Hope this helps

wallowtundra

Hello,

After years and years of irresponsibility and plenty of stupidity, i've ran up plenty of debt (currently just under £10,000 in total). The good news is that recently I've managed to reach a decent salary and can now spend less than my income (even if by just a bit) and have for each of the past 6 or 7 months, so I hope I’m now past the worst. In the new year I resolved to make a plan for tackling my debt.
Current debt:
- Loan: (Was £7,800) Now £3,592 @ 3% -> Repaying £222 per month
- CC: £5,157 @ 0% (Ending October 2020 then 19.17%) -> Repaying min £50 per month
- Overdraft: £879 -> Fixed amount for overdraft paying £15

My initial plan is:
- Pay £150 per month extra per month to wipe the overdraft over completely (Jan – June)
- (June – Oct) Wipe as much as I can off the CC and then get a balance transfer
- After May next year the Loan should be paid off in full and then afterwards focus on paying off the CC before the 0% timeframe.

I think this seems reasonable – however there is part of me that thinks I could, instead of getting a balance transfer in October, is to get a loan and consolidate the CC with the Loan over a long timeframe with lower payments.

I believe the tension comes from on the one hand, I naturally want to get debt free as quickly as possible and avoid interest. On the other hand, maybe if I just spread it out a bit more I’d have more room on a monthly basis in the budget (certainly in the past unexpected outlays have forced me to use overdraft/CC which tends to end in a bit of a spiral) and a bit more room to enjoy life – I’m still relatively young and whilst I’m pleased I’m paying off the loan fairly quickly, it has meant some hard decisions and missing out.

Any advice? I think part of my issues in the past is impulse decisions on finance and I want to make the informed decisions this time around.

EDIT: I guess since this is a debt free diary section I should probably state, I'll be updating this every month for myself mainly - but also for anyone who wants to join me on this exciting journey