Same old story here I'm afraid...!

lostindebt

Hi everyone...

So i'm in the following debt:

Loan with 9 years 9 months at 5.00% - 23400
Loan with 2 years 10 months at 11.9% - 5499.51
Credit Card with Barclaycard - varying interest rates - £4000 outstanding, making minimum payments of £90 at the moment.
Car Finance £3500 roughly - about 4 1/2 years left.
Storecards - around £450 - paying minimum on these.

So total debt is currently around - 36,000....eek....!

Only taking home around £1300 a month - once all of the monthly payments have gone out and I have contributed to our monthly mortgage and bills, I am left currently with around £180 to last me the month. which has to be free for any car bills/living expenses etc..

I'm just not sure what to do, my partner takes home a lot more than me, but has his own student debt to pay off and he also contributes about £400 a month more than me to bills so I can't really ask for his help on this.

I don't think i'm a candidate for an iva, and I can't get any credit for love nor money to consolidate, unless I do a secured loan and my partner is on the loan. We tried it a few months ago and we managed to get one, but it didn't save me any money monthly. Now, due to the amount of credit attempts I'm guessing my credit file is looking decidedly shabby... just not sure what to do.

I do have a side job which brings in around £40 a month, and i did have a second job but have recently lost that so I'm just in a bit of a pickle....!

I need to either earn an extra £200 a month at least or save that amount to get by.

Any ideas folks? Sorry for rambling

perfectlypoor

hi, post a SOA with all your income and outgoings and we can take a look and see if there is anywhere you can shave a bit off here remember to include everything you spend inc petrol, haircuts etc. Sometimes others can see things you may have missed. Well done for taking the first step.

RAS

Hi

You need to do an SOA see here http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=107280

to find out what you can afford.

if you cannot make the minimum payments, then you should talk to one of the debt charities here http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/debt-help-plan#help

One option might be a debt managment plan. it is free from the debt charities but it affects your credit rating. However, it is not secured on the house so you do not need to release the equity in the house. if OH has a good rating, you might be wise to avoid joint accounts as this will make things better for his credit rating.

claireabelle_2

Hiya... there are loads of resources on here to help you on your way out of your pickle!
Don't rush into consolidation, take a step back, deep breath and read the newbies sticky at the top - the old hands will be along soon to help out and make suggestions on your statement of affairs...
Also http://www.cccs.co.uk/ is the debt counselling charity recommended by the wise peeps on here.

Bismarck

hi...first things first..well done for posting...the folks on here are brilliant....I reckon they could balance the government's budget, given the chance.
They'll ask for the full SOA to let them shave some pennies and pounds here and there to help you.....

Does your partner know everything?

good luck and stick with this!

lostindebt

Hey guys.. yes my partner knows everything and still loves me... must be my cooking that keeps him around!! my incoming/outgoings are below:

Monthly Wage:

£1265

Outgoings:

259 - larger loan
153 - smaller loan
91 - car finance
90 - minimum cc payment
15 - bank account charge (i get free aa membership/phone insurance/travel insurance) don't really want to give this up.
20 - store card payment
28 - mobile phone (in a minimum term - can't return this)
450 - my contribution to our monthly bills (this includes sky/ntl phone and broadband/gas/water/electric/tv licence/counciltax etc...) - i can't reduce this as my partner is already taking the brunt.

Total outgoings: 1106

Disposable - £159 ish...

I have a weekly 'allowance' of £20 a month which is to cover any petrol/other things I want during the week, this has to last me monday to sunday. (my partner now keeps all of the cards including my credit card)

So i suppose you can take another £80 off that which leaves about £60.

My partner and I mainly take shopping out of the joint account, although the overdraft is in a right state at the moment, but my partner does the shopping out of his money most of the time.

god it was depressing going through all that.

RAS

What are the APrs, maximum values, loan terms etc?

Play with the snaowball on www.whatsthecost.com and see how it would be best to pay off the debts.


aND WOIRK OUT HOW MUCH IT WOULD COST TO ge troad side assistance, stand alone phone and travel insurance, then do it via ww.quidco.com unless you actaully get more than £180 value out of you bank chages - I bet that you do not get £180 plus the money you could get from quidco and the other cash back sites. Ditch the expensive bank account and pay it towards your debt.

lostindebt

RAS wrote: »

What are the APrs, maximum values, loan terms etc?

Play with the snaowball on www.whatsthecost.com and see how it would be best to pay off the debts.


aND WOIRK OUT HOW MUCH IT WOULD COST TO ge troad side assistance, stand alone phone and travel insurance, then do it via ww.quidco.com unless you actaully get more than £180 value out of you bank chages - I bet that you do not get £180 plus the money you could get from quidco and the other cash back sites. Ditch the expensive bank account and pay it towards your debt.

Aprs on the large loan is 5.9% over 12 years on 26900 - i have about 23400 left on this loan over about 9yrs 9 months.

apr on the smaller loan is 11.9% with 5,500 left to pay - this has 3 yrs 8 months left.

apr on the store cards I'm guessing is around 29%.

apr on the car I'm not sure, I have about 4 1/2 years left on about 4000 worth of finance.

apr on the card is variable, 6.9 on some, 0% for a few more months on about 2500 of it. Sorry i'm not very organised on this.

lostindebt

Hey all...
Spoke to my other half last night, we went through every single thing we earn, spend on bills etc...
As he earns a hell of a lot more than me and has more disposable money, he is going to contribute extra money to the joint bills for the next few months or so, leaving me free to pay more off my current debts.

Going to get rid of the smaller debts, although they have higher interest rates first, then concentrate on the credit card debt. We have completely ruled out consolidating, going to do it the hard way, even though it will be worth it!

Given myself a weekly budget for petrol/work costs and going to stick with it, I'm determined to get all this paid off now, and I feel so much better having spoken to my other half about it in more detail - you really need to do this if you haven't already!

RAS

This is the order in which you pay them off

lostindebt wrote: »

apr on the store cards I'm guessing is around 29%.

Get rid of these first - they are the most expensive debt and you will be racking up huge amounts of interest relative to the amount that you owe.

Get the exact APRs for each card and pay off the highest one first. Ring them if you do not know.

apr on the card is variable, 6.9 on some, 0% for a few more months on about 2500 of it.

Find out exactly how the interest on this works. As a general rule you will find that the credit you pay off last is the money with the highest interest rate. Any way you can get a low life balance card onto which to do a balance transfer when the 0% runs

Aprs on the large loan is 5.9% over 12 years on 26900 - i have about 23400 left on this loan over about 9yrs 9 months.

apr on the smaller loan is 11.9% with 5,500 left to pay - this has 3 yrs 8 months left.

apr on the car I'm not sure, I have about 4 1/2 years left on about 4000 worth of finance.

Can you find out if there are any early repayment penalties on these?

.

lostindebt

RAS wrote: »

This is the order in which you pay them off

Hey thanks for your help...!

The interest on my card statement this month is broken down like this:

7 February Interest On Your Balance Transfer
BALANCE 823.86 INTEREST 0.000% TO Jul 20080.007 February Interest On Your Balance Transfer
BALANCE 610.74 INTEREST 0.561%3.727 February Interest On Your Cash Balance
INTEREST 2.075%12.007 February Interest On Your Standard Balance
INTEREST 1.167%20.49


So i have four more months of interest free on the 823.86 and then I am going to be paying more interest on that.

I really need to try and transfer this to a more interest friendly card but my credit rating is really poor at the moment due to too many attempts I would guess.

I think there will be early repayment charges on all of my loans.