THANK U all 4 everything. Plus need extra advice pls!

pavlovs_dog

BartGirl wrote: »

I'm finally on top of all my debts etc and so what i'm owing right now is:


Barclaycard CC £192.33 - usually pay £30 monthly (6.9%)
Vanquis CC £ 907.28 - just paid £100 - the minimum was £33 (30% :eek: )
Council Tax - I'm in arrears but not sure of how much; I pay £100 /month but should be £160
Computer - £100 left 0% - i pay £50 monthly
Provident - £ 350 left - i pay £50 monthly

My question is:
I'm going to have an extra £150 in my next wage; from overtime over christmas and would like to put this towards my debt. Should I split it for instance 3 ways and reduce 3 debts by an extra £50 ?
Or just lump it all onto 1 debt.
Advice please!!!
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not sure if you've already made a decision but here's my two pennies worth...

council tax - if you are on a repayment plan for the arrears, and are managing to meet the repayments then i dont *think* you have anything to worry about. they would have set you up on the repayment plan, so its just a case of chipping away at it. get rid of the debts that charge interest first.

barclaycard - seeing as you have a low apr, have you contacted them to see whether they would let you balance transfer some/all of the vanquis debt to them? or failing that, could you transfer it to a new card with a low life of balance rate, if your credit rating is good enough to support you applying for a new card (you may even be able to get cashback on it via quidco etc). if neither of those work, phone and ask whether they would be prepared to freeze or lower your interest rate.


where to spend the extra £150?

i would pay off the PC. that would get rid of one debt totally. then, if you put what would have been march's payment towards the PC with the £50 left over from your overtime to the £50 that you would be paying to provident, that would make march's provident payment £150, taking the debt down to £200.

then, in april, you put what would have been the PC money to the provident money and pay off another £100.

in may, you clear provident for good, leaving you with an extra £100 a month to put towards your most expensive debt (vanquis, unless you manage to move the debt) come June.

if you cant balance transfer the vanquis debt/lower the interest rate, then come june i would be tempted to put the extra £100 to barclaycard. your £30 a month payment would have left around £100 a month outstanding, meaning that you could clear another debt in full. you would then just have one debt and your CT arrears to contend with. whilst dealing with the lower interest debts first isnt generally the best way of dealing with things longer term (especially for people with lots of large debts), in your case i think you would benefit from feeling like you didnt owe money to so many people. its much easier to keep track of as well.

pavlovs_dog

forgot to mention, i remember reading (cant remember whether it was here or in your diary) about your savings for your new life without hubby. i dont know what your current plan is, which might affect the advice i would give.the same can also be said for the amount you save, and how frequently. im not sure if it was a one off because you had extra cash, or whether you plan to save that money every month

if you were thinking of putting up with him for the next few months whilst you chip away at your debts, i would say to build you savings up to a couple off hundred, so that you have the knowledge that, should you need to leave suddenly, you have enough money to see you and your son through the first few days/weeks. at that point, either stop saving for your relocation to africa, or reduce the amount you save, and use the money to reduce your high interest debts, as its unlikely that your savings rate will be higher than the interest rate on your debts. longer term, you are better off getting rid of the debts first, and then using the spare money to build up your savings for your future.

hope that makes sense

BartGirl

Hi Pavlov

Thanks for all your advice which I've found really really useful.

" council tax - if you are on a repayment plan for the arrears, and are managing to meet the repayments then i dont *think* you have anything to worry about. they would have set you up on the repayment plan, so its just a case of chipping away at it. get rid of the debts that charge interest first.
Yes I am on a repayment plan so i've decided - like you suggested - to keep paying this off - but target the other debts first cos I'm meeting the repayments anyway.

barclaycard - seeing as you have a low apr, have you contacted them to see whether they would let you balance transfer some/all of the vanquis debt to them? or failing that, could you transfer it to a new card with a low life of balance rate, if your credit rating is good enough to support you applying for a new card (you may even be able to get cashback on it via quidco etc). if neither of those work, phone and ask whether they would be prepared to freeze or lower your interest rate.
The Barclaycard is also on a payment plan :eek: so i guess from that statement that you can tell that my credit rating's basically shot!!! So the interest rate on here's frozen in anycase.

where to spend the extra £150?

i would pay off the PC. that would get rid of one debt totally. then, if you put what would have been march's payment towards the PC with the £50 left over from your overtime to the £50 that you would be paying to provident, that would make march's provident payment £150, taking the debt down to £200.

then, in april, you put what would have been the PC money to the provident money and pay off another £100.

Pavlov - I've decided to do exactly what you've suggested with this. I'm letting the computer person know that I'll complete the debt in March instead of April; the rest of the money - £100 - goes on the provident loan. You've given me food for thought and i'm happy that I've sorted this out. Thanks again to you and everyone who chipped in!!

pavlovs_dog

BartGirl wrote:

Pavlov - I've decided to do exactly what you've suggested with this. I'm letting the computer person know that I'll complete the debt in March instead of April; the rest of the money - £100 - goes on the provident loan. You've given me food for thought and i'm happy that I've sorted this out. Thanks again to you and everyone who chipped in!!

glad it helped.

in light of what you posted, in your shoes, i would be tempted to clear the barclaycard balance in june. then, from july onwards, putting £130 (£50 PC + £50 Provident + £30 barclaycard) at vanquis would get rid of that debt in around 7-8 months. obviously if you could chuck an extra tenner or so a month at it, it would come down quicker because you'd be paying less interest.

so depending on how kind lady luck is to you, you could be debt free (with the possible exception of your CT arrears) by christmas. how cool is that :j

BartGirl

Hi Pavlov

Thanks again for this advice.

I've put in for extra hours at work so should be in a position to clear things off quicker than i'd expected.

Shall keep everyone posted....