Countdown from £28k...

dawnybabes

Can you air bnb it ?

ryanm8655

dawnybabes said:

Can you air bnb it ?

Good idea, will look into prices. Wouldn’t be surprised if the event is cancelled though so will hold off booking for now. Lots of other firms are cancelling/shifting dates.

ryanm8655

Have booked a hotel for the 4 day law trip - got 4 nights for £250 but it's got free cancellation so will look out for anything cheaper.

Going to have a look if there are any further 0% deals I can get, one more £5k card and the whole lot will be interest free for the time being.

Once you've got the full balance on 0% do people tend to transfer the money they would pay into savings until the offers close, or just continue paying them down as normal? Probably the latter to avoid the temptation to duck into the savings pot I guess?

BISCUIT1

Hi I have just been reading your diary-well done you are doing great! I just wanted to ask if the 0% deals you are getting offered are fee free as well as the ones I get all involve a fee and can only see new card offers on the MSE page that are fee free--my existing cards offers all involve fees which I am trying to avoid!

Littlebirdie

Hey, you are doing great. Definitely pay down savings. I've done it before where I saved the money to pay off £1000 at once. Psychologically it was so much less rewarding and I hated that my credit debt score was not reducing. 
Keep going!  

ryanm8655

BISCUIT1 said:

Hi I have just been reading your diary-well done you are doing great! I just wanted to ask if the 0% deals you are getting offered are fee free as well as the ones I get all involve a fee and can only see new card offers on the MSE page that are fee free--my existing cards offers all involve fees which I am trying to avoid!

The ones I’ve got have had a small one-off fee (2-3% of balance) but a small price to pay for 2/3years interest free.

ryanm8655

 No new 0% deals available at the moment. Might be because I am yet to close down the Santander card I’ve just cleared. I am reluctant to close because there is an online purchase I want to make in a few months in foreign currency (it’s a zero rate card) but also because I want the protection. Am I right in assuming I wouldn’t get that protection if I used my debit card?

Another question. As morbid as it is, I’m likely to inherit some money in the next couple of years, which will be enough for a deposit to buy a property. In the meantime I’m thinking of setting up a lifetime isa so that I am able to take advantage of the 25% boost. It would be optimal to pay in £333.33 a month to maximise the £4K/year allowance but obviously this would hinder debt repayments, though I’d still have plenty of room in my budget for it. Is this a stupid idea? 25% is more than the rate on all of my remaining cards so intuitively it makes sense...

ryanm8655

A quick update since I am able to devote a bit more time and money to this now (one positive of Coronavirus)

Made overpayments on the Tesco and MBNA cards on payday, plus my usual overpayment on Barclays. My new debt balance is sub £20k at £19464.68. Really pleased with this. Just wish I was paid weekly so I can get that satisfying feeling every week. It helps that I could be in a position to get on the property ladder in a year or so.

Interest bearing balance has gone down to £2910.01. This is made up of:

Tesco - £1410.01

Barclaycard - £1470 

Next payday my plan is to pay the £1410.01 on the Tesco card, as well as my usual £500 on the Barclaycard. Will require some discipline in minimising my spend for the rest of this month but my only outgoings are food shopping at the moment, plus a bit of fuel. Then I can clear the Barclaycard interest bearing balance the following month. At that point a trickle of balances start bearing interest again from July until the end of the year so I can just attack those (I think the highest in a month is about £900 at the moment). At this point last year I'd have been delighted to be at sub £15k by August but that seems easily achievable now.

I've also upped the monthly payments on a few cards as a couple of the new ones were on minimum.

The main barrier at the moment is boredom and the temptation to fill that by buying things online but for the most part I've resisted. Did buy a couple of shirts in the John Lewis sale but am resisting the temptation to buy some new Bluetooth earphones at £169 (currently use over ear but can't use these while cycling - my main physical outlet at the moment).

I can definitely see a bit of a splurge coming once Coronavirus is over but just trying to hit the debt hard in the meantime.

Considering setting up a lifetime ISA and sticking in a token amount each month but might hold back on that for now.

Thanks,

Ryan

ryanm8655

Decided to cancel the Santander zero card. Was looking at buying a watch from outside of the UK as I could save a chunk but have decided it’s a bad idea and there’s no point in holding onto a card for months on end, harming credit rating. Don’t need it. May treat myself when I’m finally debt free and have saved for one. Another card gone. Another step closer.

EssexHebridean

Loving reading that last post Ryan - just seeing how far you've come since that light bulb flickered on! Seriously - well done, and keep going, you're making such a massive impact! 

As for 0% cards - I have one on the go at the moment, slightly different scenario to yours in that the money to clear it is sitting in savings ready in my case, but what I've done is set the monthly payment to a little above the original minimum monthly payment - £105 in my case, and I've then just left that to run for the most part - we did hit it with one £1000 lump when a regular saver account matured, but other than that it's just been trickling down, albeit at a faster rate than if we'd left it on minimums of course. It's due to end in October and I think from memory I'll have about £400 to pay off to clear it then - rather better than where it would have been had we left it running on minimums!