My Debt-Free Journey has started!

AdamSuperGeek

Hi Everyone,

I have been reading through these forums for the last couple of weeks and have decided to start my own debt-free diary.

My main debt I'm worried about is my credit card which had a balance of £7453.80 and an APR of 20.9%.

I have already started making additional payments over the last 2 months, £279 and £122.41 in addition to the minimum payments.

So the balance currently stands at £6981.35, which I think is a great start!

I'm planning to pay a total of £300 (inclusive of 2.5% minimum payment) towards the card each month.

At this rate I will have the card paid off by November 2020, just in time for Christmas.

I am also currently saving up for a family holiday in May 2020, which I have already saved £1200 of a total £2800, I am also going to start saving some money each month into an emergency fund.

I don't have a mortgage and the only other debt I have is the PCP for my car.

I have had this credit card debt for years and it's gone up and down but I've never been able to make a big dent in it due to paying off a previous car loan and another loan to pay off a previous credit card, but now with a secure job that is relatively well paid, I am completely focused on clearing this credit card debt and making sure it never happens again!!

I've put together a couple of Excel spreadsheets to help me track my progress, it really helps to see all the numbers right in front of you and to see the potential debt-free date!

Also, once I am debt-free, I am planning on getting a mortgage for a house.

Thanks for reading and I'll do my best to keep this updated on my progress.

enthusiasticsaver

Is the credit card at 0% interest?

AdamSuperGeek

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Is the credit card at 0% interest?

Sorry I should have added that, the APR on the card is 20.9%

enthusiasticsaver

Is your credit record good enough to move it to a 0% card? Try the MSE soft check on this website to see if you would be eligible for anything and look at your credit record on Noddle which is free. That would save you more than £1k on interest.

As the holiday is some way away I would focus on the credit card first unless you can get a long enough deal to clear it on 0%. Emergency savings is a good idea.

enthusiasticsaver

Putting the information on to a stoozing calculator if you can get a 24 month deal at 0% that would save you £1734 and see you debt free in less than 2 years paying £300 per month.

AdamSuperGeek

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Is your credit record good enough to move it to a 0% card? Try the MSE soft check on this website to see if you would be eligible for anything and look at your credit record on Noddle which is free. That would save you more than £1k on interest.

As the holiday is some way away I would focus on the credit card first unless you can get a long enough deal to clear it on 0%. Emergency savings is a good idea.

I have thought about a 0% credit card but worry I won't get enough of a limit to make much of a difference on the main credit card. Also means another hard search in my credit history.

Using MSE Credit Club, I have a 95% chance of getting a 31 month card with 1.1% fee but £25 cashback when i transfer £1000.

I would save about £500 in interest for every £1000 i could transfer

Maybe it would be a good idea looking at the figures!

I don't really want to use my holiday savings towards my credit card because I would then have no money to fall back on. I would rather have a bit of a cushion now than shorten the debt-free date slightly.

AdamSuperGeek

AdamSuperGeek wrote: »

I have thought about a 0% credit card but worry I won't get enough of a limit to make much of a difference on the main credit card. Also means another hard search in my credit history.

Using MSE Credit Club, I have a 95% chance of getting a 31 month card with 1.1% fee but £25 cashback when i transfer £1000.

I would save about £500 in interest for every £1000 i could transfer

Maybe it would be a good idea looking at the figures!

I don't really want to use my holiday savings towards my credit card because I would then have no money to fall back on. I would rather have a bit of a cushion now than shorten the debt-free date slightly.

OK, I've done the calculations for this.

If I was to get a 0% Balance Transfer Card over 31 months with a credit limit of £2000, I would save myself £879.03 in interest and I would have paid off the main card by February 2020 and the 0% card by July 2020.

This would involve paying £300 to the main card and then paying the minimum £25 on the 0% percent card until March 2020 then paying the full £300 per month to the 0% card.

Obviously this would go up or down depending on how much I can transfer onto the card.

Still looks like a good idea to do, it would be amazing to have the credit card paid off before my holiday!

Any other advice on this would be great! Thanks!

pidge04

You seem really focussed and well-organised.

Hope you can get a 0% balance transfer even for some of the debt.

Must feel good to see an end point in the not too distant future!

Good luck.

AdamSuperGeek

pidge04 wrote: »

You seem really focussed and well-organised.

Hope you can get a 0% balance transfer even for some of the debt.

Must feel good to see an end point in the not too distant future!

Good luck.

Thanks pidge04!

Yeah even seeing a potential end date is like a weight off my shoulders!!

I'm hoping to apply for a 0% Balance Card today!

AdamSuperGeek

Here's today's update:

I was able to get a 0% Balance Transfer Card, though not the best offer that was available.

The card I got was with MBNA and is over 18 months with a transfer fee of 3.49%

I can transfer £1950 to the 0% card (My credit limit is £2100)

I will pay the minimum payment of £25 on the 0% card until August 2019 then start paying it off at £300 a month until the last payment of £218 in Jan 2020. The remaining amount each month will go towards the main card. The total monthly payment will be £345.

So my projected Debt-free date is March 2020 with the 0% card paid off in Jan 2020. Saving £519 in payments & interest!

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. Thanks!

AdamSuperGeek

Hey everyone! Here is the latest update:

My balance transfer has gone through and all the accounts are updated, so here are the latest figures:

Main Credit Card: £4885 (interest for August still to be applied)

Balance Transfer Card: £1985 (soon to be £1960 with £25 cashback applied)

The balance transfer card is 18 months so I'm planning to have it paid off before it ends which would be February 2020 and the main card will hopefully be paid off by April 2020.

I'll keep you guys updated on how it goes, good and bad!