22, In Debt.. Need help!

iarniee

Hi,

I'm a 22 year old, currently living at home with my parents.

Job i'm in currently is around £19,000 a year.

I need help with my debt, I've currently got a £1,100 overdraft.

I have 3 credit cards, one with £250 on it, one with £750 on it and the other with £1,000 on it.

I also have a very account with around £700 on it as well.

I take home around £1350 per month after tax, I'm extremely stressed about this situation.

My credit rating is so poor that I can't even get a 0% balance transfer card.

anyone have any suggestions for me?

I need help, ASAP.

sourcrates

Hi,

Your debt is not that high to be honest, what are you "extreamly stressed" about in particular ?

The minimum payments must be less than £60 a month, are you saying you can't service them ?

Is it over spending that's causing you problems ?

I think an SOA is the best place to start :

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

iarniee

sourcrates wrote: »

Hi,

Your debt is not that high to be honest, what are you "extreamly stressed" about in particular ?

The minimum payments must be less than £60 a month, are you saying you can't service them ?

Is it over spending that's causing you problems ?

I think an SOA is the best place to start :

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

I agree, I'm definitely over spending.

I'm worried cause my credit rating is so poor, I want to move out eventually.

StopIt

iarniee wrote: »

I agree, I'm definitely over spending.

I'm worried cause my credit rating is so poor, I want to move out eventually.

Then post an SOA, address your overspending and we can help you find a plan to pay this off before it spirals.

enthusiasticsaver

The best way to improve your credit rating is to make a plan to repay the debts and gradually any defaults will drop off. Have you missed any repayments?

As sourcrates says fill out an soa and we can help you set up a budget. If you are living at home this is the ideal time to sort it out before you are having to cope with debt and high living costs.

You have 5 debts so dig out the interest rates on each one so you can decide which order to repay them in. Are you making at least minimum payments on the credit cards and very account?

If you are overspending, set up a spending diary so you record everything you are spending for now. Cut all expenditure to the bone. Stop buying clothes, personal stuff for a few months until you are on the way to repaying the debt. It is not huge so if you are dedicated this can be gone probably in less than a year if you get your budget in order. £3800 is the sum total but obviously if you cannot get 0% deals there will be interest on top.

Well done for asking for help before the figure gets to astronomical heights. In the meantime stop using credit cards and your overdraft. You need to learn to live within a budget.

Fireflyaway

I agree you need to see what your outgoings are and then make all the cutbacks you can and then throw anything spare at the debt. You have an income and your debt isn't huge so this is a temporary situation. Don't worry about your credit score. If you are housed, clothed and fed that's all that matters right now. You can go on to achieve great things and this will be a distant memory.

EssexHebridean

Don't fret about your "credit rating" for the time being, worrying though I can see this is. First step is to deal with things one stage at a time - the SOA is the right thing to do but at the moment - for the time being there is a very basic version HERE but do make sure that it covers everything you have going out as it is a lot shorter than our normal one.

Once you have a budget in place and know how to go about targeting your debt things will feel a lot less stressful I promise.

Another thing you can do is to sign up to the free resources to check your credit history - so MSE's own "Credit Club" (for Experian) Noddle (For CallCredit) and Clearscore (For Equifax) - none of them will charge you and it's a great way of getting the information at your fingertips whenever you need it. It also means you can start to see why your "credit rating" is so poor - or indeed, if it really is!