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CopleyDog

Hello All!

I'm a long time reader, new contributor.

I'm just starting out on the journey to being debt free. I'll post updates here and hopefully this diary will help not only me, but also others who may be in a similar situation.

I've already posted in another thread on the DFW forums about my plan to tackle some of my payday loan debt (see post 3228 in the 'Reclaiming money back from various payday loan companies' thread - can't post links yet as am new member!), but there's lots more than that to tackle.

Any support, advice or constructive criticism along the way will be gratefully received.

Looking forward to joining the community.

CopleyDog

Mnd

Love the thread title, post you SOA will be the first advice you receive, then people will be able to give appropriate comments
Good luck

beanielou

POst up your SOA & keep a spending diary.

CopleyDog

Thanks, just completing it now...

Do forum members object to people using their own format SOA? I have mine all done in a spreadsheet that I could paste in rather than re-type in the Stoozing SOA template.

beanielou

Pop it up & we can see

CopleyDog

With my 'disposable' income at £3000 and monthly repayments currently at £1918.29, this does give me a monthly contingency of £1081.71, so that can be used for savings, extra payments, household emergencies etc.

CopleyDog

Top of my list of things to do at the moment is to contact the payday loan lenders in the SOA above and talk to them about 'irresponsible lending'... Looking at the SOA, you can see a number of debts have been passed to third parties (due to arrears, defaults etc) so I have been advised that perhaps some of the later loans should not have been provided to me, but we shall see.

CopleyDog

So, with a bit of Excel wizardry, the current Debt Free Target Date is... October 2021, so approx 3.5 years from now. This is using the snowballing method and is contingent on me paying back £1918.29 per month across my creditors.

Current Creditors: 29
By December 2018: 21
By December 2019: 5
By December 2020: 3
Projected Debt Free Date: October 2021

The majority of the smaller creditors will be gone between now and the middle of next year, which then leaves the 2 or 3 'big ones' to gradually tackle after that.

Any work bonuses or unexpected windfalls (hopefully some payday loan refunds!....) will be used to tackle my debt, so it is hoped that I can bring the Debt Free Target Date forward by at least 1 year.

CopleyDog

I've agreed monthly repayments with nearly all of my creditors, however, I wondered if anybody had any advice relating to requesting discounts/early settlements etc? Is this something I should ask for?

SLL did reduce my debt to them by 35% if I paid over 2 months (which I accepted and have one more payment to go). I didn't ask for this, they just offered it in a letter.

Should I contact any of the other companies?

efes_shareholder

I would contact one of the lower debts at a time , I did this and obtained discounts of around 50% to settle in full

CopleyDog

So I recently signed up for Revolver having seen it mentioned in these forums a few times. Already had one case closed, a £6 refund from Carphone Warehouse! Here's to many more!