Third Time’s The Charm

Sarahwithlove

Sounds like a good plan regarding the balance transfer. 

BabyStepper

I've just finished reading your diary and wanted to say well done, you're making remarkable progress, really good. The first year was also the hardest for me but once you start getting those 0% deals, it all speeds up. Keep going. It will get easier and you will begin to feel the relief as the debts get smaller, interest reduces and you begin to believe debt free day will actually arrive. 

Talking of which, how did you get on with the balance transfer? 

Narola1976

Hello everyone. Thank you all for your advice. So I did the transfer and everything appears to have gone smoothly. It pains me to see that wretched HSBC balance back up to the limit when I was 4 months from paying it off. But it was the lesser of the evils. I can’t work out what my new DFD is just yet, need to run through the next statements first as the transfer took place just after the March statements were posted and won’t be reflected until the April statements. 

So the plan is now:

• Finish pay the high interest balance of HSBS as planned pre—transfer. There is about £2000.  If they are anything like MBNA, the 0% balance won’t be affected. So if all goes well the high interest balance will still be paid off in 4 months, leaving just the 0 % balance of £6894.30 for 11 months. While I would hate to pay interest on this after the 11 months, I feel I must focus on the next highest interest debt.
• Once the highest balance of HSBC is paid off, I will turn my focus to MBNA 1 (and just pay minimum on HSBC 0%) as the debt on the low interest promotional rate is every increasing as payments are allocated to the highest interest rate. Honestly, if I had realised what a mess multiple transfers can cause I would have never done them. My failure to understand how these things work has helped to make things so complicated. The low interest promotional rate ends in 2022 and so I need to make as much progress on this card as possible. If I can at least pay off the high interest rate balance then this will help
• After this it gets a bit murky. Because the time it’s going to take to deal with MBNA 1 means that we get to the point where HSBC 0% ends and the 28.9% interest kicks in. I can’t rely on getting another BT offer at that time although I do hope it will happen.

So the question is, is my plan right? A part of me feel I should still focus on HSBC as given the high amount I am currently paying as a snowball amount, I would be able to pay this off within the promotional period before the interest kicks in. But that does mean that the interest on the other cards just keeps racking up the balance. Happy for suggestions of the best way forward...

I am pleased to report that I have been able to stick to the diet and have lost some more weight taking my total weight loss since November to 33.6lbs. It has not been easy but stepping onto the scales this morning, and seeing that I have just managed to sneak into the next stone bracket has boosted me. Tomorrow is Mother’s Day and OH is treating us to  Nando’s takeaway. I feel this is a much healthier option than Chinese, as I will just have the chicken with HM side salad. 

Right, am off to have a little lie down as it is quite cold - we had hail today, plus I managed to clean the lounge and dining room which is a huge achievement. A domestic goddess I am not! 

Keep safe and well all
Narola

triple_choc_chip

Wow, well done Narola! Fantastic results for weight loss and debt reduction.
I think your 1st plan is correct; always pay the highest interest, to pay least overall.  
It’s a few years now since I paid my debt but the snowball used to show me the best order for payments as well as the dfd and I think I printed it to keep me focussed. It may be a different one now? I’ll have a look on the dfw board. 

BabyStepper

Someone gave me a tip about keeping note of multiple deals on ccs and it helped me a lot. Not sure if you do this already, but you can record them all as different debts and score them off as you go. i.e.
HSBC (1)  £2,000 26% 
HSBC (2)  £6,894 0% until Jan 2022
etc. (I know the dates are worng but you get the idea.)
It really helped me keep track of what was going on. 

enthusiasticsaver

Well done on weight loss and your debt reduction so far. I think you were right to do the BT and to focus on the HSBC 28% interest rate debt for now. Hopefully by the time the 15 months deal is finished the debt will be lower and you can move whatever is left to another deal. It is a good idea to split the debts into separate deals rather than the individual cards but just check how they allocate payments. 

ThatKiss

BabyStepper said:

Someone gave me a tip about keeping note of multiple deals on ccs and it helped me a lot. Not sure if you do this already, but you can record them all as different debts and score them off as you go. i.e.
HSBC (1)  £2,000 26% 
HSBC (2)  £6,894 0% until Jan 2022
etc. (I know the dates are worng but you get the idea.)
It really helped me keep track of what was going on. 

I did this when I had multiple 0% dates on my largest card, albeit that card was the only target card so it was more to make sure I had each balance paid off in time rather than prioritising against other rates, but it made sure the end dates were more visible over and above anything else.

warby68

Just had a read of your diary and wanted to give you a big pat on the back.
You have made a great amount of progress in less than a year and it looks like your changes are really bedded in now to make this debt clearance work. I hope you get some better rates this year to speed things up.
Not sure what the background is to your OH not paying bills other than random amounts he chooses to offer so I hope that situation gets better rather than worse as well.
It won't be long now before your debt free day is less than 2 years away which, to me anyway, is much closer to 'nearly there' than a multi year slog.
Keep going

Narola1976

Hello everyone

What a long time since I last posted. Thank you to those who still read and respond. I am not the greatest at posting but I can reassure you I remain as committed as ever to becoming debt free. To confirm, I have not added to my debt and the totals are going down. I have not used a CC since September 2019. However, while technically my DFD is May 2023, this is not a given as until I finish pay HSBC 1 (thanks for the tip @BabyStepper) in July, and the new minimum payment is calculated once the 0% ends in June for MBNA and interest kicks in, I won’t have an accurate calculation of payments etc. But for the moment I can confirm I have paid off roughly 27% of my total debt. Given I think I ended 2020 on around 12% I don’t think I am doing too badly.

Having said that, I have not been as frugal as I should be, and have dipped into savings quite a bit, topping up grocery spends mostly. I think it is because I pay so much to debt that I don’t realistically budget for groceries. And I am doing 3 x 1p challenges, plus other savings which is eating up disposable money. But I am reluctant to reduce debt payments (total going out is £1155) or savings pots. I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense the way I am doing it, but too afraid to do anything different. Plus, this time next year I will need to start paying uni costs and the debt repayments may have to slow down so I want to make as much progress as possible before then. So far I have saved £500 towards uni costs. Not much I know, but better than nothing. 

I don’t know if you remember I mentioned there was a promotion job going. Well I applied and got it, although only just started this month so not seen the pay rise yet.  It’s not a heck of a lot more and pushes me into the higher tax bracket I think - so take home, if I am lucky will be at least £80 extra. Of course Child Benefit comes to an end after this month, as DD will finish college at the end of May so really I may well not see a change financially. But I didn’t apply for the pay rise but rather the experience I hope it will give me. Of course,  work load has increased and I am working more hours to keep on top of it. 

I am once again struggling with my diet, having gained about 7lbs back off my original 33lbs lost. I am really struggling to get back on it. Oh well, keep trying! I don’t know why it is so hard to stay consistent. I am just glad I have lasted this long with the DFJ. I think this is the longest I have maintained focus on becoming debt free. 

Well that is it for now, hope you are all keeping safe and well. 

Narola

foxgloves

Hello @Narola1976, It sounds like you still have lots of focus on becoming debt-free & that 2021 has started well. Congratulations on getting the promotion. Always nice to hear some good news. 
I am having another big go at my weight. I lost 6 stones a few years ago, but for some reason, when I got to the point I only needed to lose another 1 maybe 1 & a half, I totally lost focus & from then on have been cycling bits of weight on & off repeatedly (mostly on!). If I am not careful, I shall be back where I was in 3 years time or so. I lost 5.2kg between the end of Jan & Easter, but have strayed from the path with Easter temptation & my birthday is also unhelpfully in April. I felt much healthier while I was doing my traffic light eating plan though & am ready to start cutting down this weekend & making a positive re-start on Monday morning. My body doesn't like eating a lot of fat as I have a naughty gallstone, so it does me doubly good to be properly following my diet. So my plan is to resume where I left off last month & to schedule in what I hope will be a positive Weigh-Day at the end of June.
Best wishes for the weight loss, debt vanquishing & of course the new job.
F x