Paying off £37065 unsecured debt by July 2027 while continuing to travel this amazing world

MFWannabe

That’s brilliant news on Very 💪
Did you do a search on this website to see if you’d be eligible for any 0% deals or did you apply to Barclaycard direct? Barclaycard are one of the hardest to get 
Also as you stated you’re probably not looking great to lenders as you’re using a high percentage of your credit 
Think you need to concentrate on getting rid of debts one at a time and then hopefully in a few months you’ll have some 0% offers available 

Nintud

Bluegreen143 said:

I agree that hearing challenges to your thinking is an important part of the benefit of keeping a diary. As long as it’s done respectfully (which it was in this case) and not in a berating way it can only be a good thing. 

I wouldn’t feel comfortable travelling with this level of debt but of course it’s up to you Nintud and I totally get where you’re coming from too. At least you are making choices fully aware of the trade offs (which has prompted you to reduce travel for this next year) rather than burying your head in the sand as so many do. 

Most of us are on here because we are either not perfect with money ourselves or once were not and I’m sure we can all relate to making decisions with our money which other people don’t understand. As one of my favourite financial gurus, Ramit Sethi, says “it’s your own rich life, nobody else’s!”. 

I like that quote.

I guess my rich life consists of travel, sightseeing and baked beans on toast 😆

Four more small items listed on Vinted. Several hundred left to upload.

Nintud

MFWannabe said:

That’s brilliant news on Very 💪
Did you do a search on this website to see if you’d be eligible for any 0% deals or did you apply to Barclaycard direct? Barclaycard are one of the hardest to get 
Also as you stated you’re probably not looking great to lenders as you’re using a high percentage of your credit 
Think you need to concentrate on getting rid of debts one at a time and then hopefully in a few months you’ll have some 0% offers available 

I saw the 0% on this site and clicked on the link. I wasn’t expecting to be accepted, but it would have been nice. Rejection never feels good!

It has motivated me to pay down the debt harder. I know it’s just grains of sand on a beach at the moment, but in time I’ll be chipping at the rock face.

Three days until payday and I can start seeing the numbers come down again. It’s been over a week since I last paid anything to the Very debt, and I think that’s what is frustrating me.  Who’d have thought I’d be excited to give money back 😆😆

RelievedSheff

Nintud said:

RelievedSheff said:

I do have lot of sympathy with the OP regarding travel and adventure while repaying debts.

We could have easily been debt free by now if we had not bought our van but we would have missed out on four years of amazing holidays and experiences in that time. For us the choice was an easy one. Take longer to repay the debt (with the proviso that this was on 0% deals) and enjoy affordable travel options at the same time, making sure we stick to a travel budget. 

The OP is making good progress with their repayments and as the debts get paid off one by one they will have more breathing room with the budget. It just takes time, which can feel like a long time at the start of the debt free journey. But things will slowly but surely start to get better.

I wish I could get a 0% deal!

I applied for a Barclay CC yesterday, and was flatly refused 😏

I think I need to go about debt reduction a different way.  I’ve been reducing my limits as I pay down the debt, so my debt to percentage available to use hasn’t been dropping, despite the overall debt decreasing.

ive done it that way to avoid the temptation to overspend at Christmas.

The 0% deals will come once you start making inroads into your debt repayments and start bringing the balances down and available credit up.

Hang in there. It does get much easier. You are doing the difficult bit now.

RelievedSheff

Nintud said:

MFWannabe said:

That’s brilliant news on Very 💪
Did you do a search on this website to see if you’d be eligible for any 0% deals or did you apply to Barclaycard direct? Barclaycard are one of the hardest to get 
Also as you stated you’re probably not looking great to lenders as you’re using a high percentage of your credit 
Think you need to concentrate on getting rid of debts one at a time and then hopefully in a few months you’ll have some 0% offers available 

I saw the 0% on this site and clicked on the link. I wasn’t expecting to be accepted, but it would have been nice. Rejection never feels good!

It has motivated me to pay down the debt harder. I know it’s just grains of sand on a beach at the moment, but in time I’ll be chipping at the rock face.

Three days until payday and I can start seeing the numbers come down again. It’s been over a week since I last paid anything to the Very debt, and I think that’s what is frustrating me.  Who’d have thought I’d be excited to give money back 😆😆

Now you have caught the bug.

Debt repayment can really be quite addictive  

stymied

This is the credit card eligibility checker https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/eligibility/credit-cards/ It doesn’t put a marker on your credit file so probably worth a check every once in a while x

Nintud

stymied said:

This is the credit card eligibility checker https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/eligibility/credit-cards/ It doesn’t put a marker on your credit file so probably worth a check every once in a while x

Unsurprisingly, it came back that I’m not eligible for anything.

Pay day tomorrow. I just want this month gone now. December is so expensive. January comes with big bills too (water and leaseholder fee) February brings three March birthdays to buy for (including an 18th).

March pay is the first I’ll see with any ‘spare’ money.

Somehow I conjure up the money for the big bills (par rise and back pay for my two jobs Dec and Jan), but I yearn for the day those extra windfalls aren’t pre-spent.

Nintud

In other news; I’m glad I haven’t cancelled my white goods insurance yet. My washing machine is refusing to rinse . The filter is refusing to unscrew, so I can’t check for a blockage. I have an appliance repairman due this morning.

Sarahwithlove

It will be because you reduce your limit so your utilisation always looks high to lenders which is frowned upon. You need to cut the cards up and remove from any websites etc so you aren't tempted to use them. As your utilisation comes down your score goes up and you'll get access to more offers. 

badmemory

Sarahwithlove said:

It will be because you reduce your limit so your utilisation always looks high to lenders which is frowned upon. You need to cut the cards up and remove from any websites etc so you aren't tempted to use them. As your utilisation comes down your score goes up and you'll get access to more offers. 

This is so true.  I do all my shopping on credit card simply because it is better in my account getting interest.  Then I noticed I was getting emails saying your credit score is going up/down.  Frankly I don't care but I am nosey.  So if I spent a bit more my score went down & if I spent less it went up.  I know a credit score is meaningless but it does seem that credit utilisation does have some effect.  So cut the card up or put it in the freezer in a large ice cube.  If it doesn't help then go back to plan A & reduce the limit.