My Debt Free Journey

abaka

Ok - So my MBNA updated so time to do a bit of reflection on what I've managed to achieve in debt payments.

Halifax  - 6737 6639

Halifax - 4941 4890

Virgin -  4191 

PayPal - 4059  4100 

Virgin - 3748 

Lloyds - 2947 - 2876

MBNA - 2778 - 1445

Still to make my £50 payment each on both Virgin cards and an £80 pound on PayPal. 

Annoyingly, when I started my diary, I took the balance  of PayPal from a spreadsheet and I had the wrong balance listed...the actual balance was £4159....After a refund and a rounding up payment it's 4100 but I hate how it looks like it's increased!! I can assure 100% there has been not one payment made using any of my credit.

I still have a couple of hundred pound in PayPal after sales to feed into the debts and a big payment of hopefully £230 at the end of the month to go on MBNA....So all being well when I get paid again on the 28 June the MBNA will be well under £1k and there is still a hope I can actually clear it before then. 

So after 7 days of my diary I'm down to a total debt of £27,889 from £29,501

I'll not be updating again until end of the month now as there's unlikely to be much change. 
 
Need to focus on the positive change I've made which is the most important thing to come out of this...Is me changing my habits.  I'll have managed to reduce the debt by almost £2k this month and last month I probably increased it by that amount!

LittleMissDetermined

Really well done so far! I’ll look forward to your end of month update 
LMD x

sunshine_raincloud

Well done on your progress so far! 

abaka

So I today actually went through and worked out the incomings/outgoings on Stepchange....It recommended a DMP and showed a payment of 600 a month would get me out of debt within 3 years....That would leave me with £300 a month extra than what I'm doing now  (literally pumping everything into debts and cutting back on a lot of stuff) and could provide a bit more comfort to my family....but I don't think the impact on my credit rating is worth it, not whilst I'm on top of things.

Especially not as I'm not paying ungodly sums of interest....The interest bearing payment right now is my loan and it's low APR and fixed payment. And I will be doing a balance transfer of the Lloyds card to a new Lloyds card.  I'm planning on doing this by balance transferring from an empty MBNA card and then sending the money that will be available on the MBNA card to PayPal and then using that to pay off the Lloyds card with the balance.  It's an unorthodox way of a balance transfer!!!

It might be another option if I don't get 0% offers but for the next 3 months, I think I'll continue doing what I'm doing now and then take stock of everything in October when the 0% expires on one of the virgin cards.

I'm just so glad that there is options/plans I can explore because the day I phoned Money Advice Centre, the guy had me believing the only way out of this was through an IVA and I know now that's not true.

Looking at all of this has me setting a target of being debt free by October 2024....Very ambitious but doable with focus!!!

LittleMissDetermined

I think this is the right decision. While ever you can get 0% transfers just keep doing that… 

abaka

Thanks.  I did spend a bit of time working out interest charges if I can't get a 0% percent offer....The £3748 on Virgin which expires on 1st October would be about £60 a month in interest charges.

I'm thinking I might change my approach to pay as much as possible off the Virgin card between now and October 1st....and then hopefully I have a lesser amount to pay on interest (assuming I can't get a balance transfer).

I'm showing as 95% right now for a Fluid 9 month balance transfer (not ideal as I prefer longer term balance transfers) but gives me 9 months more wiggle room or 50% for a HSBC (I wouldn't risk it at 50%). Tesco are saying 95% but only for a credit offer of £1200 which isn't going to help me right now. So hopefully after another 2-3 months of clearing debts I might have better offers

I should still wipe out the MBNA account this month which when my next credit report generates which will surely improve my attractiveness with creditors and any money I get from sales will be invested into clearing my smallest credit, so it's just a case of chipping away at each debt.

LittleMissDetermined

I found that as soon as my MBNA one was clear they started with the 0% offers. I’m sure once a card is clear it will be the same for you 

LittleMissDetermined

Just be aware that Fluid is MBNA so you may be restricted on what to transfer 

abaka

I LittleMissDetermined said:

Just be aware that Fluid is MBNA so you may be restricted on what to transfer 

I did not know that.  Do they allow balance transfers between each other? I know Lloyds allowed me to transfer between Halifax and MBNA.  Fluid doesn’t appeal to me though as it’s short term transfer and incredibly high interest rate.  Not really worth it for 9 months!!!  

It’s not a decision I need to make until late September so I’ve a decent window to make in roads on my debts for the time being!

I’ve also signed up to Yougov and Swagbucks.  Every little helps!! 

LittleMissDetermined

abaka said:

I LittleMissDetermined said:

Just be aware that Fluid is MBNA so you may be restricted on what to transfer 

I did not know that.  Do they allow balance transfers between each other? I know Lloyds allowed me to transfer between Halifax and MBNA.  Fluid doesn’t appeal to me though as it’s short term transfer and incredibly high interest rate.  Not really worth it for 9 months!!!  

I was confused and it was my NUBA card that changed to an MBNA - I have too many cards! It looks like Fluid are now provided by New Day so you should be fine  

abaka said:

I’ve also signed up to Yougov and Swagbucks.  Every little helps!! 

If you want to make free money there are lots of receipt snapping apps which pay out for little effort. I use Storewards, Snap My Eats, Airtime Rewards (goes to your EE or O2 mobile bill), Huyu, ZipZero and Shoppix.  Definitely worth checking them out.  I always class these are 'free money' hubby thinks I'm mad for doing it but like you said, every little helps.

If you're OK with surveys, sign up to Y Live and if you can see an advert anytime for Pinecone research they pay £3 for every qualified survey and they are quick to eliminate so not much wasted time

If you have any questions about these, just let me know. Always happy to help
LMD x