Newbie

Villain_2

Hi, I am not sure if this is the place to post this but here goes anyway. Excluding my mortgage I owe around £12,000. I am working to lower this as fast as possible and would appreciate any help given. A couple of things are causing me problems at the moment.

1. I get paid 4 weekly and all my direct debits etc are going out calendar monthly. Anyone have any tips on how to work this better.

2. My credit card only allows a minimum payment or the whole balance to be paid off, is there any way to get a higher amount paid each month ?

3. I want to try to build up a savings pot so that I can pay those annual bills in one chunk so that I don't have to take them out over monthly instalments.

Number 1 is my biggest issue.

Thanks

itsnever2lateisit?

You can pay whatever you like off the CC over the minimum, ae you saying that you have a DD set up? If so, you can still make additional payments, either by cheque or online

Does you 4 week salary cover all your monthly outgoings? If so you could use payment 13 as a sort of 'bonus' and use it to throw at your debts

Have a look at the sticky at the top of this board regarding SOA and put one together, so that you have a listing of all your income and expenditure. If here is a surplus that you cannot account for then you need to consider keeping a spending diary to see where it goes

GreyPilgrim

Villain wrote: »

2. My credit card only allows a minimum payment or the whole balance to be paid off, is there any way to get a higher amount paid each month ?

I've never heard of this. A credit card company that ONLY lets you pay off the minimum balance is purposefully screwing you for as much interest as they can (knowing full well that you probably can't pay off the balance in full).

is it possible to get another credit card and shift the outstanding balance across and pay off as much above the minumum payments as you can afford (or if you can get one with a 0% offer, make minumum payments for the duration of the offer and stow some cash away for when the offer ends?)

GP

doodledo_2

Hi and welcome to the forum.

As itsnever2lateisit? has said you should be able to make one off payments from your credit card at anytime, either over the phone, online etc.

With regards to being paid 4 weekly I can't help there as I am paid monthly but I am sure some people who do get paid 4 weekly will be along soon to give you advice.

Take a look at the newbie thread at the top of the board and post your SOA showing all your incomings, outgoings and debts etc then we can all see if we can see anything that may be able to help you out.

Good luck with your journey to becoming debt free.

Villain_2

Thanks chaps but what is SOA ?

Seaxwyn

HI Villain

As others have said, I'm sure you can pay whatever you like off your credit cards, it's only direct debits that are limited.

As for the 4-weekly/monthly issue, I can't help but I can sympathise, as I'm self-employed and get paid only old time in the month. It does make budgetting really hard. But it sounds like you've got the right attitude and I'm sure you'll find a way of making it work.

Seaxwyn

For info on drawing up your SOA - see here: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=107280

Conor_3

1) This is easy. Simply don't spend the money. When you see a whacking lump in the bank, leave it there. Also See 3). Also try and move the dates so they're all in the same week at one end of the month.

2) Are you sure? This seems very strange. Pay over the counter using the payment slip sent to you and just pay whatever you want. See what happens.

3) What I do is make good use of online banking. I have a current account and a "internet savings" account with the same bank. This allows me to transfer between the two instantly. Work out what you need to live on each month. Choose a date each month (my DD's come out in the last week so I choose the 15th) and when your current account exceeds that, transfer the excess to the i-savings. If you get paid soon after that date, as you're on 4 weekly pay, transfer everything above that monthly figure to your i-savings. Eventually you'll reach a level where on every pay day, the balance of your current account far far exceeds what you need for the month.

Keep a spreadsheet of your income and expenses so you know exactly where you stand at any given point in the month.

Fortheloveofmoney

Hi There

Welcome to MSE.

My previous credit card would only allow me to set up a DD for the minimum or total balance as well. In addition to the above suggestions you can ask your bank to set up a standing order to the credit card for a set amount each month.

As long as it's more than the minimum and you pay on time (allowing enough days for the money to reach the credit card company) then you should be ok.

I think it took around 3-5 days for the credit card company to get there money but I allowed 10 to account for weekends, bank holidays and an extra couple just in case days

Villain_2

Thanks for the help on this, I will do a work up on my finances and let you see my SOA.

GreyPilgrim

"welcome to the forum" by the way!