Bit of advice for my mum

johanne

hiya,

Since finding this site i told my mum about it and got her quite involved and interested in it all. Shes been looking at her and my dads finances... they are approx 12k in debt. Mum is horrified about this but dad just doesnt care and to be honest never has.. his attitude is "whatever" "not a problem" etc. He just isnt into being debt-free or moneysaving at all and is soooooo stubborn can not be moved on any issue at all. And me and my mum and the whole family know he will never shift in his attitude....

BUT Mum would really like to pay these debts off...she doesnt work and cant for health and other personal reasons. She is in charge of all the houskeeping etc and gets child benefit and tax credit into her account and has managed lately (since being introduced to mse life) to cut back but not tell dad so she has a little extra money each week.. NOW this is where you darling lot could help....

Some of the debts are in joint names.. some are just in dads... obviously she CANT pay off debts in just dads name BUT would she be able to make additional payments ontop of what my dad does (he pays minimum and maybe literally a £1 or 2 more) on the joint credit cards without my dads formal permission?

Also 2 of the debts are on fixed monthly repayments... one being double glazing on credit.. they have been paying it off for about 2 years and have still have about 2.5k owed on it at the moment and wont be paid off at this until 2009.. they are currently paying about £53 a month off this.. could mum pay additional payments to this firm even though its a agreed payment?

We worked out dad pays £204 a month on debt repayment and even by snowballing it at this amount he wont be debt-free till 2012 IF he doesnt spend any more on the credit cards - which is impossible with his "put it on the card" for as little as a CD in woolworths. :mad:

If they did snowball their debts (dad wont :rolleyes: ) at the current repayments it means dad will be 59 by time they have paid off the debt and he recently discovered hes only going to be getting £1000 A YEAR approx if that in a private pension so he really needs to be debt free before he retires so he can get even a little savings behind him.

Anyone help with some advice please? (i'll be giving my mum the link to read this and any of the replies )

Nicky_3

Its a difficult one, especially if your dad is still happy to keep putting things on the credit card. That would suggest that its not really worth paying extra on the cards at the moment because your dad is probably just going to keep spending it until he realises himself he needs to approach things differently.

If your mum is happy to keep putting a bit away each week, I would suggest she opens a savings account or something similar and to keep saving the money until one of the debts can be cleared and then onto to the next. This is where the snowballing effect could come in by paying off the one with the most interest first.

Apart from that, I'm not really sure what else to suggest. Apart from putting debt posters up on the walls and stickers on his wallet?

Sorry I couldnt think of anything different to suggest.

johanne

thanks for the reply.

I dont think the stickers would work as hes a grumpy sod and it would just cause a row. lol

Mum is already putting the money to one side.. its just trying to convince dad its better to pay off debt.. rather than let it linger and just pay off the minimum payments.

elona

Your Dad might be willing to listen to another man or to watch a tv programme that spells out what a waste of money it is running up interest.

Would he be willing to read the Money Book if it was left lying around?