Time to Face The Music

RelievedSheff

alt80 said:

Just thinking I think it’s about £15k you’re looking to finance for the van - why not stick that on the 0%? 

From what you’ve said the adverse will be off your file so should be able to get cards. You’ll get around 2 years to pay. Going to be better than dealer finance if I recall correctly the rates for the dealer finance weren’t good. 

100% avoid as much interest as possible.

We will be looking to borrow somewhere between £15-20k for the van. 

Dealer finance is a last resort and something we are keen to avoid if at all possible. We were thinking perhaps a personal loan but we will look into the 0% purchases option as well nearer the time.

That is a little way off yet though. Going to concentrate on getting as much paid off these cards as possible before we borrow more for the van. At the earliest it is likely to be the beginning of June that we start looking properly.

alt80

@enthusiasticsaver this is what I’ve struggled to understand why is it an issue to add to debt temp if you’re winning overall (paying less interest/ meeting 0% deadlines). Sorry but I just don’t understand why anyone would want to pay more for the banks to win? Think by the time people are at the point they want to make the choice to live more sustainably they are done with making the banks unnecessary profit. I get the don’t be a slave to the banks argument but by the same token these products are there for the taking; I’ve come to the conclusion used as part of a well thought out plan it’s not stupid to use the cards etc. 100 stupid when behaving in the way I was for years agreed there so can see why you probably think I’m the last person who should be giving advice.

enthusiasticsaver

alt80 said:

@enthusiasticsaver this is what I’ve struggled to understand why is it an issue to add to debt temp if you’re winning overall (paying less interest/ meeting 0% deadlines). Sorry but I just don’t understand why anyone would want to pay more for the banks to win? Think by the time people are at the point they want to make the choice to live more sustainably they are done with making the banks unnecessary profit. I get the don’t be a slave to the banks argument but by the same token these products are there for the taking; I’ve come to the conclusion used as part of a well thought out plan it’s not stupid to use the cards etc. 100 stupid when behaving in the way I was for years agreed there so can see why you probably think I’m the last person who should be giving advice.

I agree with you in that I will not pay interest to banks and I am not averse to interest free credit if it is sensible and available.  I would be tempted to do the same as you and pay off the interest bearing debt with the boat pot but RS has made it clear previously that they have their reasons for not doing that.   Maybe it is because she has adverse credit so getting 0% deals may not be that easy and maybe in her head she wants to separate the boat/van money from the debt. I think the decision is done from a psychological angle rather than financial though in that the debt is one thing and they have a plan to repay that and they do not want to jeopardise their motor home purchase by using any of the boat savings for the historical debt. It works out more expensive though given the interest rate on that CC3 

RelievedSheff

alt80 said:

@enthusiasticsaver this is what I’ve struggled to understand why is it an issue to add to debt temp if you’re winning overall (paying less interest/ meeting 0% deadlines). Sorry but I just don’t understand why anyone would want to pay more for the banks to win? Think by the time people are at the point they want to make the choice to live more sustainably they are done with making the banks unnecessary profit. I get the don’t be a slave to the banks argument but by the same token these products are there for the taking; I’ve come to the conclusion used as part of a well thought out plan it’s not stupid to use the cards etc. 100 stupid when behaving in the way I was for years agreed there so can see why you probably think I’m the last person who should be giving advice.

 

We have to then trust ourselves not to make any more purchases with the card and quite frankly I'm not sure long term we will be able to stay away from the card spending. That is after all what has got us to where we are now in the first place.

With a loan that temptation and option isn't there. The money is borrowed and paid back with nothing else to spend.

Our own bank can offer us (when my CCJ has gone) 3% on £20,000 over 5 years which will mean we end up paying back £21,540. We don't think this is a bad deal over the 5 years and we would probably end up paying it off sooner with overpayments.

enthusiasticsaver

RelievedSheff said:

alt80 said:

@enthusiasticsaver this is what I’ve struggled to understand why is it an issue to add to debt temp if you’re winning overall (paying less interest/ meeting 0% deadlines). Sorry but I just don’t understand why anyone would want to pay more for the banks to win? Think by the time people are at the point they want to make the choice to live more sustainably they are done with making the banks unnecessary profit. I get the don’t be a slave to the banks argument but by the same token these products are there for the taking; I’ve come to the conclusion used as part of a well thought out plan it’s not stupid to use the cards etc. 100 stupid when behaving in the way I was for years agreed there so can see why you probably think I’m the last person who should be giving advice.

 

We have to then trust ourselves not to make any more purchases with the card and quite frankly I'm not sure long term we will be able to stay away from the card spending. That is after all what has got us to where we are now in the first place.

With a loan that temptation and option isn't there. The money is borrowed and paid back with nothing else to spend.

Our own bank can offer us (when my CCJ has gone) 3% on £20,000 over 5 years which will mean we end up paying back £21,540. We don't think this is a bad deal over the 5 years and we would probably end up paying it off sooner with overpayments.

That 3% is a good deal.  Do you have a plan long term to keep away from card spending then once the debt is gone?  Do you plan on closing them all apart from maybe one?  That might be the best option if you think you will be tempted.  You do seem pretty disciplined though so I am surprised you do not trust yourselves not to spend and  you can always close the cards once they are cleared to stop you spending on them again. My calculations show you must be paying around £67 this month interest on CC3 and £55 next month assuming you paying £500 per month.  Obviously you will save more in interest if you overpay and clear the card in less than the 6 months I reckon it will take you if you just pay the £500. The savings on the interest is way more than the interest you must be earning on the boat savings and you can always replace it with the £500 you do not have to pay out on the card if you cleared it.  You do seem to have made your mind up though so fair enough. 

RelievedSheff

enthusiasticsaver said:

RelievedSheff said:

alt80 said:

@enthusiasticsaver this is what I’ve struggled to understand why is it an issue to add to debt temp if you’re winning overall (paying less interest/ meeting 0% deadlines). Sorry but I just don’t understand why anyone would want to pay more for the banks to win? Think by the time people are at the point they want to make the choice to live more sustainably they are done with making the banks unnecessary profit. I get the don’t be a slave to the banks argument but by the same token these products are there for the taking; I’ve come to the conclusion used as part of a well thought out plan it’s not stupid to use the cards etc. 100 stupid when behaving in the way I was for years agreed there so can see why you probably think I’m the last person who should be giving advice.

 

We have to then trust ourselves not to make any more purchases with the card and quite frankly I'm not sure long term we will be able to stay away from the card spending. That is after all what has got us to where we are now in the first place.

With a loan that temptation and option isn't there. The money is borrowed and paid back with nothing else to spend.

Our own bank can offer us (when my CCJ has gone) 3% on £20,000 over 5 years which will mean we end up paying back £21,540. We don't think this is a bad deal over the 5 years and we would probably end up paying it off sooner with overpayments.

That 3% is a good deal.  Do you have a plan long term to keep away from card spending then once the debt is gone?  Do you plan on closing them all apart from maybe one?  That might be the best option if you think you will be tempted.  You do seem pretty disciplined though so I am surprised you do not trust yourselves not to spend and  you can always close the cards once they are cleared to stop you spending on them again. My calculations show you must be paying around £67 this month interest on CC3 and £55 next month assuming you paying £500 per month.  Obviously you will save more in interest if you overpay and clear the card in less than the 6 months I reckon it will take you if you just pay the £500. The savings on the interest is way more than the interest you must be earning on the boat savings and you can always replace it with the £500 you do not have to pay out on the card if you cleared it.  You do seem to have made your mind up though so fair enough. 

The cards are getting closed as they are paid off. We will keep one as an emergency measure only but it will be kept locked away out of the way of temptation.

We have already made our minds up. The motorhome fund is not getting touched. The aim is to clear Card 3 in 3 months if possible. We are happy to pay the higher interest on that for such a short timescale. We know that if we start dipping into the motorhome fund then it will start to dwindle away and we will end up having to borrow more which we really want to avoid.

alt80

@RelievedSheff please don’t take this as preachy/ judgemental because I’m not that sort but you need to trust yourself mate. I’m saying this as someone who has had a completely out of control spending problem, I’ve been in six figures of credit card debt in the past and it’s !!!!!! !!!!!! as I’m sure you know. I’ve been there with the ‘never going to spend on cards again’ which didn’t happen. I’ve not been there with the adverse but imagine it’s pretty similar to when I had to refinance my res portfolio onto a !!!!!! rate and pull the money. That did absolutely nothing to stop me - just allowed me to start all over again. 

What I’m saying is if you can keep that boat money entirely separate you can trust yourself and trusting yourself to live to the budget using whatever tools available will help you to move on from the ‘I’m an out of control spending addict’ mindset. 

RelievedSheff

The trust will come back over time I guess. But for now it isn't there and probably won't be for as long as we are paying off the credit cards and paying for our past over spending. 

RelievedSheff

It will be a no spends day today.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner will be from stores. Breakfast was toast, the other half has taken his packed lunch to work, I have small piece of salmon I found in the freezer for my lunch, think I will have that with some new potatoes and some veg and it is fakeaway Friday. Tonight we are having chicken tikka wraps with a homemade riata. 

Today's jobs include:

• working from home
• vacuuming the house
• dusting the house
• walking the dog x 2

I am looking forward to chilling out with a few beers and watching a couple of films tonight on the sofa. I seem to have had a string of rubbish jobs to do this week so I am looking forward to switching off the computer at 4pm and forgetting about work until Monday morning. I have, hopefully, set myself up for a quieter work day today.

Sun_Addict

Happy Friday 😁

I completely understand why you want to keep the camper van money separate. We have in the past had lump sums earmarked for things then started chipping away at it and before you know it it's gone. I still use a credit card now but clear it every time it has a balance and the money is always sitting in the current account ready to clear it. It took a while to get into the mindset of not just waiting until the end of the month to clear it then being skint for the rest of the month and building up a balance again. Now if the money isn't available it doesn't get spent.