£110k of unsecured debt :(

PWM1

I thought I'd post a quick update on my first steps with this.
- Yesterday was the start of the car insurance renewal window. I was able to knock £120 per year off it.
- I've applied to convert to an HSBC Premier account. This disposes of the £12 monthly fee I was paying for an Advance account (which wasn't in the SOA). Even better, the O/D rates are preferential, reducing by about 7%.
- I contacted the energy supplier to get them to look at DD payments. Having looked at the account they suggested lowering it by £15.
- Looking through bank statements I've come to the realisation that having a reasonable income but with quite a lot of spare time, leaves too much temptation to spend money while the kids are at school (lunches, cinema etc). We're knocking this on the head. I can't believe how much was going on this, and it was drastically underestimating the entertainment in the SOA.

Thanks again to previous posters will the advice. I'll hopefully drop an update when we've reduced the debt by a good amount.

katsu

I would suggest you look at comparison tools - things like your utilities. £200 a month is very high, so I would expect you may find a better deal?

As your debts are so large and your SOA shows a large monthly surplus, unless you have recently made significant lifestyle changes (I note your comments about entertainment not matching your SOA) then your SOA is likely to be more aspirational than realistic. Maybe look at the last six months bank statements and make an SOA of what you were spending, as a comparison.

Use a cashback site like Top Cashback when you renew your internet, mobiles, shop online etc. It all adds up over time.

Review what you really need and enjoy - could you cancel the paid for TV or reduce the package for example. Those sort of changes don't clear your debt but with the higher interest debts they would help get them gone.

Good luck to you.

bouncydog1

There is no fee for HSBC Advance? If you mean overdraft charges then I believe you will still pay on Premier. Worth checking as Premier is also subject to minimum earnings higher than Advance. Minimum income of £75k or £50k in HSBC investments I think plus a mortgage product.

PWM1

Thanks very much for questioning me, as I've looked into it and hsbc stopped charging for advance fee years ago. Since that time I've been paying for "Insurance aspects", at £9.95 per month. I've just found out that it covers mobile phone cracked screens. I'm coming up to end of contract and my Galaxy S8+ has a cracked screen that will cost £200 to fix. I can claim on this hsbc insurance and it'll be worth so much more to sell it

wrt the overdraft interest
Advance: 17.9% EAR variable
Premier : 0% EAR variable on the first £500 and 11.9% EAR variable on the rest

With my £3300 overdraft that would make a £256 yearly saving, if my sums are correct.

For the eligibility its
an individual annual income of at least £75,000 and one of the following products with HSBC in the UK: a mortgage, investment, life insurance or protection product.

I have a life insurance policy with them, so meet this criteria.

[Deleted User]

PWM1 wrote: »

...

I tried the mobile phone short code suggested above, but the destination country only has a short code for landlines, which the relatives don't have. Thanks for the idea though

Use Skype.

You can do this either using a PC, tablet or mobile. Just need to install the app at both ends and then set-up an account.

It is free to use.

John_G_Jones

You are going to have to be in this for the long run, which means that there is a decent chance that along the way you have some kind of emergency, period of joblessness, or just rare but expensive things cropping up, so you need to have a decent emergency fund in place to ensure that you can cope without it becoming a crisis.

If it were me I would also try to go for six months of properly cutting things to the bone to get off to a good start.

Can your partner not find work that pays more, in evenings or weekends?

PWM1

Use Skype.

Thanks will give it a go. I have an old Skype account, didn't think to use it for this. I think the mother in law has a smart phone so it shouldn't be an issue setting it up.

Can your partner not find work that pays more, in evenings or weekends?

The issue here is child care. My work is very irregular (very early and late shifts with a random pattern), and we have no local family support for child care so would have to pay for it. Given the schedule involved the child care would likely offset any increased income. This is why my wife went self-employed, for the flexibility.
We will try to boost the self employment income. I'll have a brainstorm with her.
Or maybe she can find agency temp work that can fit around my schedule on the odd occasion.

kangoora

PWM1 wrote: »

Thanks very much for questioning me, as I've looked into it and hsbc stopped charging for advance fee years ago. Since that time I've been paying for "Insurance aspects", at £9.95 per month. I've just found out that it covers mobile phone cracked screens. I'm coming up to end of contract and my Galaxy S8+ has a cracked screen that will cost £200 to fix. I can claim on this hsbc insurance and it'll be worth so much more to sell it

Why are you selling the phone? I assume you won't have a mobile then or are you thinking in terms of selling it and getting a new contract for an s10 at £50/month (£1200 over 2 years)?

The smart thing to do would be to get the phone fixed under the insurance and get a £10 SIM only contract.

The S8+ is a relatively modern phone, my wife and I are still happily using an s5 and s6 and they both do everything we need to do. We've got a SIM only deal and are paying around £22 for both phones with 20Gb data.

PWM1

I was thinking of selling it and then using an old but usable iphone I have, while moving on to a sim only deal.

kangoora

PWM1 wrote: »

I was thinking of selling it and then using an old but usable iphone I have, while moving on to a sim only deal.

Good answer