Good evening from a new member....

payingfornowt

Good evening all, I have been reading everybody's posts over the past few days and would like to join in! I had what seems to be described as a lightbulb moment around Christmas when I went for (yet another) consolidation loan and was refused. I have 12k worth of unsecured debt give or take, statement below.

RBS Loan £7112.00 £266.99pcm
RBS Overdraft £1000 Salary account, about £9 interest pcm.
HSBC Loan £182 £91pcm (almost gone!)
HSBC Overdraft £500 About £15 interest pcm.
Tesco Credit Card £3400 5% of balance min

I would love to be free of this, I live with my girlfriend in a rented house and we just about make ends meat, without these payments we could be so much better off and do the things that we have always wanted to.

I would like a bit of advice please.

I can just about keep up with the repayments on these and eventually snowball them in 3-4 years depending on car reliability etc, I will be skint but that’s nothing new. I have read a lot of people taking out Debt Management Plans/Agreements.

Could it be worthwhile negotiating with creditors for reduced sums in order to maybe freeze interest? If so what is the best way to go about this?

To be honest I am not that worried about my credit rating for the time being, it must be pretty poor anyway (just moved house, job and missed loads of payments last year).

Anyway hello to you all, some of the stories on here a very inspiring and it is nice to know that there are a lot of people in the same boat….. Good luck!

Andy x

sparky0107

Hi payingfornowt,
Welcome to debt free wannabe, what you need to add to your SOA is interest rates, plus all your other outgoings, then the good people on here with a lot more experience than I have will come along and give you lots of advice where you can make cutbacks and where you can make savings, like moving CC's to 0% BT's etc, you will also need to add all your other outgoings like rent, council tax, car running costs etc. Hope this makes some sort of sense, and once again welcome, you've made the hardest step, and we'll help you over the rest of the hurdles. Sorry forgot to add that the links below could be very handy for you to try the snowball calculator will give you a debt free date paying just the minimum payments & the spending diary will help you keep tabs on where your spare cash goes, it's certainly an eye opener

http://www.spendingdiary.com/

http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx?country=uk

poorandindenial

And here is the info you need for putting a ful SOA together - if people on gere can help you shave money off of your monthly outgoings then there might not be any need to go down the DMP route.

link

I would second the spending diary, it helped me to identify where I could make savings of over £100 per month almost instantly and now I only spend what I need to as otherwise I have to face my 'lapse' every time I look at my spending diary.

payingfornowt

Thank you…. I have been on the spending diary, it looks excellent, I added today’s Twix! I will keep up with this; it could be eye-opening.

I have done my statement of account below, hope somebody can make some suggestions. I would be very grateful, this year is shaping up to be very expensive. All my friends seem to be getting married in extravagant places with extravagant stag do’s to match.

Anyway thanks for reading!

SOA……

Income after tax: £1701.00 pcm.

Name
Balance
Min/Fixed Pay
APR/Interest
Tesco CC
£3400
3% or £5
18% (approx, cash & purch)
HSBC Loan
£275.52
£91.84
19.9%
HSBC Overdraft
£500
£25
£7pcm
RBS Loan
£6840
£266
9%
RBS Overdraft
£1000
NA
£9pcm, salary account.
Bank of Mum & Dad
£300
None, priority for me.
None.

Name
Amount PCM
Rent*
£425
Car Insurance
£44
Car Tax
£17
Mobile Phone
£35-£45 Depending on use
Car Maintenance
£25
Petrol
£160
Food Shopping
£100
Football Subs
£26
Cricket Subs
£17
Holidays (I know it is a luxury!)
£100
Running Shoes
£15
Cinema
£20
Leisure, meals out etc
£150
Public Transport
£50
Birthday, Wedding, Xmas Presents
£50

*Rent – My fiscally aware other half looks after our household outgoings for gas, electric, rent, telephone, rent, council tax. I just transfer £425 per month into our joint account.

The expenditure chart is a rough guide; I am going to use the spending diary which should give me a better idea of exactly where my money is going.

Anyway thanks so much for reading………..

Andy x

Sandy_Beech

payingfornowt wrote: »

Good evening all, I have been reading everybody's posts over the past few days and would like to join in! I had what seems to be described as a lightbulb moment around Christmas when I went for (yet another) consolidation loan and was refused. I have 12k worth of unsecured debt give or take, statement below.

RBS Loan £7112.00 £266.99pcm
RBS Overdraft £1000 Salary account, about £9 interest pcm.
HSBC Loan £182 £91pcm (almost gone!)
HSBC Overdraft £500 About £15 interest pcm.
Tesco Credit Card £3400 5% of balance min

I would love to be free of this, I live with my girlfriend in a rented house and we just about make ends meat, without these payments we could be so much better off and do the things that we have always wanted to.

I would like a bit of advice please.

I can just about keep up with the repayments on these and eventually snowball them in 3-4 years depending on car reliability etc, I will be skint but that’s nothing new. I have read a lot of people taking out Debt Management Plans/Agreements.

Could it be worthwhile negotiating with creditors for reduced sums in order to maybe freeze interest? If so what is the best way to go about this?

To be honest I am not that worried about my credit rating for the time being, it must be pretty poor anyway (just moved house, job and missed loads of payments last year).

Anyway hello to you all, some of the stories on here a very inspiring and it is nice to know that there are a lot of people in the same boat….. Good luck!

Andy x

Just thought would say hi, i am fairly new too, joined last yr... This site is amazing..... Not really what you want to hear however i was in a MUCH worse situation 5 yrs ago, i had a house an made approx £35,000, when i moved in with the other half BUT did not really see a penny of this as i paid off all my issues..... Just keep going you will get there.. SORRY i cannot be more helpfull... Enjoy the site....

Regards moi!!!!!!

payingfornowt

Hello Sandy,

Love the name... It is a shame when you know you earn good enough money but dont have a spare £ to spend, I'm there right now.

My spending diary is shaping up well.