My Debt Free Journey

Keedie

I'm so glad that you've such a great weekend abaka, and it's so nice to see that you're in a better mental place than you were 3 weeks ago. It's amazing what a methodical focus and approach can do for your finances and mindset isn't it? I feel like I'm starting to turn a corner with mine, but it's still overwhelming, but I have more control now that I did say even a few days ago. So I'm so happy that you're able to enjoy Father's Day without worrying about your finances and that you had such a great time with your brother. It sounds like all of the changes you've been making recently, have put you in a different frame of mind, maybe making it easier for you to relax and that in turn had a positive impact on how you spent time with your brother as you felt more free? 

LittleMissDetermined

It sounds like you have had a wonderful weekend and I'm really happy for you! I always find that unplanned social events are much more enjoyable than those that are planned in, sounds like you had a great time with your brother The good thing is, you'll need another visit to actually collect the chair. 

I'm also on the last week to pay day now (27th) and I can't wait for the accounts to be topped up again. 
LMD x

abaka

I think with my brother it was just one of those moments where we were in the right moment at the right time.  It was genuine good laugh but 99/100 times it wouldn't happen.  As I say, we're not estranged or anything, we are pretty close I would say but we have very very contrasting personalities/interests so socialising like we did rarely happens....Including both our stag dos, we've probably only ever went out for a drink together 3-4 times in our lifes!

I'm so excited for PayDay....As I want to say good bye to my MBNA balance which will happen in this pay period and it will be so refreshing to finish the month with money remaining in my account

As for my MBNA card, I'm actually thinking about closing one of my MBNA accounts when I settle the account.  MBNA always seem to be one of those providers who offer great balance transfers to new customers and with my plan to transfer my current Virgin balance to my Lloyds card and my current Virgin balance to my Lloyds card.  This might mean in 8-9 months when I need a balance transfer, enough time will have passed for me to be a new customer for an MBNA application, and I'll keep the other one open as after time passes, they might offer me 0% transfer options anyway.

The only downside is the impact this will have on my overall credit utilisation but I think that might be a small negative as by time I need to request more credit....My debt will be substantially lower than what it is now!

jwil

Glad you had good weekend, life is so much easier with a plan to get on top of the debts.

Sarahwithlove

well done on almost being clear of one of your debts. its always a nice feeling when that first one is gone. Hopefully you will find more things to sell and can keep chipping away at them. 

abaka

Ugh!!  Horrible few days for me (right at the end of the month) Car is due it's MOT this week and I'm fairly certain one of the tyres is going to need replaced which I believe is around £60.  And that's just issues I expect.  I have no idea if there's any underlying faults in the car that will need fixed/repaired. 

In other news - I have had confirmed that my money I'm due for inheritance is going to be paid out within a few weeks.  I'm anticipating mid July (there is a 2 day bank holiday on 12/13 July in N.I) which will likely hold things up.  I'm anticipating around £10,000 pound which is a serious sum of money.  However I had decided that it would be too easy to pay my debt off using this money and instead will save it up meaning I have a bit of money sitting in reserve should I need to fall back on it.

That was until I discovered something very important...I just realised that my £4000 PayPal balance is not interest free for 12 months like I thoight....I must have made a mistake on the transaction when I thought I put it through as 12 months, but was the 4 month standard deal....meaning it incurs interest from late August!  PayPal is a 21.9% APR and I also believe they utilise compound interest which means this debt is a huge huge concern now.  So with the "windfall" I'm due I believe it's better to wipe out this concerning debt and I still have a substantial amount left to go into the bank as savings.

My main worry is that this money is held up again as I have been told twice (October / December last year that it will be sorted within a few weeks)....And if this starts to bear interest, the minimum payments plus interest will stretch me very thin!!  Feel like such an idiot as the MBNA debt that I've all but wiped out this month from my selling was interest free until November next year so realistically if I had have been focusing on that debt I realistically could have wiped that 4k.

LittleMissDetermined

That’s an expensive mix up, but hopefully the money will come through when expected or you can get a 0% deal to do a BT
LMD x

Keedie

It happens abaka, it's not ideal, but you have the inheritance hopefully coming through soon and you've noticed before the interest kicks. Fingers crossed, because of your overpayments with MBNA, you'll be in a position to get a 0% balance transfer like LMD said, as your management of your finances would be looked at more favourably by lenders. There's still a few weeks to go before it's panic station, so just see how it goes but explore other options in the run up to the end of August so that you have something to fall back on. 

abaka

Yeah - Very costly mistake which could throw a huge spanner in the works.  So the PayPal payments are two transactions of £2000, one ends on 20 August and the other ends on 1 September - I never looked at these beyond making my payments until I noticed last night a date of August and I was like !!!!!!....Whenever I made the purchases I specifically remember PayPal pay in 12 being the option and I'm certain I selected it as I don't think I would have bought the items otherwise...I'm going to contact PayPal to see what happened or if there's anyway to move these purchases onto 12 months but not hopeful of that happening. 

TBH, I made the payments and said "This is something I will be buying with my inhertiance monies" so using this money was always the plan....but if there's another severe hold up...I'm going to have to reduce my payments on everything else and tackle this debt.  I can still afford everything which is the main thing, but if I start paying interest that's going to slow down my debt free target significantly

Feel like I could cry and now find myself depending on money I don't have and that isn't a great place to be....feel like yet again, because I wasn't on top of my finances/affairs I've just wiped out all the great progress I've made to date.  

There isn't anything I can do as you can't do Balance Transfers with PayPal....So I will have to pay the interest....Unless I can get a Money Transfer offer but I've never had to use a Money Transfer before and I'm not keen on doing so now as it's another case of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Keedie

I understand that you're between a rock and a hard place at the moment, and depending on money that you don't have as yet, but don't discount the money transfer. It's no different really than a balance transfer which is also robbing Peter to pay Paul. As long as you use the money solely for the intended purpose (paying off Pay Pal), it also becomes technically the same as the option to overpay on a credit card into the negative and then claim the money as a refund. And it might give you a buffer in case your inheritance is delayed, as you can then pay the money transfer off.