposable income but from the sound of it little savings which suggests to me you live up to your income.

I think you need the discipline of paying it off every month rather than saving and then being tempted to spend. I would pay £150 to each card which will clear them both but also save £300 towards your car or clearing the card early, whichever you prefer. Tesco current accounts pay 3% up to £3000 so in 10 months you will have that amount and the cards will be cleared in one year so well before the 0% deals finish.

£500 to live at home is a lot. Are you considering moving into your own place at some point? Normally living at home is a good time to save a healthy amount towards cars, flat deposits etc but £500 sounds like you are paying a significant amount towards the household budget. Unless your parents are saving it for you.

QuietOne

EssexHebridean - I still have the cards but haven't physically used them as such. Both accounts I just took advantage of the 0% bt or money transfer. What happened was that I used the Barclaycard 0% interest on money transfer which funded my pc. Then cleared that with a bt on my virgin credit card. I used other credit cards for more pc parts and then transferred the balances to my Barclaycard.

I'll list the cards and credit accounts that I have/had.

Virgin cc £1,900/2,500- active
Barclaycard £1,700/2,500 - active
PayPal credit £0/3,000 - closed as of yesterday
Lloyds cc £0/1,000 - closed as of yesterday
Tesco Clubcard cc £0/1,400 - closed as of yesterday
Metro bank cc £0/1,200 - active and my oldest credit account
Littlewoods £0/1,250 - request to close it yesterday (takes 28 days apparently)

Looking at it. That's a lot of credit.

After the Barclaycard card and virgin accounts are settled. I will be closing them. I will keep the metro bank one as it's my oldest credit account.

Enthusiasticsaver - I see where you're coming from. I'm in two minds whether to throw it all at the cards and pay them off in 6 months or like you say and pay 150 each and save 300 at the same time. Although I want a car but getting my own place should be my priority. The 500 is just what I pay a month towards the budget. It's a lot and would be better off living alone.