My SOA and Situation Realisation

shteca

It has been a real slog and a year of no holidays and limiting my spending as much as possible.
I found that with a good income credit companies will allow you to rack up as much debt as you want which is what I did. I have loans, credit cards, car leases, buy now pay later etc etc
Paying it all down has been the toughest thing. It has changed everything I knew and given me a completely new understanding of money and debt.
Thank you so much!

beanielou

Thanks for sharing.
You are doing so well.

shteca

Not sure yet that it was the best idea but I saw a 0% money transfer credit card from mbna and I got approved for it.
I took a £6,000 MT 0% for 12 months and used it to pay off my 8.6% loan (£8,400 remaining) with Ikano, I also used £2,400 of my own money to clear the rest. I called up ikano 5 minutes ago and cleared the balance in full.

With Ikano my repayment was £300 a month so I plan on using the saved interest on paying my other £10,000 loan with Sainsbury’s.
As is stands today I have
Sainsbury’s Loan £10,000 at 3.2%
Mbna MT cc 6,300 at 0% for 12 months
Post office cc £3,700 at 0% for 18 months
I plan now on focusing on the loan. Would that be the best plan?

MallyGirl

Since everything else is at 0% then the loan is the one to hit for now.

What you mustn't lose sight of though is that any balance remaining on the MBNA MT in 12 months time is going to jump up to maybe 18% APR. I would be putting some money aside for that (in a regular saver at 5% if you can get one) since 3.2% is a pretty good rate for a loan.

Kitten868

Really fantastic work. Plus now that you've moved it all around I'm sure your minimum payments are much lower so you have more flexibility with making your overpayments where you want. You can really hammer particular debts and it's all on 0% now so you can really smash it. Amazing! Keep it up.

Have you worked your reward for when it's over?

JayRitchie

shteca wrote: »

Not sure yet that it was the best idea but I saw a 0% money transfer credit card from mbna and I got approved for it.
I took a £6,000 MT 0% for 12 months and used it to pay off my 8.6% loan (£8,400 remaining) with Ikano, I also used £2,400 of my own money to clear the rest. I called up ikano 5 minutes ago and cleared the balance in full.

With Ikano my repayment was £300 a month so I plan on using the saved interest on paying my other £10,000 loan with Sainsbury’s.
As is stands today I have
Sainsbury’s Loan £10,000 at 3.2%
Mbna MT cc 6,300 at 0% for 12 months
Post office cc £3,700 at 0% for 18 months
I plan now on focusing on the loan. Would that be the best plan?

Wow - you are getting close to the home run! Many congratulations.

Is the Sainsburys loan only 3.2%? Seems a very good deal? What are your minimum payments on each of the 3 balances?

At 3.2% fixed rate I think I would play safe and make sure I didn't risk finding myself at the end of the credit card term with huge interest rates kicking in. Might reconsider if the loan had a notably higher minimum payment though. In reality is probably pretty equal.

ian1246

A great read.... fantastic to see the progress uou ve made :-) Just a thought though, rather than overpaying the Sainsbury loan, take your spare £££'s and put into 5% regular savers... that way you ll be earning more interest than your paying on your Sainsbury loan....

.... and crucially, you ll have the pots of money from those savers available to pay thr credit card debts when they approach the end of the 0% interest period.

theoretica

Don't forget to take any fees for balance transfers into account in your calculations.

shteca

MallyGirl wrote: »

Since everything else is at 0% then the loan is the one to hit for now.
What you mustn't lose sight of though is that any balance remaining on the MBNA MT in 12 months time is going to jump up to maybe 18% APR. I would be putting some money aside for that (in a regular saver at 5% if you can get one) since 3.2% is a pretty good rate for a loan.

Thank you!
I have a spread sheet that I keep all my finances and records on. The mbna they gave me a credit limit of £8k and I think once these 0% finish I will be able to transfer the balance over to another 0% at the end of the 12 months.
My dream would be over the next 6-8 months to clear the Sainsburys loan, then move the balances to 0% and aggressively tackle the cc.
P.s thank you so much for your continued support and advice.

shteca

Kitten868 wrote: »

Really fantastic work. Plus now that you've moved it all around I'm sure your minimum payments are much lower so you have more flexibility with making your overpayments where you want. You can really hammer particular debts and it's all on 0% now so you can really smash it. Amazing! Keep it up.
Have you worked your reward for when it's over?

Thank you! Well towards the end of last year my minimums were £1,300 a month. £300 each loan, £150 overdraft, £100 each cc. £50 phone bill, £50 buy now pay later, £300 car finance etc etc etc.
The weight it was putting on me was just immense. I woke up feeling sick.
Now I am down to £500 of which £300 is the Sainsburys loan.
For my mental health as much as anything else I want to clear that £300 a month to free up mental space. Being self employed and having income fluctuate makes having high monthly commitments incredibly stressful.
Again, thanks so much!