Balance transfer or add on to my existing loan?

Jemmie

Hi - Please help!!!

I hate dishing out money to different places as I can't always keep track of it.

I have a bit of a dilemma. My husband and I have 2 loans - 1 wit approx £15,000 and one with approx £4,000. The problem is that we have accrued credit card debts of roughly £8,000 between us. We have applied for another credit card to transfer our balances as it has 0% on transfers until next year. The thing is that the limits are below the amount accrued on our cards so now we are stuck with 2 cards each with balances on each. EEEEKKKK! I hate it. I know it's our own faults but I would like to feel like it is all gettingpaid off each month with no hassles about paying to different credit cards.

I was thinking of maybe extending our current loans and putting an extra £4,000 on each but aiming to not extend the length of time we are paying back. I hope that makes sense.

What do you all think? I just want to feel settled knowing that everything is getting paid off and not worrying about debts being in too many places.

Thank you!

Jemmie

Pleeeaseeee

SarahNeedle1872

I would suggest not putting it onto your loan..... u will probably end up putting more debts onto your card and be in the same position again....

Why not post us an SOA so we can see where you could cut back to help start paying it off....

HTH

Sarah

Jemmie

is here....http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=588879&highlight=jemmie

SarahNeedle1872

Sorry, didn't see that.....

SarahNeedle1872

My salary - £1,376
Partners salary - £1,450

Total - £2,826

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage - £777.48
Council Tax - £98 Is this over 10 or 12 months? Change it to 12 next time the renewal comes out - should be soon
Gas - £35 This seems high for two of you
Electric - £39 Ditto - we spend this per month for three of us, and we don't have gas at all
TV License - £8.63
Household insurance - £48.01 Is this buildings and contents? Can u get it cheaper elsewhere? Check Martins article on Insurances
Water - £24.52
Phone - £36 This is high esp with £55 on mobiles too.
Food - £250 This is high for two - we spend this for three (one in nappies), plus dog. Check out the Old Style board for ideas
Car Insurance - £19.41
Petrol - £90 This is high - is this for work?
Life Insurance - £37.58
Gym membership - £35 Gone? If not, it should
Mobile phone bills - £55 High - can u switch to PAYG or a cheaper tarif?
Abbey Loan - £298.84 (2 years left approx £10,000 6.9%)

Total: £1,852.48

Me - Abbey CC – Balance £2,164.46 (limit £5,200) APR 15.9%
Partner - Abbey CC - Balance £4,515.53 (limit £5,000) APR 15.9%

Can u amend this with the new balnce/limits

Me - Overdraft - £1,000 (limit £1,000) APR 0.1%
Partner - Overdraft - £700 (limit £1000)APR 0.1%

As above

Right, firstly sorry if u have done any of the above..... Secondly, according to ur figures, you have a surplus of approx £1k a month..... You need to find out where this money is going. You don't have anything on ur SOA for things like Christmas, BDays, holidays, car tax, MOT etc...... so take a look at the sticky at the top of the page, and make sure u have got everything on there. For things like Xmas, guestimate how much u spend then divide it by 12 months....

Also, I would suggest that you need to start a spending diary urgently. U are getting thru a lot of money, but you can't see where on ur SOA. I would get hold of the last few months CC bills/bank statements to see what ur regularly spending.

The extra money that you now have on your CCs, what did u spend it on? Is it anything that can be sold on eBay to make some money back? Also see if u have anything else u could sell on eBay to help pay off?

This is gonna sound a bit harsh (but isn't meant that way!) but before you consider putting any money onto ur loan, u need to establish why you have spent the money, and what on. If u do not address the spending and figure out where all your money is going, you will be in the same situation again...

HTH

Sarah x

peb

I've read the other thread; you really need to know where this money is going so a spending diary is now essential. So far as your credit cards are concerned I would suggest literally freezing them (in a tub of water) so that they cannot be used unless totally necessary. Can you then monthly transfer as much as possible to a seperate account and pay them off by direct debit/standing order from that account? you then won't have to worry about physically repaying each of the 4 cards as one transfer is all that is needed.

Tiglet

Hi, Jemmie,

I've had a look at your SOA and, from that, there doesn't seem to be a problem. Reading between the lines, though, there clearly is.

Did you both start a spending diary? If so, you should have a better idea of exactly how much you're really spending, and where it's going. If not, I would strongly recommend that you start one straight away. The problem isn't how big your debts are in relation to your income - it is that your debts are rising. Your first step should be to stop that happening.

In an earlier post, you said "I'm rubbish, I'm so silly". You saw that you had a problem, you realised that you didn't know how to deal with it, and you asked for help. That's not rubbish, and it's not silly. You've come to the right place, and you'll get loads of good advice here. The hard part will be about changing your attitude to money. Do that and the rest will follow naturally.

Jemmie

Thank you so much for all your help. I think I will need to revisit my finances in general again. I think our main weakness is food. Half way throught the month we always think of other things we need to get and have trouble in keeping the cost down on everything. I try and shop once a month but of course every week we need fresh bread, fruit and veg.

I will look into reducing my insurances - can I just opt out of my current policy?

My intentions are to not use credit cards ever again. That's it! I will cut them up asap.

Thank you,

Jem xx

Tiglet

If you find cheaper insurance, you should be able to change pretty much straight away. If you sign up using quidco, you should also be able to get cashback.

The same goes for gas and electricity suppliers, although this isn't a good time to switch, since suppliers are changing their prices. This page gives more advice on that.

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If you're still spending on credit cards, you need to understand WHY you're doing that. If you get rid of the cards without dealing with the basic problem of spending more than you earn, then you'll just end up needing to borrow from somewhere else. The first step is to get your spending under control. When you've done that, then you can start reducing your available credit.

monkey22_2

Hi Jemmie,

Have a look over on the Old Style board for tips on reducing your food bill.

There's some brilliant ideas on there. I've saved a fortune by meal planning and not impulse buying.

monkey22