Statement of Affairs - SOA

Rigsbyscat

If anyone can offer any help or advice on how to reduce some of this massive debt I have built up I would be eternally grateful!
It's really getting me down and I don't know how to work my way out of this mess
I ideally want to consolidate into a single/ less payments but I cannot for the life of me get new credit, my credit rating is 780 out of 1000

Monthly Incomings:
My salary £1250.00
Total: £1250.00

Monthly Outgoings
Mortgage/Rent £ 545.00
Council Tax £ 53.50
Electric £25.50
Water £28.50
Gym £29.00
Mobile Phone £45.00
Home phone/broadband £ 20.00
Food £ 80.00
Basic Total: £826.50

HSBC credit card £100.00
Virgin credit card £50.00
Alliance and Leicester Loan £330.00
Total including debt repayments: £1306.50

Debts:
HSBC Gold credit card
limit £4,500
Various APR’s ranging from 7.9% - 22.9%
Cash advances 24.88% on £1,567.95
Purchases: 22.9 % on £1,253.54
Balance transfers 7.9% on £1,678.86
Total: £4,500.35

Virgin Credit card
APR ?
limit £5,000
Balance £3,886.69

Alliance and Leicester Loan
APR 12.6%
Length of term 48 months, 39 months to go
Balance £9,530.00

HSBC Overdraft
APR 18.8%
limit £1,300
Balance £1,300.00
Total amount of debt to be repaid: £19,217.04

Scarlett.1974

Hi Rigsbycat,

I'm no expert, not by any stretch of the imagination, but from some of the great advice I've been given in the last couple of days, a few things I would recommend are:

Cancelling your gym membership - it's a luxury that you can't really afford at the moment isn't it?
Check you're on the cheapest tarrif for your electricity by looking at u-switch and quidco if you do change. (you haven't listed gas on your SOA though?)
Your mobile is pretty high - could you reduce the tarrif on that?

Er...... that's all I can think of for now, I'm sure some of the DFW experts will be along very soon with loads of fab advice, you just sit tight, they'll be with you soon.

<<hugs>>

Scarlett xx

tealady

You need to put your debts them into a snowballer to see which you need to clear 1st. Keep a spending diary and note down EVERY penny you spend
How many does your £80 a week feed? If its only 1 then you can definately reduce this. Check you are on the cheapest tarifs for gas/electricity (go via a cashback website), ebay or amazon anything thats not nailed down.
Right thats all i can think of for now - good luck.

cat4772

Rigsbyscat wrote: »

Monthly Incomings:
My salary £1250.00
Total: £1250.00

Monthly Outgoings
Mortgage/Rent £ 545.00
Council Tax £ 53.50
Electric £25.50
Water £28.50
Gym £29.00
Mobile Phone £45.00
Home phone/broadband £ 20.00
Food £ 80.00
Basic Total: £826.50

HSBC credit card £100.00
Virgin credit card £50.00
Alliance and Leicester Loan £330.00
Total including debt repayments: £1306.50

Rigsbyscat,

Sorry love, you appear to not have budgeted for Building/ contents insurance, holidays, christmas, travel to work (car or public transport) or birthdays.

Can you increase your income - second job, mystery shopping etc?

Other than that because your outgoings are higher than your income, contact the CAB, national debtline or CCCS (all are free).

Are the credit card payments the minimum you can pay? if so, could you write to the card companies and ask them to remove (or drastically reduce) the APR for a year?

Sorry I couldn't be more help.

Cat.x

Scarlett.1974

tealady wrote: »

You need to put your debts them into a snowballer to see which you need to clear 1st. Keep a spending diary and note down EVERY penny you spend
How many does your £80 a week feed? If its only 1 then you can definately reduce this. Check you are on the cheapest tarifs for gas/electricity (go via a cashback website), ebay or amazon anything thats not nailed down.
Right thats all i can think of for now - good luck.

I think that £80.00 for food is per month isn't it?

tealady

Oops!!! if its per month then well done.

Rigsbyscat

Scarlett I think you're right about the gym membership, I really should cancel it. I did uswitch at the beginning of the year and so I am positive my electricty (we don't have any gas in the flat), phone and broadband are as low as I can get them. With regard to my mobile I'm on O2's £35 pcm tariff with free evening and weekend calls and texts which I switched to from orange for a better deal, the extra £10 pays for unlimited internet access on my blackberry which I find really useful so would not want to loose that. functionality. Thanks very much for your support!

Tealady the idea about a snowballer as you put it is good, is there a link anywhere on this to guide me? Also £80 is my share of food per month, I shop at Tesco and try to take packed lunches to work most days. I think it's reasonable on a monthly basis, what do you think?

Cat - thanks for the help with posting in the right place! My travel to work is already paid for in advance by my company. I rent so there is no building insurance, but you are right about contents insurance, we do have that but my housemate pays the £9 per month for all his music equipment, my stuff is covered too but I am not contributing at the moment. I haven't budgeted for holidays at all because in my position its totally the last thing I can think of - my outgoings are alrady far in excess of my incomings as you rightly say.

The idea of getting another job would be ideal, I have been looking for a new jobsome months now and have signed up with several agencies whom I pesetr regularly. I know I am not earning enough for a graduate with my skillset but I chose to work in the arts and it has never paid me well. I will step up my search as this is the feastest route to overcoming my debt problem.

I have been paying slightly more than the minimum repayment in order to get the balances down and reduce the interest, I read somewhere on here that that is the best thing to do if you have any spare cash. However I may have to stop as there appears to be no spare cash for this, or anything else anymore! I will write to my creditorsd and plead with them to reduce the interest rates, do you think it will work for me?

Smiley_Mum

Monthly Incomings:
My salary £1250.00
Total: £1250.00

Monthly Outgoings
Mortgage/Rent £ 545.00 Could you not take in a lodger to help with mortgage payments

Council Tax £ 53.50 Are you getting discount for single person, if you don't want to go down lodger route

Electric £25.50 Seems high if just you, are you on a prepayment meter?

Water £28.50 Is this metered or not, may be less if just you.

Gym £29.00 Cancel.

Mobile Phone £45.00 Is this a PAYG or contract, could you get a cheaper deal

Home phone/broadband £ 20.00 What are you using, what about call charges etc.

Food £ 80.00 Shop at Lidls, eat more veg based dishes, make own lunches for work etc, slow cooker cooking, micro more than cooker etc.

Basic Total: £826.50

HSBC credit card £100.00
Virgin credit card £50.00
Alliance and Leicester Loan £330.00
Total including debt repayments: £1306.50

Debts:
HSBC Gold credit card
limit £4,500
Various APR’s ranging from 7.9% - 22.9%
Cash advances 24.88% on £1,567.95
Purchases: 22.9 % on £1,253.54
Balance transfers 7.9% on £1,678.86
Total: £4,500.35

Virgin Credit card
APR ?
limit £5,000
Balance £3,886.69

Alliance and Leicester Loan
APR 12.6%
Length of term 48 months, 39 months to go
Balance £9,530.00

HSBC Overdraft
APR 18.8%
limit £1,300
Balance £1,300.00
Total amount of debt to be repaid: £19,217.04

Hopefully someone will be along with a few more suggestions. Good Luck.

Just read above, what about Ebay, do you have anything you could flog on there, watch the bills if you can for electric, difficult I know with flat mates but if you're canny, you could reduce it I'm sure.

No way of pooling together with flatmates for food budget etc, and you take turns in cooking or something, just a thought.

Sorry I've not been too much help. Another job is a thought too but you're trying so...

Keep a spending diary, detailed, everything goes in it. Just a small notebook that you can keep in your pocket and note down everything on it.

Rigsbyscat

Hello Smiley_Mum! Thanks for the advice, unfortunately I rent and share with one other so no room in our two bed for anyone else unless his g/f moves in to his room with him.

Therefore no single occupancy discount available for council tax either.

We are on a water meter and I still feel it is high for only two professionals who are out at work most of their lives!?

Phone is 02 contarct for 18 months, the only cut back on this could be use and removing thr intgernet access which costs £10 pcm.

As for food I'm vegetarian (have been for 15 years) so I only eat vergetable dishes, but you are probably right to say there is something to cut back on grocery wise.

mrsspendalot

snowball link is www.whatsthecost.com and click snowballing when you get on there

redsquirrel80

You probably can cut back the food bill a bit, I'm buying for one as well and I don't usually spend more than £60 a month (and I'm not veggie, so you've got a great advantage there!). If you have a look at the Old Style forum there's lots of ideas for cheap meals, and also the 'grocery challenge' for mutual support on cutting back, though if you're sharing food bills I guess you'd have to get your flatmate on board with that one.

You could try calling O2 and saying you're having trouble keeping up with payments, quite a few people have done this and got a better deal out of them - they'd rather have less money from you than none I think!

Otherwise, as previously suggested, sell things on eBay, plus doing stuff like online surveys will make you some extra - not loads, but every little helps, could you do a second (evening?) job in the meantime while you're looking for something else permanent?

Good luck!