Advice needed please

EST123

I need advice please.
I have £1400 on PayPal credit and £2400 on a next account. I have also used an overdraft to try and sort this.
I am desperate to get rid of this debt, I’ve been having a tough time, still am and had closed my eyes to it. I now want relief from it ASAP. I am trying to sell things on Vinted but this is only making slow inroads.  Am I best getting a money transfer card and getting rid of these debts immediately to then just have one payment per month which I will definitely be disciplined to pay off hopefully sooner if I can?  Or do I have any other options?  I’ve got my head out of the sand and committed to resolving this. 

Graham1982

Hello @EST123:

I am not a seasoned veteran around here so whilst I will try to help you, it is best you wait for confirmation (or refutation) of what I tell you.

Is any of this debt across either lender (Next/Paypal) in an interest free period?

If not, it is best to tackle the debt with the highest interest rate. 

Another thing that you could/maybe advised to do here is to post a SOA (statement of [financial] affairs). If completed properly it will list all of your income and assets along with your outgoings and debts so that people can advise you best on what to do next.

Using an overdraft to pay a debt off is never a good idea but truisms are most likely not to be helpful at this stage.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

Graham

outoftheviciouscircle

I know the feeling. I woke up to my debt problem a couple of weeks ago and if you set your mind to it I promise you can do it.

Firstly are you paying interest on these debts? If you are are you eligible to switch them to a 0% offer. I'm guessing by the accounts you hold you probably are.

Are you at least making the minimum payments every month?

Do you have an income, so you can at least get a plan together to make some inroads?

Most people will advise you that consolidating is not a good idea as it normally doesn't solve the problem. I can actually vouch for this as thats exactly how I got into the mess I'm in. Sorry I'm not much use just wanted to show some support.

Good luck

EST123

Thank you!  Yes there is interest on one of them and as I understand it I can’t do a balance transfer with these two accts so thought the money transfer would be my other option. 

I am earning and making minimum repayments but with outgoings bills/mortgage,what I have left isn’t bringing the balances down as quickly as I’d like due to the interest. 

EssexHebridean

Good advice already given. The Statement of Affairs is a solid place to start - get that filled in and posted here and we can take a look and maybe identify some savings you have missed. Make sure the SOA is an honest reflection of where you are at right now - there's no sense in filling it in to show what you would like things to look like - that helps nobody! 

I agree that consolidation isn't a plan - you need to learn the discipline of paying off the debts while also not running up more as that's the best reminder in the work of why you don't want to be back in this position again. All consolidating does is "kick the can down the road" and you'll be back there again in a few years. Someone wise here once said "you can't borrow your way out of debt" and there's a lot of truth to that!

One thing I will say is that you need to prioritise sending whatever surplus income you have (or we can find you, via that SOA) to getting shot of the overdraft. OD's are horrible "dangerous" debts as they can be called in at no notice. It's often the only time when not paying off the highest interest rate first applies. 

EST123

Ok, thank you for that good advice. Have to say I’m not happy to do the SOA as that is truly too much sharing but I am listening to what you are saying especially about the OD.  Many thanks 🙏 

EssexHebridean

Do it anyway - but rather than sharing publicly then go through it yourself line by line. The main thing to look at is what figure it gives you for a surplus. ie if your income was £1800, and your expenditure for everything should be £1500 then you *should* have £300 spare - then ask yourself whether you do have that relevant amount sitting there doing nothing at the end of the month. (You wont have - nobody does!) Once you have that headline figure that you should have spare each month, multiply it by 12 to see how  much you're "losing" over a year - that will scare you silly  - but in a good way. A good SOA gives you a budget to work to, and is a truly vital tool in finding your way out of a financial hole.

The other thing you could do if you felt OK with it is to just post the portion of it involving expenditure, but leave out anything that reveals your income. that then means we could help by casting an eye over your bills, at least. I do entirely get the thing of not feeling comfortable to share the lot though - I never have either for the same reason.

Graham1982

Also, I am not encouraging/convincing you to do a statement of affairs if you don't want to but if you are only identified by your forum name and you don't say "My name is X and I work at Y and I live at Z" aren't these all meaningless numbers to everyone else? As in you can't be identified by them.

EST123

EssexHebridean, I’ve listened to what you said,  I’ve worked out a plan to reduce and get rid of the OD first, then hit the other debts hard.  It will basically mean I have nothing to spend until at least August next year but I have to do it. 

 I’m slowly selling items on Vinted, sadly I haven’t much else left to sell otherwise I would, just to reduce the debt.
Ive also signed up for paid online surveys but so far have lost 45 mins of my time after starting 4 of them to be told halfway through, sorry this survey isn’t for you!!!

 

My other half doesn’t know what I’m going through as he has enough stress in his life and my parents have poor health and I’m a carer for my dad who has dementia so I have enough stress/worry without carrying this burden off debt around in my head as well.  I have no one else to share this with, so thank you everyone for your suggestions.  Any other ideas would be most grateful 🙏

Graham1982

@EST123

Have you tried Rev? You could become a captioner (subtitle writer) or audio transcriber.

The long and the short of it - you get paid weekly, it is a low earner but a definite earner, no half way through surveys and "this isn't for you" type stuff. You have to do a test to get in.

EST123

I’ll have a look at that, thank you Graham1982