debt free in 1200 months!?

bountiful

I have just used the newbies info and followed a link to www.whatsthecost.com - which calculates that it will take me 1200 months to pay back my debts - which are:

halifax loan 6902 @ 10.9% over 84 months (63 remaining)
overdraft 2750 @ 15.9%
post office credit card 1294 @ 14.9%
current total debts: 10946

I have done a budget but am not ready to post the details yet - suffice to say it looks like my 'essential' outgoings are 5,000 greater than my income. Radical action needed.
Mystically I cannot locate the pound sign on my keyboard either :mad: - which seems very significant.

I am getting dizzy looking round the site - there is just so much. However, I am inspired to start saving 2 pound coins, separately from the 10p, 2p, 5p and 1p coins I currently skim off my purse at the end of each day.

I've also checked out some of the tips on reducing food bills and downloaded a copy of Gingham Ribbon veggie meal suggestions. I will also start keeping a spending diary. Currently facing task of moving accommodation - rented so need deposit, first month's rent, man-and-van costs, etc etc.
:eek:
thanks to everyone out there for providing such a wealth of support and advice.

PENNYWISE_3

Well done for posting here, you'll get loads of help, suppport and advice from people much wiser than me ;-)

Are you able to transfer credit card debt to a 0% card? (making sure u cut up & cancel higher rate card so you can't spend on it ever again!)

Is you £ symbol above number 3 on keyboard?

Burlesque_Babe

Hi bountiful, what are the minimum payments you are making on the debts? We can have a look at the snowball calculator together and see if the 1200 (eeeeekkkkkkkk!) months can be brought down. Do you have any 'extra' each month to throw at the debts you have listed, or just the minimum payments?

I've just done a VERY rough snowball on those figures and if you are paying around £149 a month to the halifax, 3% each month on the CC and (again a guess) 3% off the overdraft each month, your DFD is March 2025 - 203 months. However, it has said that the overdraft is the first to go as it has the highest interest.

Is that anything like you are paying each month?

bountiful

Hi Pennywise, Thanks - the symbol for pound sign is indeed above number 3 - but it gives me a # sign and the key that has hash sign gives me \ and the trail ends there! Never mind - least of my worries.
The Post Office credit card was a 0% transfer for 8 months which I used to successfully terminate a previous Halifax credit card which was something ridiculous like 26%!!! The debt was transferred to the Post Office account (they gave me 1400) and the overdraft - so I did manage to reduce the cost of the debt a bit....but need to do more.

bountiful

I am currently paying 200 a month - 109 to the loan (fixed) (I have tried to remove the insurance costs but not had a reply from them), 40 to the credit card and the rest to the overdraft (which tends to get borrowed again before the end of the month).
I can see that the snowball calculator only uses my available 200 up until the credit card is paid off, then it doesn't reallocate the money towards repaying the next loan - which would be the overdraft - if you can see what I mean. My calculation is that it will take me 4.5 years to clear all the debts at my current rate of 200 a month?

tyllwyd

bountiful wrote: »

I have done a budget but am not ready to post the details yet - suffice to say it looks like my 'essential' outgoings are 5,000 greater than my income. Radical action needed.

Sorry, that's a bit confusing. I guess you don't mean £5,000 per month - was it a typo, or is it an annual figure or something?

bountiful

the 5,000 is annual!

tyllwyd

So your essential outgoings are £416 more than your income per month? That's a pretty desperate state of affairs.

Without seeing your SOA, the best advice has to be to talk to one of the debt advice charities asap, because you obviously need to get back on track before things get even worse. Saving £2 pound coins isn't going to make much impact if you are really £400 over every month.

bountiful

Keren - Do you think it would be a good move to isolate the bank account with the overdraft? so that I don't chip into my repayments?

bountiful

Hi tyllwyd - Yes, it does look serious doesn't it. I have been on a low income for so long (20 years) and juggled money miraculously along the way. I will do a proper SOA over the next few days and post it up for comment.

bountiful

I have now done my soa - cut out all the non-essentials to balance the books
Income (comprising salary, son's board & lodging, housing benefit) 1321.72
Outgoings 1202.38
550 Rent
NIL Overdraft
55.83 Council Tax
38 Water
40 Gas
40 Electricity
11 BT
10.50 TV
20 Mobile phone
28.15 Launderette
150 Food
80 Bus to work
109 Loan repayment
40 Credit Card
20 Savings
5 Haircut
5 DVD rental