What to do, advice please!

princess_leia_3

Hi everyone, sorry if this turns into a long one!

Just wondering what to do really, we have £6500 on credit cards
- £1000 at 16% (£1200 limit)
- £2840 at 0% until July £3000 linit)
- £2720 at 4.9% for 4 years I think (£3600 limit)

I have put all of these into a snowball and it gives me til 2011 paying off at £200 a month!
We also have £2650 in overdrafts mostly at extortionate rates of approx 15%:eek:
And a catalogue which is 0% at £900 and £200 Next at 16Z%

Now I know we should really snowball this lot but my min payments on the cards is about £200 the catalogue is sitting at £100-£150 a month and we are living in the overdrafts!

I have just ahd a look at a personal loan (not sure if we could even get one :rolleyes:) but I could borrow £10k over 66 mths and pay £200 a month (7.9%)

The problem is at the moment we are not really affording the repayments and being able to live off the £250 left for food/petrol etc!! I also go onto maternity pay soon and so will lose another £100 a month from this :eek:

The only other thing I could do is transfer the £1k from high credit card to the 4.9% but this will max this card out and I am not sure if it will affect my min repayments sufficiently
What would you guys do please, I have been through all my incomings and outgoings etc and there is nothing that I can do until insurances are up for renewal!

DH wages £1k mth pays for mortgage and all direct debits like insurances water etc
My wages £400 mth (due to decrease next month!) pays for nursery/gas/elec/car tax &mot/catalogues/credit cards
Child benefit £120 - council tax
Child tax credits - £260 ids what we live off

Any ideas?
Thanks muchly

tigerfeet2006

Hi Princess,

The first thing you need to do is do a SOA (statement of affairs) There is information on how to do this here
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=562271

Make sure you put all your cards etc. with current balances, limits and %'s

Then the wonderful folk on here will be able to advise you.

princess_leia_3

Ok here goes
This is monthly

Mortgage £730 (tracker so it may well go down if they cut rates again!
Home Ins building £22
Home Ins Contents £23
Car Ins £20
Sky and TV License £60 (we do not go out at all and so this is our entertainment!
Mobiles 2 x £20 (up fro renewal in april so will cancel or renegotiate!)
Phone/Bband £30
Life Ins £25
Water £30

This is all covered by DH wages of approx £1000

Nursery £30
Council tax £100 if it doesn't go up!!
Catalogue £170 this month but usually only £100! (£900 left on 0%)
Next £20 (£200 owed at 16.9% limit is £1000)
CCard 1 - £2720 (limit £3600) at 4.9% fo 4 years min payment = £100
CCard 2 - £2840 (limit £3000) at 0% until July then 16.9% min payment = £50
CCard 3 - £1000 (limit £1200) at 16.9% min payment £50
Car £30 (to cover MOT & tax)
Gas & Elec £60
£610

My wages £400
CTC £260
Cben £120

So what we have to live off (usually around £200-£250 has to pay for petrol, food and everything else like clothes etc

I have also been doing Mystery shops etc for the last few months and this has helped enormously but I cannot do these at the moment due to being 8 months preg and in and out of hosp so I hope to get these started back after baby has been born!
Thanks

princess_leia_3

Also just spoken to catalogue and next months payment will be £176 but they can't tell me further than that!