Okay my SOA - Oh my god

Strawberry_virgin

You may want to consider consolidating your debt by taking another loan to pay off all your existing debt or at least those with high interest rates, bank overdraft and mortgage to prevent any further charges. As for your overdraft, please read the section “Reclaim £1,000s” which you will find at the top of the page next to Martin’s picture. Your bank is charging you a penalty which is unlawful and you can reclaim most of the money you have paid in penalties to date. First thing, you should be getting on the phone to your bank and discuss a way of reducing those overdraft charges immediately to buy you some time. If they refuse this over the phone you will need to write to them and the above link is a great starting point. The very least you can do is take out another credit card and transfer your outstanding balances from other CC-s on 0% over 12 months. Just remember they will charge you 2.5-3.0% fee for this, so it is not entirely interest free but it is still better then paying 34.9% APR to Captial One. Once you take out your new card, make sure you don’t purchase anything on it during the 12 months because they will charge you interest on new purchases and any repayments you make will go for repaying the credit with the lower interest rate first (i.e 0%) and therefore you will be accumulating interest on interest if you can follow me.
The most important thing to do is make sure you don’t fall behind your mortgage payments because you could loose your home.

You monthly outgoings are not too bad, I think your electricity bill is a bit high. Not sure if you are currently on a dual fuel supply for you gas and electricity but you can compare your current supplier (s) on http://www.uswitch.com. If your land line phone bill is to high consider taking out phone package with Sky if you already have TV package with them. I was recently offered free evening/weekend local and national calls at no extra cost by Sky without even asking for having £36 per month package so I am sure you can get the same. You can also get unlimited calls package for extra £5 per month.

Don’t give up. Take few days off your work if you can and start by phoning your bank to reduce or even cancel those overdraft charges. They may even offer to increase your overdraft to £1500. Then write to them to reclaim your previous charges using the advice from this website. Apply for 0% over 12 months CC and transfer all your balances from other CC-s on one (destroy your Capital One card for me please). Check if you can make savings by comparing your electricity and gas supplier using Uswitch.com. Combine your SKY with phone and internet package for better deal.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Strawberry_virgin

Sorry, I just realised you have already posted a comment of not being able to get another CC and switch your TV, phone and internet to one supplier. You can try debt consolidation and there are lots of websites offering advice on this. Some of the debt consolidation advisors can help you write off debt you can’t afford to pay back. This may affect your credit rating but it looks the damage is already done so may as well go all the way.

the_cat

Hi Moobag, congrats on the wedding!

Sorry but I have to strongly disagree with the above poster. The majority on this board would council against consolidation. Turning unsecured debt into secured puts your house at risk, espec if one of you were to lose your job etc. Very dangerous

For debt advice the only people you should go to are CCCS, Payplan or the CAB. These are free and impartial, run as charities. The rest are parasites, making a profit and will increase your debt total

southernscouser

One word! Spending diary!

Oh b0llocks thats 2 words! :doh:

But seriously, give it a month and you'll know exactly where your money goes each month!

SarahNeedle1872

the_cat wrote: »

Hi Moobag, congrats on the wedding!

Sorry but I have to strongly disagree with the above poster. The majority on this board would council against consolidation. Turning unsecured debt into secured puts your house at risk, espec if one of you were to lose your job etc. Very dangerous

For debt advice the only people you should go to are CCCS, Payplan or the CAB. These are free and impartial, run as charities. The rest are parasites, making a profit and will increase your debt total

Completely agree I'm afraid..... I'm sure this person was only trying to help, (not the_cat, the person before that! I agree with the_cat) but consolidation is very rarely the right thing to do! Just had to get that bit in, now I'll go back to ur SOA (I still haven't figured how to quote more than one post - if anyone would like to tell me, please do!)

SarahNeedle1872

moobag wrote: »

SO here goes it:

My monthly income after tax: £1250 - £1550 (depending on comission)
Hubby monthly income: £1200 however he is a postie (a non striking one! and gets paid weekly which we find really difficult to manage.)

TOTAL: £2450 - £2750

Outgoings:
Mortgage: £542 (variable with Preffered)
Rent: £300 (we're part rent part buy && that includes £50 per month for Areas that we've incurred) These must be a priority - pay these before u pay any unsecured debt - ie loans/cc
Council Tax £120 (again on a payment plan) As above
Gas £28
Electric £65 (payment plan - which is around £25pm + £40 normal monthly bill) The 'next' important debt, u need elec!
TV Licence £11
Home insurance £20
TV £45 Sky? Reduce it to basic package if u can't cancel
Internet £22.99 This is high - again, reduce package if u can't cancel
Home Phone £ £11 line rental a lot mor in calls! Check uSwitch to see if u can get this cheaper with another provider.... or check the different packages with BT to see if u can reduce costs
Mobile £20 (switched to payg)
Food £200 This is high for two - many people here feed 2ads + 2 kids on that. Check out Old Style Money Saving for hints and tips on reducing it
Hubby Loan £350
CC debts: £90 min payment on three detailed below.

TOTAL: £1874.99 (totally dont understand how this is less, see below)


Debts:
HSBC CC: £440.32 14.9% £500 balance
Capital One: £779.78 34.9% £800 balance
Egg CC: £612 21.9% £650 balance
Overdraft £1375 only £1000 authorised so been charged about £400 in charges this month Open a basic bank acc with a bank u do not owe money too, then treat this as another debt, and pay it back bit by bit - try to leave it within its limit so u don't get any more charges. Also read the reclaim article on the main site, and start the process rolling
Mortgage Areas: £1275 PRIORITY
Hubby Loan: £5600
3 Mobile: £114 debt plus £150 remaining to close contract.


I feel like iv screwed everything up, and feel so stupid - it looks on here like we should have loads of money spare but we dont Spending diary, I'm so far overdrawn that everytime I get paid it is swallowed up straight away Believe me hun, ur not the only one! We've all been there!.
Hubby only has a cash card account because of his history now bank will give him a current account so we use mine like a joint account that he puts £225 per week in for his share of bills and loan.

I dont know where to start or what to do, if anyone can help I'd be so grateful.

Hope this helps a bit.... You've made the firststep by posting, and I'm sure more people will be along to help in the morning.

Sarah x

tealady

Have you done all the usual like checking to see you are on lowest gas/electricity tarif and Amazon and ebay things. Personally I find a spending diary helps (even just a "mind" one) as I find myself saying "Can I justify spending this and if I can afford this I can pay this off whatever debt is due" It worked for me. The best thing about this site is there are loads of tips and you just use it like a pick and mix.

Steel_2

"Its so nice to know people dont think im a total moron for getting into this mess..."

No way! Just about everyone on this board understands how easy it is for this to happen, how a little bit here and there over time can suddenly add up to an overwhelming amount of debt.

Your food budget is one of the most easy things to cut down if you are very strict about meal planning and shopping around. Hubbie and I spend about £120 a month and we have three cats. It can be done. Also, are you paying your council tax over 10 months or 12. If it's ten, you could spread it out to twelve. Regarding electricity, make sure you check around the house and see if there are any little red lights on your appliances and turn them off. I even turn off my microwave, oven, DVD player and video. I have a clock in the kitchen and the hall so why pay electricity just so these appliances can tell me the time? Mobile - don't use it. Seriously. I have a PAYG and I don't use it. In fact, I couldn't tell you where it is. We never used to have mobile phones and we managed perfectly well. Occasionally I have to make a call to hubbie when I'm out and use a public phone for about 50p a go.

The reason your outgoings are less than your income is because you haven't yet included everything in your SOA. You haven't put in water rates, which I suspect will increase your outgoings by about £25 a month. To reduce this further, reduce the amount of baths you take (say one a week for a pamper and then both share it . Cosy!!!) and set strict limits of the time you take in the shower. Don't run the tap when you clean your teeth. Look at how many loads of washing the pair of you do and try to reduce it if possible. Do you have a dishwasher or do you wash dishes by hand? Christmas, birthday, anniversaries - work out how much you realistically spend (including cards and wrapping paper) and start preparing for them. Set a budget and stick to it like glue. Transport - how do you and hubbie get to work?? If it's by bus how much is a bus pass? Clothes, shoes, make-up, hair cuts and entertainment - how much do you and hubbie spend on these every month?

Just a thought that might be something your hubbie could do to earn a bit of extra money. My hubbie is also a postman and since our office has been knocking overtime shifts on the head, he's making a little extra money by taking out the door-to-doors for people who are on hols or off sick for a while. Most casuals in his office can't be bothered to do them so he approaches the manager and asks to do them instead.

He tries to pick deliveries that are reasonably near his and usually ones that have had the door-to-doors stacking up for a couple of weeks, as anything less isn't really worth the extra effort. Over the last 2 months we've made about £500 on top of his take home.

He tends to bring them home and we put them together sat in front of the TV in the evening. Occasionally we have races and the loser has to cut the grass (we both hate doing it because our garden is so big and wild!). It's not a great deal of fun but we know it's short term and it all leads to extra money.

If you go down this route though, a few things to be careful of: 1) Make sure your hubbie clears with the manager in advance that he will be paid to deliver them. Sometimes if they're over 1-2 weeks old they won't pay him, but if he doesn't check carefully he won't find this out until after he's delivered them.

2) Check all the boxes you get carefully against the paperwork and make photocopies of all of the paperwork in case something goes astray.

3) Keeps tabs on the manager as to when he's put the paperwork through. Anything over 2 weeks old has to go on different paperwork than normal and straight to the main wages office (I think). Hubbie's manager was a numpty and kept putting it through on the wrong paperwork so wages kept sending it back. Then it would sit on on it for a while and start the process again. Eventually hubbie had to go above his head to another manager to get it sorted and the right paperwork filled out. It took six weeks!

Congratulations for taking control :T and good luck!

Steel_2

...hubbie has just come in today to tell me that Royal mail has suddenly ceased door-to-doors in his office unless all postman agree to do as many as they dictate for £5 a week.

Currently, it is a maximum of three junk mail leaflets/brochures per delivery for around £30 a week in the wages. So from today he loses £25 a week out of his wages and we have to find another way of making up around £120+ a month. Looks like one of us is getting a second job or the car has to go and hubbie find a job near home.

Crazy. Anyone else have round here have a job where you can lose £120 a month overnight without warning?