Help me reach JFK!!!

Lemon_Tree

congratulations on the wedding and on coming here, you're in the right place, the easiest comment from me is that pay of the Dotty P's card first as it's the highest interest and then work your way down the interest rates from there.

newyorkcitybride

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the advice so far. I've put all my debts into the snowbal calculator so I now know what payments i need to be making each month.

My struggle is with actually making these payments and ensuring i dont go over budget in areas such as food. Any advice on those aspects?

angelavdavis

Hi NYCBride,

Welcome to MSE

I know it is getting another card, but is it worth trying to get a lower life of balance card so you can transfer the £916 you are paying 19% across? 19% is an awful rate and you are unlikely to make many in-roads into that with that interest rate.

You could also try to merge the Dotty P card on there too so you get a lower rate all round. Then cancel the DP card and put the Abbey card in a bowl of water in the freezer so you can't use it!

The link for the snowball calculator (so you can enter your debts and work out your debt-free date) is http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx.

As well as endorsing the spending diary which will help you see how you spend your £100 per month, I would do the following:

1) Practice meal planning so you can buy your shopping in advance to stop you picking up expensive impulse buys whenever you pop into the shop - check out the Old Style forum for tips on saving money.
2) See if you have anything you can eBay to raise some cash - then throw at the cards.
3) Sign up to quidco and pigsback and if you buy anything - use their links so you get piggy points or cashback. Pigsback will also allow you to earn free piggy points by clickthrough links. See the Cashback Forums for more info. It might not be lots of money, but it will pile up.

If you can't get a cheaper card - imho, I think you would be better off using your £50 emergency fund to pay off your debts as you are paying such a high interest rate - you won't be getting anything close to it at the bank.

Good luck!!!

newyorkcitybride

Hi Angela,

Thanks for your advice. I've now decided that I'll be using that extra £50 to throw at the debt. and will actually pay off what I've already got in that account at the end of the month.

As for getting another card I'm a bit unsure as I've had three addresses in the past year and I dont think my credit rating is all that fabulous. However I can get the balance of my DP card transferred to the MBNA card with a BT cheque and get it on 0% till Dec 08, but I'm not sure if thats even worth it since I could pay it off next month?

I think I might give I.F a call and see if they will offer me another LOB deal on the remaining £916 which is at 19% from MBNA and see how that works out. I've been playing about with various numbers on the snowball calculator. Just need to get my variable spendings under control so I can pay off any extras onto these cards and hopefully be as close to card debt free by the wedding as possible!

angelavdavis

Hi there!

Yes you are probably right about the address changes, so you will have to park that idea for a while. Sounds like you have the right idea too about getting the other spending down - it can really make an impact.

I think its definitely worth phoning IF -the worst they will say is no, then at least you know you are lined up for a hard slog!

Why not pay off DottyP now, rather than waiting until the end of the month?It will reduce the interest that you will be paying for the month.

Enter your snowball and see how much difference adding £10 extra per month onto debt repayments can make, its really an eye opener!

Anything to ebay?

newyorkcitybride

Hi again Angela,

Thanks for your advice once more.
Unfortunately I can't pay off my DP card till next month i.e next pay day as I've already done all my payments for this month so I dont have the money to clear that one off...

I get paid on the 21st December so that might just be my xmas present to myself, one less card!
Then its all guns blazing!
My current snowball puts me at 14 months to have everything paid off, and I discovered I owe I.F less than I thought (redirected mail hadnt ocme through yet!), so in actual fact I only owe them £209! What a result!I've put that into my snowball already!

Feeling pretty positive that I can get myself as close to card free as possible come March.
Just really do need to concentrate on the mariable spending for myself and for H2B (starting to learn the lingo!) as his debt is even worse than mine, and he's much mor frivilous than I am. Only one more Xmas present to get though and that should cost me more than £20!

So could really make some good payments come end of December pay!