I've done it again....

Newstart3

Debts June Vs July 2020 - Mid week motivation! 

Tesco £2,270.58 now £2,218.13
Fluid £1,183.13 now £1,142.20
Capital one 1 £632.70 now £0 - Card Cancelled
Capital one 2 £779.61 now £0 - Card Cancelled 
Next £1050 now £1,011.73
Barclaycard £373.31 now £144.20

Debt June = £6,289.33 / Debt July £4,516.26
Total debt repaid £1,773.07
Minimum payments June £320 / July £243
Emergency Savings = £750 

Forward planning for July payday (31st) - Sell items on eBay to raise additional cash to repay debts, Target = £500
Focus on debts to Next (high interest), clear Barclaycard 
And a big one.... Ask my employer for a pay rise 

Bizzywizard

Hi Newstart3,
you are doing well with your best busting. So keeping going. 

You have an EF, you should really consider using this to pay off your interest incurring debt. Please see Martin Lewises post about using you EF verses debt, this is on the main site. He basically says your EF is making very little in interest compared to your £40 a month interest incurring fluid credit card for example. It’s well worth a read. You are effectively losing money. Pay off the highest interest incurring card first.
You may find that once you have a few cards gone 0% balance transfer cards open up to you, to transfer the rest. Keep an eye on your credit club options. This is when you can start an EF.

I have also just started doing surveys so small gains that get put straight on my credit card. eBay stuff goes straight on the credit card, so I never miss the money, you can do about 4 overpayments a month in your credit cards.

Do you have an excel spread sheet showing what direct debts you have going out each month? This has kept me on the straight and narrow each month, for over a year now.
 Good luck!
Bizzy

Newstart3

Bizzywizard said:

Hi Newstart3,
you are doing well with your best busting. So keeping going. 

You have an EF, you should really consider using this to pay off your interest incurring debt. Please see Martin Lewises post about using you EF verses debt, this is on the main site. He basically says your EF is making very little in interest compared to your £40 a month interest incurring fluid credit card for example. It’s well worth a read. You are effectively losing money. Pay off the highest interest incurring card first.
You may find that once you have a few cards gone 0% balance transfer cards open up to you, to transfer the rest. Keep an eye on your credit club options. This is when you can start an EF.

I have also just started doing surveys so small gains that get put straight on my credit card. eBay stuff goes straight on the credit card, so I never miss the money, you can do about 4 overpayments a month in your credit cards.

Do you have an excel spread sheet showing what direct debts you have going out each month? This has kept me on the straight and narrow each month, for over a year now.
 Good luck!
Bizzy

Hi Bizzy
Thanks for taking the time to respond.  I have created an excel spreadsheet to track my outgoings along with my debt and projected balances.  It's become my bible over the last few weeks and I update it almost every day.  I was previously in considerable debt (£28k), which I cleared but unfortunately I defaulted and I got a CCJ, as such 0% deals are quite hard to come by (these fall of my credit file in 11 months - not that I'm counting!).  Currently, I'm aiming for a DFD of 30th November, which in the grand scheme of things isn't too far away.  Although if I can make an extra £700 between now and then, I could bring this forward to the 30th October.   

The EF is essentially there to stop me spending on credit cards, as I quite often travel for work and expenses can easily rack up especially if they are incurred after the 20th cut off date (£250 last month) and I have to wait until the following month to be reimbursed.  I know the debt is incurring interest, however I don't want to get into the habit of using a credit card again & my work won't accept that I can't travel because I don't have any money for meals etc, when they are reimbursing me for them.  I was previously in a situation where I didn't have any money and my credit was maxed.  Work sent me to Oxford for 2 days last minute to sort an issue.  The engineers went out for dinner and I ate a pot noodle in my hotel room.  Couldn't even afford to buy a coffee on my journey.  The EF allows me to leave the credit cards at home & I've removed them from my Apple pay.  Sounds daft, but the expenses were the trigger for overspending on the credit cards in the first place. 

eBay listings are my goals for this week and I actually have some free time this afternoon, so I may get them on today.  My friend has told me about a website called www.peopleperhour.com where I can also do a bit of freelance work.  She's made a few thousand during lockdown.  Obviously there are tax implications to this, so I'l need to be seek some advice. 

Bizzywizard

Me again,
I used to be a sales rep in London. So I understand the ‘paying for clients’ it used to drive me mad! The car parking was awful too £8 for one hour x8 hours per day (20 years ago). I had to ask my employer for payment in advance as I was drowning in debt in the first 3 months (they took 6 weeks to reimburse me). So I get where you are coming from 😀

One suggestion - I like to round down my credit cards so £209.99. This would have to be either £200 or £199. It always makes me feel better.
Bizzy

Newstart3

Bizzywizard said:

Me again,
I used to be a sales rep in London. So I understand the ‘paying for clients’ it used to drive me mad! The car parking was awful too £8 for one hour x8 hours per day (20 years ago). I had to ask my employer for payment in advance as I was drowning in debt in the first 3 months (they took 6 weeks to reimburse me). So I get where you are coming from 😀

One suggestion - I like to round down my credit cards so £209.99. This would have to be either £200 or £199. It always makes me feel better.
Bizzy

I know what you mean, I asked for a company credit card but they said no unfortunately.  The cut off for expenses is the 20th for us, so anything incurred from the 21st - 31st, we have to wait to the following months payday to receive.  The accounts team lack discretion, so I wouldn't dream of asking them for an advance - it would be round the office like a bad smell. 
Haha I like your thinking, but I'm far too much of a realist to put different figures in - I like to be as accurate as possible even forecasting what the next months statement will be.  
How times have changed!! 

kimwp

It doesn't seem right that you can't have a company credit card, you shouldn't have to be covering the company's spend. Our cards mean that late payments (due to not being reimbursed on time) affect the company's credit rating, not our own. 

enthusiasticsaver

I don't think you should use your EF to clear debt even if it would undoubtedly save you interest. You do not have an income problem or high outgoings but you do have a spending behaviour one by your own admission. You have cleared debt before and built it back up again and your partner pays a lot of your bills and you have a relatively high disposable income but still are spending on credit. It is sabotaging your attempts to gain control over your finances so getting rid of your EF leaves you vulnerable to spending on credit again where there are clearly problems with you keeping spending on check. 

You are making great strides in clearing the cards and well done on cancelling the Capital one card. I think focusing on Next is good as that is usually expensive although I would check the rate of that Fluid card if the interest is £40 a month on just over £1000 balance as that looks like an interest rate of around 40% which may be even higher than Next. 

If you have to pay out for company expenses I would set up a savings pot for them if you don't trust yourself to use a credit card and pay it off when the expenses are paid. I think they are a spending trigger for you if you can't set limits on how and when you use them. If you know travel will continue to be something you have to do for work then planning for it is crucial. 

Newstart3

kimwp said:

It doesn't seem right that you can't have a company credit card, you shouldn't have to be covering the company's spend. Our cards mean that late payments (due to not being reimbursed on time) affect the company's credit rating, not our own. 

Yeah it's our company policy that these are only available for Senior Managers and Directors.  I'm working towards a promotion at the moment, so I'll 100% be negotiating a company credit card as part of my package.   They had their fingers burned in the past when a Team Leader used the company credit card for personal use.  Another employee had told him that if he called up and paid it before the statement was due, the transactions he made wouldn't be visible to the business.  Unfortunately his wife was suddenly paid off without redundancy, so he couldn't pay it.  Even though he was a great employee otherwise, he was dismissed instantly.  He offered to use his salary due to clear the debt and left with barely anything.  We've never heard from him since.  Around the same time, a Manager used the company credit card to book a holiday and some other spending, thinking it was his own card (to be fair it was the same bank/ same colour card etc).  He realised his mistake when his own statement arrived and before the company received their statement and rectified it, but it was the final nail in the coffin. 

kimwp

Yeah it's our company policy that these are only available for Senior Managers and Directors.  I'm working towards a promotion at the moment, so I'll 100% be negotiating a company credit card as part of my package.  

Well that sounds like the company farmed its responsibilities off onto it's employees. Admittedly not ideal that the team lead used it for a holiday, but presumably given the outcome, no-one would do it again. Personally if he offered to pay it using his salary in the face of an unexpected loss of income, I think it was a bit of a harsh response. And maybe put stickers on the cards to mark them differently???

But good that you might get a company card soon

darrannah

Looks like your making excellent progress on your debt busting, not to mention determined, I wish I had some of that determintion! keep going and you'll get there, fingers crossed at the October date 🤞😊
Its nice to see that you have an a amazing partner that is helping you throught it too