Want to get out of my credit card

Sncjw

Hi everyone.

I want to get out of my credit card. It may not seem a lot to some people but I want to get out of it. I will still have it for things that I need.

I pay my credit card off in full each mo th .i use it to spend on groceries and day to day spending and if I need clothes or buy a present. I have recently activated the save the change feature. I want to be able to just spend on my debit card. I am not minus in anything g at the moment but I do get a bit panicky when under a certain amount t of money. I need to put money aside for upcoming things. I check several times in a month on a calculator of what I will ha e left after bills and spending to pay credit card off and to save money.

I am an electric user only as no gas in here. I should really have contents insurance but I hoping to move to my own home soon. I look after my things well.

I can’t budge on entertainment as my swimming comes into that. I have a monthly membership and it’s part of me losing weight. I haven’t bought any clothes for myself in the last couple of months but I will need some new underwear soon as I’ve lost weight. I have clothes that are smaller sizing so I don’t need to buy anymore soon other than work trousers.

nt=courier new]Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 0

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1192
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1192

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 375
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 128
Electricity............................. 40
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 16
TV Licence.............................. 34
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 29
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 80
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 20
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 25
Total monthly expenses.................. 777


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 0

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Halifax clarity ...............250.......50........19
Total unsecured debts..........250.......50........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,192
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 777
Available for debt repayments........... 415
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 50
Amount left after debt repayments....... 365

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -250
Net Assets.............................. -250

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.[/font]

Thank you.

Any help would be great.

DrEskimo

I'm a bit confused, the calculator suggests you have £365 surplus money and your debt is just £250.

Do you really have £365 extra per month, or are there other costs you are not accounting for in this SOA?

Couple of minor things:

- Why is the TV license £34 per month? It's £12.56pm by DD.
- If there is £25 going to an emergency fund, why is your cash listed as £0?

Sncjw

Sorry I pay wuartley for the tv licence.

I’ve only just started the emergency fund in a savings account.

What I have left over varies depending on how much I spend on the card. Plus I put money into an isa account. This 250 is for next months bill. I’ve paid 450 for last months bill this month.

Mnd

You need to put your TV licence in as a monthly figure, save it in a moneybox if necessary but it is distorting your SOA

enthusiasticsaver

Stop using the card for everything as what is happening is you have the bill on the credit card to pay which then leaves you short of money in the current account. You have a healthy surplus so could afford to live and just repay the card and stop using for everyday things. Start saving for things. That soa shows you could repay the card in one month though and still have money left over so the soa is wrong and you are spending way more than you think. No point in having an isa and debt. Why is the isa not showing?

DrEskimo

Sncjw wrote: »

Sorry I pay wuartley for the tv licence.

I’ve only just started the emergency fund in a savings account.

What I have left over varies depending on how much I spend on the card. Plus I put money into an isa account. This 250 is for next months bill. I’ve paid 450 for last months bill this month.

OK.

First change the TV license to £12.56 as it is a monthly cost. Appreciate you pay this quarterly though.

Second, take off the £250 credit card. Look over the £450 you paid on it last month and allocate it to the categories in the SOA.
I take it from your post it's things like food, presents, haircuts, etc? In which case, at the moment you are double counting your monthly costs by having the credit card debt, as well as monthly allocations in the SOA to groceries and presents etc.

This will then give you an accurate picture of your outgoings and you can decipher where you can cut back to increase your surplus and then start saving towards your goals.

Ditch the ISA. Just get whatever savings account is paying the most interest. ISA cash saving accounts offer very poor interest rates, and you don't have anywhere near enough in it to benefit from the tax benefits.

natlie

You could get a budget based Bank Account like Monzo - you can divide your spending into pots, Direct Debits, and what you want to budget for TV license, food shopping, etc

It a good way to see how on track you are for spending each month and you can move cash between your budgets. You can also save money in savings pots for holidays or annual bills
Nat

EssexHebridean

OK - let's take a look - makes a nice change to be looking at a pre-emptive SOA! Comments in red

Sncjw wrote: »

Hi everyone.

I want to get out of my credit card. It may not seem a lot to some people but I want to get out of it. I will still have it for things that I need.

I pay my credit card off in full each mo th .Good - well done! i use it to spend on groceries and day to day spending and if I need clothes or buy a present. I have recently activated the save the change feature. I want to be able to just spend on my debit card. If you manage your money, budgeting for the things you spend for on the credit card, then it might be worth you looking at a cashback card - Nationwide do one, and a few other providers too. the important thing with these is that you MUST always pay off in full each month.I am not minus in anything g at the moment but I do get a bit panicky when under a certain amount t of money. I need to put money aside for upcoming things. You do - this is called budgeting, and the SOA will help you here I check several times in a month on a calculator of what I will ha e left after bills and spending to pay credit card off and to save money. Try this: start yourself up some additional savings accounts that can be added to directly from your joint account. Put your budgeted amount in each category (maybe food, clothing, Holiday, entertainment, emergency fund) aside as soon as you get paid each month. Only spend your budgeted amounts in each category on the card, no more. When the CC bill arrives, transfer money to your current account ready for it to be paid IN FULL. Job done.

I am an electric user only as no gas in here. I should really have contents insurance but I hoping to move to my own home soon. I look after my things well. I'm sure you do, You may find a burglar is slightly less careful though... THIS is why you have contents insurance, not because you might break something. Get it sorted.

I can’t budge on entertainment as my swimming comes into that. I have a monthly membership and it’s part of me losing weight. I haven’t bought any clothes for myself in the last couple of months but I will need some new underwear soon as I’ve lost weight. I have clothes that are smaller sizing so I don’t need to buy anymore soon other than work trousers. You have sufficient surplus that you can set aside a budgeted amount for clothing each month.

nt=courier new]Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 0

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1192
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1192

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 375
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 128
Electricity............................. 40
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0 Assume you're in Scotland?
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 16
TV Licence.............................. 34 Switch to monthly DD for easier budgeting
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 29
Internet Services....................... 0 is this in with your TV package?
Groceries etc. ......................... 80
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0 GET THIS SORTED - TODAY!
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 20 This includes the cost of the membership you're talking about?
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 25
Total monthly expenses.................. 777


Assets
Cash.................................... 0 According to this you're putting aside money each month for emergency fund, presents etc - plus you have a surplus - so why no cash assets - where are those savings and that surplus going?
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 0

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Halifax clarity ...............250.......50........19 If you clear this each month without fail it doesn't need to be on here as it's not actually a debt, as such.
Total unsecured debts..........250.......50........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,192
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 777
Available for debt repayments........... 415
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 50
Amount left after debt repayments....... 365

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -250
Net Assets.............................. -250

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.[/font]

Thank you.

Any help would be great.

It's not help you need I'd say but rather reassurance. I have a suspicion that this is the first time you've ever written a budget down, and I also suspect that this SOA may not be *entirely* accurate - meaning you actually have less left at the end of each month than you should have?

The "savings pots" method I suggest above might work a treat for you - these days most banks have some sort of easy access internet only savings accounts that you can open directly from your current account, so take a look at that and try budgeting that way. Also maybe try keeping a spending diary to track any odd spends that aren't accounted for in here.

EssexHebridean

Sncjw wrote: »

Sorry I pay wuartley for the tv licence.

I’ve only just started the emergency fund in a savings account.

What I have left over varies depending on how much I spend on the card. Plus I put money into an isa account. This 250 is for next months bill. I’ve paid 450 for last months bill this month.

Seen this comment about the emergency fund now - noted.

What you have over *should* depend on what you have budgeted for - and what you spend on the credit card should only be the things you have budgeted for, so these should balance. However, if the credit card doesn't pay you any cashback, I'm not sure what the point of using it is? Tell you what - a small dare for you - as soon as you get paid this month take the card out of your purse/wallet and stash it somewhere at home - in your underwear drawer would do - then go for the next 7 days spending ONLY using cash or your debt card, according to the figures you've budgeted. See how that goes.

Take a look at the Tesco internet saver account for your emergency fund savings. decent interest for an easy access and dead easy to manage online.

Sncjw

Hi all thank you for your replies I did the soa quite late at night so figures are not sort of correct I think. I do have money at the end of the month your right but I do get. Panicaky that I haven’t got enough.

I haven’t got any holidays planned this year as I’m hoping to move into a house of my own. Regarding haircuts I don’t pay for them as my cousin kindly does it and she is a qualified hairdresser.

The entertainment is the swimming and also the odd cinema trip. I don’t go often as there’s very rarely subtilised screenings.

The isa is a help to buy isa so I’m not ditching that. The internet is with the cable services. The water I’ve only ever paid a sewage rate and I haven’t been billed for anything thing since then hence why it’s zero.

I understand what you mean by the food being doubles in relating due to credit card.

I will do a soa tonight based on the 450.

enthusiasticsaver

Sncjw wrote: »

Hi all thank you for your replies I did the soa quite late at night so figures are not sort of correct I think. I do have money at the end of the month your right but I do get. Panicaky that I haven’t got enough.

I haven’t got any holidays planned this year as I’m hoping to move into a house of my own. Regarding haircuts I don’t pay for them as my cousin kindly does it and she is a qualified hairdresser.

The entertainment is the swimming and also the odd cinema trip. I don’t go often as there’s very rarely subtilised screenings.

The isa is a help to buy isa so I’m not ditching that. The internet is with the cable services. The water I’ve only ever paid a sewage rate and I haven’t been billed for anything thing since then hence why it’s zero.

I understand what you mean by the food being doubles in relating due to credit card.

I will do a soa tonight based on the 450.

I think if you start to build up some savings you will be less panicky. If you want to get a house of your own you will need a substantial savings buffer not only for the deposit but also legal and mortgage costs and all the initial costs which come from owning a house.

Have you checked why you are not receiving a water bill? Is it a flat you live in and is it included in rent? Ask the landlord as the last thing you need is a massive water bill as someone realises you should have been billed.

If it is a help to buy isa then yes you should not get rid of that.

Drawing grocery and entertainment out in cash every week may help to keep you on budget.

You can easily get that credit card cleared in one or two months and given it throws your budgeting out why not just use it for maybe groceries and keep within the £80 so you can clear it every month? That will help you improve your credit score and get you less panicky about your finances. Along with building up savings.