The long haul supporters thread...

Happytogetdebtfree

Evening peepls :P ive decided im quitting the rush to be debt free ive decided im goingto put in savings in preperation for land or a house deposit.... i mean its all well and good for me rushing to be totally debt free but when i am id need a few more year to accumulate a good enough deposit for a house or land ?? , maybe im crazy ive said we would see where we was when that time came re moving selling buying i just dont want to be holding off life ? X what do you peeps think ?X

In_Search_Of_Me

honestly? I think you need to work out how much interest you are paying on 63000 and get a decent chunk paid off before you even THINK about buying house or land...after all what is the point of having a house if you cant afford to run it.sort any probs that crop up? Dont know your income/outgoings or what debts consist of so in that way hard to make realistic judgement (e what is your level of debt to income?) but I would loose sleep over that much debt (at worst mine was 37000 and I was in a really bad place then and never want to go back there) and know that I wouldnt be thinking of moving or buying a house with that level of debt...sorry if that sounds harsh but please, please reconsider this "dont want to hold off life" approach at this stage...you can have a life - just a frugal one!! Also in terms of saving while you have debt this is a no goer cos you only get about 3 interest but are charged more than that for cards etc...plus you are then effectively loosing money twice..not paying interest off and not earning that much for savings...do you know what I mean?
Willow did you sort the ohone call out and sahanut did you sort the mort? Dubgirl have you done the tapestry? Piccy please if you did!!

Happytogetdebtfree

NO no you have misunderstood me we intend to stay where we are till at least 2011 -2012 but i was aying the excess we weregoing top plough into debt i think i may save because i dont want to be debt free and have no cash to move with i cant bear where we live now i can stomach till 2012 but an extra 2 years on top of that i dont think so... we have an excess of 1k a month but we are just paying our wedding.... my 63k doesnt keep me awake and we have no trouble paying debts i was just thinking maybe it would be wiser not to go crazy trying to clear loans when they end in 2012 anway and intrest is on the highets loan 14% i intend to try and pay the credit cards with a bit more overpay i just didnt wanna wake one day and have nothing to start life with ? does that make sense

In_Search_Of_Me

makes sence sort of but what I was saying still applies...you need to work out how much interest you are paying on the cards vs interest you will make and see which makes financial sense...dont know how much you have on loans and how much is cc's? ie for my loans they were all front loaded so no benefit paying early but the min apr on my cc's (when barclaycard at 17.9 gone this month!) will be 8.1...this means that if I saved I would be making 3% but pying 8.1% interest so effectively loosing 5%+ interest plus accuring compount interest on cc's...ie if you have 1 and they charge you 10p inerest this oth next month I will be charged interest on 1.10p and up it goes...do you see what I mean? At the end of the day its your decision and you have to do what is right for youbut my worry is that if you have huge amounts on cc then the interest may well (as it was with me) be the thing that gets you into trouble long term...not explained that very well maybe? Anyay hope you manage to sort whats right for you

Keeping_Positive

Have to agree with ISOM on this one. Its ok to have a bit stashed for emergencies but unless you can get savings paying higher interest than you pay on the loans/ccs etc then clearing debt the best route by far. BTW if you do find savings interest that beats the borrowing interest please let me know!!

Also theres nothing wrong with taking it easy for a bit by not using all the excess towards debt. Increase your other budgets a bit and pay the debt back at a more leisurely pace.

sashanut

In_Search_Of_Me wrote: »

and sahanut did you sort the mort?

ah did we sort the mort......well, kinda Why do these things take sooo long to sort out? DH called them this mornig as planned, armed with all the info we had & I was on hand to help if nec. Turns out they made 3 mistakes:eek::eek::eek:

• First of all they credited the mortgage account with £4 LESS than we paid in at one point - although we have the paying-in slip with the correct amount on it. I know it's only £4 but it all counts, esp off a mortgage!
• Mistake no 2 was that the payment made in Feb 09 had not been credited - the money was taken out of our bank account, but was 'in account limbo somewhere' - we only found this out by going through all the b/ac's to find which cheque we paid them with - all we had was the payment stub from the bank :eek:. They blamed Barclays for this, but Barclays immediately told them it was in their own suspense account...
• Mistake no 3 was that the Apr 09 payment had been taken off the Capital rather than the interest, so was applied to the wrong account - by THEM

All these problems seem to be since Barclays took over Woolwich, the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing. We don't help because we won't have a direct debit taken - they insist on it for the 16th of every month & being self-employed we don't know when in the month we might have the money. We pay over the counter each & every month though.
As DH said, thank goodness I had all the info - I'm not great at keeping records but have forced myself to get better - if we had no proof I am sure they would be after us for the £2181 & we couldn't have proved otherswise. Alos, if for instance it has been DH's mum & dad they would have thought that the bank couldn't possibly be wrong & paid up!!

So having wasted the entire morning, we are - I think - back where we were 2 days ago hopefully:T Gah!

Hope you are all plodding along, I had hoped to list some stuff on eBay - had 10 items in mind. Actually listed - 2 items.:rolleyes:

Keeping_Positive

Thats a scary thought Sashanut, how many people would pay up or not have the info to support?

sashanut

I know it gives me the creeps just thinking about it - as in the past I would have NO IDEA where any of the receipts etc were. I have forced myself to keep records as I am useless at anything financial (surprise, surprise!!)

They are quick enough to fire off a nasty letter to us along the lines of.....'you are IN ARREARS (to the tune of £2181:eek:) & your home may be REPOSSESSED if you do not PAY IMMEDIATELY'

And if you have no proof how could you defend yourself?? Terrrifying thought:mad:

cheesedoffwithdebt

Not bothered about a number but I'd like to join the list! I am around for another 16 yrs but my goal is to each year bring that down-so by next year I want to be posting a DFD of 14 yrs, and the yr after 12 etc etc.So really I want to be debt free in 6 yrs- and will find a way:-).

But it can be a lonely journey-I am finding it hard to prioritise what I need to do sometimes!! SO happy to listen and hopefully be listened to!

In_Search_Of_Me

cheesedoffwithdebt (163)

Know your not bothered about a number chesed off but if ya gonna be here for ages I'd love you to have one...hope thats ok?!! Welcome...Youre in the right place...ong haul is tough and full of downs, ups, occasonal kicks up bum but hopefully lots of support...have you posted your soa...can be helpful in sorting whats what...have to say I never dared though!