SOA Now attached

Achelois_2

Hi Guys

I think I am having a LBM - god knows I need to; but whilst thinking about actually confronting my debts I had a thought. Using the snowball calculator; I am started paying off my credit cards. This is ok but I think the idea is to pay it off and not run it up again as I keep doing.

I just wondered if it would be possible to make the payment and ask the Credit Card companies to reduce my limit monthly according to what has been paid off? i.e. if I owe £200 and my credit limit is £200 and pay off £5 they reduce my credit limit to £195. This would be so fantastic because when I dont have it I manage - when I can access it I do. No will power!

Thanks

A xxx

dotstar24

you could just cut the cards up and be done with it?

Achelois_2

True - but I have done this before and then re-ordered the cards... at least if I reduce my limit (if this works both ways) I cant physically increase it again.... I know Im a nightmare!:o

jmf76

I'd say cut the cards up.

My first worry with reducing the limit each month is if you reduce the limit down each time, what if you come to the end of an interest-free period say and they start charging you interest? This will take you over your limit and they could charge you £12 for the privelege.

Same goes for a low interest rate for life of balance - if you don't get your limit including the low-rate interest right you could get charged and also lose the low-rate offer and be charged at the full APR for the card.

And you can increase the card's limit just as easily as getting a new card if your credit allows!

How many cards have you got - you might be able to get rid of some of them all together by moving your debt on to other cards with better deals - that would be even better as there would no limit at all!!!

Have you started a debt diary on here? I'd suggest doing that first with an SoA and we're all more than happy to help you.

BTW - well done for having your LBM, it might only be the first step but is always the hardest

jmf76 xxx

Achelois_2

will post soa asap

Thanks x

Achelois_2

Ok so here goes *SO EMBARRASSED!*

Council

£125.00

Scottish Provident Life Insurance

£ 5.05

Paymentshield MPP

£ 7.70

TV License

£ 11.61

Insurance (Contents)

£ 10.00

Thames Water

£ 15.00

Mortgage

£ 315.00

Rent

£ 530.00

Account Charge

£ 15.00

Ntl Phone Bill & TV

£ 57.52

Ntl Internet

£ 18.00

Electricity

£ 27.00

Gas

£ 23.00

Northern Rock Loan

£ 203.29

Lloyds Loan

£ 277.42

M&S Loan

£ 135.89

American Express CC

£ 150.00

HFC CC

£ 50.00

Lloyds CC

£ 200.00

Barclaycard CC

£ 94.00

Overdraft Interest

£ 8.07

Mobile (ending soon 3mnths)

£ 14.10

Train Fare

£ 161.30

Wages

£1,803.10

Total

£2,426.48

I also get £145 per week from my partner towards housekeeping - he earns a lot less than me.

On the upside I am moving to a new job in one months time which will increase my Salary from 31,800 to 36k... so that should help!

I am also overdrawn at the moment (before last pay day I was -£1900)

Any suggestions welcome!

Phew - glad that is over!

Thanks

A xx

jmf76

Hey Achelois,

Can you go through your credit cards and loans and add the APRs, credit limits, loan lengths, total owed / monthly payments etc. to your SoA. The more info we have the better.

jmf xx

PS. Again well done for posting your SoA

Burlesque_Babe

The Account Charge - is that for something like Barclays Additions or Nat West Gold?? To be honest, it isn't worth having - all you are getting is stuff like discounted RAC membership.

Call Barclaycard and play it dumb - ask your APR. When they tell you, act shocked (you may not have to!) and say you didn't realise it was so high. Say you are a happy customer (possible small lie) but will have to move to somewhere else unless they can reduce the APR. It worked for me for Barclaycard when I was on my debt free mission.

Is there any kind of discount you can get if you are travelling every month on the train?

Have a look at Uswitch for any cheaper gas and electricity.

Calll NTL and threaten to go to Sky. They will more than likely offer you a cheaper package for x months. You then call them again after the offer expires and threaten again to leave

There is nothing in there for food, haircuts etc.

Keeping_Positive

This http://www.spendingdiary.com/ is great for monitoring where the money goes each month for groceries, nights out, birthdays etc.

jmf76

The spending diary website is good or you can use Martin's one from the main site - click here

There is also a website called www.whatsthecost.com - if you click on 'snowballing' on the left-hand side, enter all your credit card & loan details and how much you can spend a month it will calculate how long it will take you to pay off your debts and suggest which cards you should pay off first based on interest rates.