Finally going to solve this debt once and for all

abaka

That’s the plan. It won’t get going until new year when wife goes back to work.

At this point my focus is to pay a nominal amount to the debts (slightly above minimums but less than I’ve been paying), but once my emergency pots etc are where I want them to be I’ll switch my focus to paying more of debts.

Based only on my figures based on what I will pay over the next few months it will take me 6.5 years to clear the debt. However I know that my payments to debt will increase as I build up my EF and Pots and my wages will increase yearly, in few years time I’ll be paying less in childcare costs and my student loan will be gone in 2.5 years time which frees up £140 a month alone. Plus my wife’s contributions means I’ll achieve this quicker!

But I do think I’ll focus on doing 5er a day or else PaD to the loans when I can, as they’re the only thing costing me interest and I know my credit card debt of 15k is in a safe spot by being interest free for 3 years! (I don’t think I’ll have an issue doing a balance transfer of what remains when I need to do those again.

Interestingly I did look at a DMP through Stepchange today just to see what it would look like. Using a budget that they found affordable. They predicted a DMP would take me ten years assuming all interest and charges are stopped (and I’m fairly certain the Credit Union wouldn’t accept any lesser payment). Considering worse case scenario I can be free of this debt in 6 years means I’m currently doing what’s right for me!!

My balances will technically increase this month due to balance transfers but I am adamant I’m going to be reducing the debt month in and month out from here on in

abaka

Also forgot to add. Now that balance transfer is done on the largest Virgin. I’m going to go ahead and close that card. The limit is 13,000 so that’s another 13k of potential debt I don’t have access to!

I plan on eventually close all my credit cards apart from my Halifax (longest account so useful for credit ratings) and my Nationwide account (my main day to day banking account).

I am somewhat worried by what damage closing so many accounts in a short space will do to my credit rating especially because it will really affect my utilisation, but I don’t need to worry about any more credit for 3 years.

Makingabobor2

Do you really need to worry about any more credit, at all? Isn't the idea of a LBM, to pay off your debts & live without credit? Not just now, but in the future.

abaka

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82136467#Comment_82136467

I certainly don't want to ever find myself in the relationship with Debt that I have now. However do I want to live a life without having access to credit or a strong credit rating behind me…Probably not. For example, I know I will 100% have to do some more balance transfers in 3 years - Hopefully just a few grand, so protecting my credit rating for that is important.

And with 21 years left on the mortgage, it might be worth while shopping around to switch to a new lender. So a good credit rating would protect that also.

Makingabobor2

Yes, if you still have a mortgage, that's true.

daisy_1571

Getting things closed as you go along is the best plan then I would think. Then, in 3 years time all that will be long sorted out.

It might also be an idea to sort out your name issues sooner rather than later within this 3 year stable period. Whilst your mortgage deal is running and you've got your 0% all running along nicely. As long as there's nothing in the immediate future that you will be applying for.

No one can predict the future so who knows if it might stop you getting a deal from a company in the future when you are changing something or impacting on a holiday like you mentioned. It might seem like 'nothing' but as far as I can see your birth certificate, passport and driving license, are a different name spelling than all your financial business. As these things are used to 'prove' id, I'm not sure how it hasn't been a problem up till now as the one thing is not actually 'proving' the other, they are different. Presumably tax and ni is getting paid over under this spelling. (As a matter of interest what did your ni number notification come through under? If you dont have a physical card, check on your gov dot uk account.)

If you prefer that spelling, why not do a deed poll, at a time that suits, and get everything under the one? Then you won't have any issues going forward even up to pension time, who knows if its caused a problem there.

Just a thought

Dxx

Makingabobor2

Very good points @daisy_1571 .

abaka

National Insurance came under Connor as that is my legal name. Whilst it did cause me a brief panic I don’t think there was anything to worry about. Common sense has obviously prevailed somewhere. All my accounts (although my new NatWest had to be in the name of Connor) is in my preferred name of Conor.

All holidays, passport, official documentation is Connor.

There is obviously some process for these to be combined as when I applied for NatWest under the name Connor, the credit report pinged a hard search so there is obviously a process to “address minor discrepancies”

It’s one I’ll obviously keep an eye on though moving forward but never been an issue before and I think last week might have been a panic on my part.

I have considered a dead poll before but don’t really wanna do it till my passport expires and at this point it seems like a waste of money when I’m drowning in debt! Maybe if it becomes a problem again or when the debts cleared I’ll consider it. But that’s a stressor I’m avoiding for now.

Anyway, I did a 5er a day payment to my pots today and it’s so refreshing to see savings and pots of money I’ll use for day to day spending building up.

Less enjoyable is I got a £90 parking fine today. Whilst I was on holiday and my brother was borrowing our car. Said brother has lost his job this year, his marriage has broken down and he already owes me a sum of money as he’s in debt and no income and fighting a custody battle for his kids. So guess one of my pots is going to be called into action sooner than later and will be added to what I’m owed!

Makingabobor2

Ooh no, you cant go bailing out other people when you are in debt yourself. He should pay for that fine himself, regardless of whether or not he is in debt. You are in debt yourself, and can't be going into the savings pots for that. Its not your emergency, or your problem. I've seen this on other diaries, where people are lending money when they owe money themselves, and then ramp up more debts waiting for it to be repaid, I just really don't understand the logic behind it.

Its like ML says every year about Christmas….why buy someone a present and then they feel obliged to buy you one back, when both of you have debts to pay. Its all so silly.

abaka

He doesn't have any money coming in beyond his basic living costs. Can't get blood out of a stone. And unfortunately as the car is registered in my name, it's up to me. I am very angry that he didn't tell me about it so I could have paid £45 instead of £90 but he assures me he didn't know it had been issued.