what to do!!!

is_it_ever_going_to_end

hi to all! you probably hear this every time you read a thead but this is my first time on here and things are really getin me dowm at the moment so thought i would see what help and advice i could get from those n a similar situation as me. i am 23 years old and currently in around £20,000 worth of debt, as much as i try i cannot keep on top of monthly payments and are forever getting charged here and there either for late payments or for being over limit. me and my boyfriend are wanting to buy a house but obviously having difficulty obtaining a mortgate, can anyone give me any advice on how to go about thngs, at the moment i dont really see any way out!_pale_

saverram

you came to the right place. Post your SOA( incomings, outgoing etc). Experienced money savers will help you to get through this
all th e best

Sazzled

Hi I am in the same situation as yourself. I do have a mortgage which adds to the stress at the moment. I recently tried to get credit to swap my car as its time to pay the final payment and was refused credit.
My advise is to read alot of the threads on this website and there is a lot of people out there who will help.
I have just joined and I am starting small at first so that its not such a shock cutting back. I have started with a grocery shop cut back and try to do no spend days.
Hope this helps but keep at it and it will be worth it in the long run. You have done the hardest thing realising that you have a problem you need to solve.

Quincifer

First things first, welcome and don't worry! Most people on here are in the same or a similar boat and are great at giving advice.

Best thing for you to do would be to firstly give us an SOA (statement of affairs) so we can see whats going on. Basically a list of what you have incoming (salary, benefits etc) and what all of your outgoings are (bills, food etc) including APRs if you know them.

Once you've done that everyone can see how to help.

x

is_it_ever_going_to_end

income:- on average £850 every 4 weeks (between £900-£950 is working sundays)

debts:- payments p/m
overdraft £250 £20
halifax visa £1250 £30
mbna £2900 £90
virgin £1000 £40
barclaycard £1000 £40
egg £1000 £30
loan £11000 £202
car £3800 £50 p/m petrol £42 insurance £100 car itself
argos £680 £40
topshop £150 £10
jjb £200 £10

totl debt £23,230

other outgoings are
phone £35
board £100
xmas vouchers £30
contacts £16
Total outgoings £885

outgoing total is sometimes higher depending what minimum payment is and iv had a few high phonebills. i try get in as many sundays as can in for the extra bit of cash.

hope i havent confused every1 too much because iv confused myself lol x x

southernscouser

Hi there and welcome to the site. You've come to the right place.

When was the last time that you spent on any of the cards?

I know it sounds obvious but your main priority is to make sure your income is higher than your outgoings. This means reducing your other outgoings as much as possible for the short term.

Can you post the details of your credit limits for all your cards aswell? It may be a case that you could transfer some debt to another card to keep you within the credit limits to at least stop you getting charges each month!

Have you recently tried applying for any form of credit? If not have you considered applying for a low life of balance credit card? I would reccomend this over a 0% one as you have no guarantee of being accepted when the 0% period is up to transfer it again to a cheaper card! :think:

millionaire_in_training

Hi and welcome. You need to make sure you dont have big phone bills as you cant aford them at the moment. Can you go onto PAYG and limit yourslef to a tenner or something a month? You will just have to work away at the debts to get them down. The no brainer is to stop spending on your cards. Each month they will go down even if by a little bit so your minimum payments will go down. Martin advises that you set up a monthly payment for your minimum as it is just now and that means when the minimum payment goes down you will actually be overpaying. Do e-bay, quidco etc etc. Loads of threads on this. Can you get a second job? Dont panic there is always a way. Good luck x

Quincifer

I know it isn't a huge help but is your Topshop card a 7 Network one? Because if it is it'll be like my Dotty P's one and the minimum payment if you pay by direct debit is £6/£7. As I said its not a huge drop but every little helps!
Are you up to the limit on all your cards? If not you could transfer some balances over to some of your cheaper cards, that would save a bit too.

x

is_it_ever_going_to_end

yeah im close to my limits on all my cards so cant do transferes, iv got 9 month on my contract but have changed tarrif to keep it down then will go onto pay as yougo then. i havent used my cards for a while, iv cut most of them up to stop spending x

dsljfreeman

Hi there and welcome to MSE,

I've had a look through your outgoings and there's not really much scope for reducing them, as your debts stand at the minute getting a mortgage will be a very bad move, not only will the payments be high but then you'll have all the bills that come with it aswell, I think you should just stay as you are until you've significantly reduced your debts.

The best way forward is to generate more income and throw every spare penny at your debts.

~ You mentioned that you try to up your income via overtime, is this guaranteed every month?
~ Register with Quidco, Pigsback, RPoints etc for cashback
~ Look at the thread which mentions AQA - this is self employed work which you can do in your spare time
~ Do you have anything you can sell on Ebay or Amazon
~ Can you offer services such as ironing, cleaning or dog walking
~ Keep a spending diary for a month then work on reducing unnecessary spends.

I hope this has been useful for you, it's easy for me to list things but not so easy to implement them.

I wish you lots of luck in your debt free journey xx

welshgirl78

Well Done for posting and facing up to your debts - that is the hardest bit initially... then just become obsessed with money saving expert... instead of spending money!!!!

Seriously it is possible!
Good luck with all, I'm not full of advice but everyone is here supporting you... keep us (me) updated xxx