Advice with my debts

tanzc69

Hi All,
I was hoping if any of you have some advise about my debts.

I currently have a loan with Llyods for £14,970 paying off £350 per month

I also have 2 credits cards - one with Barclaycard with a balance of £5,900 paying around £120 a month and another with Virgin with a balance of £2,900 paying around £30 a month

As you can see i am forking out quite a lot per month on these. I have looked into an IVA but decided against it because although my debt outgoings is a lot i am not in a position where i am needing to consider bankruptcy or something similar

I will be able to pay lumps sums off these amount of around £1,000 or more from July every 3 months if that makes a difference

Any advice would be really appreciated! I earn a half decent wage and would actually like to enjoy it instead of paying of these every month!!

Many thanks :rolleyes:

Outgoings per month:

Rent - £425
Mobile - £35 - unrealistic to get this down any further
DFS - £28
Loan - £350
Barclays - £120
Virgin - £25
Council tax - £102 - i belive this is over 10 months
BT - £11
Sky - £35 - still in 12 month contract
Gym - £39 - have to go to keep fit otherwise i wouldnt do anything!!

My lodger also gives me £80 towards sky, tax etc

Travel is included in my pay cheque
Food will be about £50
Socialising about £50
I get paid about £1,200 after tax

The interest rate are currently 0% on most of the balance as they were transfers

I appreicate you are trying to help me reduce my outgoings but i am more interested in changing/reducing the amount the i owe in debt and how much i pay back on it each month

MissEyre

Hi there,
Would you be able to post your SOA for us, so we can see exactly what you have coming in an going out? Will be much easier to give you advice on the best way of managing your debts if you can-if you read the sticky for Newbies at the top of the page, that will tell you how to go about it.

Welcome!

MissEyre

tanzc69 wrote: »

Hi All,
I was hoping if any of you have some advise about my debts.

I currently have a loan with Llyods for £14,970 paying off £350 per month

I also have 2 credits cards - one with Barclaycard with a balance of £5,900 paying around £120 a month and another with Virgin with a balance of £2,900 paying around £30 a month

As you can see i am forking out quite a lot per month on these. I have looked into an IVA but decided against it because although my debt outgoings is a lot i am not in a position where i am needing to consider bankruptcy or something similar

I will be able to pay lumps sums off these amount of around £1,000 or more from July every 3 months if that makes a difference

Any advice would be really appreciated! I earn a half decent wage and would actually like to enjoy it instead of paying of these every month!!

Many thanks :rolleyes:

Outgoings per month:

Rent - £425
Mobile - £35 Can this be reduced?
DFS - £28
Loan - £350
Barclays - £120
Virgin - £25
Council tax - £102 Are you paying over 10 months of 12? I find it easier to budget when it's split over 12 months
BT - £11
Sky - £35 Can you reduce the package you have? Switch to Freeview?
Gym - £39 Can this be cancelled? Join a council gym instead/go running for free?

My lodger also gives me £80 towards sky, tax etc

Some suggestions for you about areas where you free up a bit more money above-you haven't included anything for food, travel, socialising, or how much you actually have coming in each month so far...these would be really useful, also what are the interest rates on each of the cards please?
I know it takes a while collecting all the bits to start with, but it's worth it! x

MissEyre

Ok, have just done the numbers-

your total spending comes to £1270 per month, including all the outgoings you have listed. With the £80 from your lodger, that makes it £1190, on a monthly income of £1200, so it's pretty tight. It means anything other than the money you have listed (and £50 for grocery shopping, cleaning stuff, toiletries is great, but pretty low) - birthdays, holidays, Christmas gifts, buildings and contents insurance for example-will be over your salary.
This could explain why you are finding it slower than you would like to pay off your cards-any chance for overtime, selling books, CDs, clothes on ebay/amazon? Survey sites, pigsback and my new favourite site Quidco can all help.
I know you want to clear the cards faster, but doing that from the SOA you have above means cutting back at the moment, unless you can increase your income a bit.

MissEyre

Also great that the cards are 0%-is that life of balance, or will it expire at some point? Some last longer than others, and it would slow you down even more if they startd charging interest too