What Can i Do?

h£nry

hi all, i have become stuck in a rut of getting landed with charges from a certain capitol one card and an egg card, is there anyway in which i can say to them

"this is how much i can afford in repayments so take it or leave it or meet me half way?"

Is there any law by which they have to give us a little breathing space to try and sort ourselves out?

I am finding things quite tight at the moment and really need to try and start giving these guys some money.....

Any help is much appreciated.

mountainofdebt

H£nry


If you post on the debt free wanabee board with details of your incomings and outgoings then you'll get great advice.

It would be really useful if you post also details of your capital one and egg cards ...aprs, balances and limits as well

h£nry

ok incomings:

wages £990 - pay rise due in 2 months

outgoings/month:
loan £170
mobile phone £20
landline £20
car insurance £50
food £200
fuel £120
O2 repayments £76
Mint £55
Laptop £40
Internet £15
Website Hosting £10

This month i also need to pay £150 for some dental work
and then capitol one and egg need paying....

C-One £250 limit current balance £530!!!! - i have been hiding :eek:

Egg £750 limit current balance £780

This month my mum gave me £100 and i have managed to wangle some overtime, so i will have about £180 left to go towards paying off some things,
should i contact these guys and see fi they'll give me some breathing space?

mountainofdebt

Do you live at home ? I'm guessing so because there's no rent/mortgage listed.

What's the web hosting for - do you sort of run a business from it...does that generate any income - although I guess not as you've not listed any.

What does your food bill consist of ? This seems really really high for just one person at over 25% of your salary!

From what you've listed you sound as if you've had some money problems in the past and that you've tried to dig your self out of a hole only to find yourself deeper than when you first started ...this is not a criticism (I've been there myself!) think of it as an obsveration

I think you need to get the cards below their limits - the charges that this must be incurring must be a nightmare. I've never had to ring a credit card compnay asking them to stop their charges but they always say to contact them as soon as you have financial difficulties so it must be at least worth a phone call.

How to get the cards below their limits. Well firstly I would stop using them - easier sai then done I know but you do have to bit the bullet on this one.With the £100 your mum is giving you I would get egg under its limit...I'm not sure what egg charge for going over their limit but I would also pay this into the account as well as well as perhaps the anticipated interest just to give yourself some breathing space. I'm assuming that this would use most - if not all -that money.

Then you need to turn your attention to the capital one card. You will have to throw every spare penny at this one and provided they stop their charges you have a fighting chance of sorting it out. Have you got anything you can sell on EBAY/car boot sales.

The other alternative of course is to get an additional evening job...is there any possibility of that?

ms_london

If you do live at home, £200 a month on food seems a bit unnecessary. Is this for lunches & meals out too?



02 repayments. I presume this is old bills you owe them for. How much is this? How many more repayments do you need to make? At least once this is out of the way, you will be £76 per month better off.



Mint – is this the credit card? You have not mentioned it in your debtors list. Whats the APR? What is your balance? Credit Limit?



Laptop - £40. Does this have an APR? How many repayments left?



Internet & Website Hosting – Could you find a better deal?



Landline & Mobile Phone – again, could you find a better deal? Or just use one or the other?



Loan – who is this with? Whats the APR? How many payments left? Can you overpay each month? Is there any early repayment penalty fee?



Fuel – could this be cut back on at all? When is your car tax/MOT due? Do you set money aside for these monthly? (it doesn’t appear so, so perhaps this is something you should budget for, it saves a nasty bill every time they are due).



Rent – do you pay anything towards rent/bills?



With your current incomings and outgoings (not including food or mint repayment), you are left with £469.00



This means that you need to split the £469.00 between your creditors (who appear to be MINT, CAPITAL ONE, EGG), and also allow yourself enough money for yourself each month (food, socializing, bits & pieces). This figure is on the basis that the above figures stay as they are, obviously if you do reduce your internet bill or mobile/landline rental, this figure will be increased.



Do you think that a budget of £200 a month is reasonable for yourself? That will then leave you with £269 to split between the three cards. Since you have you internet/fuel costs & things already included, £200 is adequate. £50 a week.



In order to pro rata it between creditors, i.e. who gets what out of the £269 a month, you need to know the APR’s. You would usually pay the creditor with the highest APR the biggest % of the repayment. There is a formula somewhere for this but not sure where it is, does anyone else know.



Have you called your creditors and asked them to freeze interest/charges? Its worth a try, get on the phone to them TODAY and say that you are having a few problems paying but are trying to sort it out at the moment, could you offer them £X per month as a repayment.



If/when you do get your payrise, then this can be taken into account, but at the moment go with what you are earning. That way, any extra income is a bonus.



When your laptop and o2 repayments are out of the way, you will have an extra £116 to “snowball”, so soon it will become easier and easier.



With the £200 budget. Withdraw £50 from the cashpoint each week, and don’t allow yourself anything more until the next Tuesday (or whenever your “weekly payday” is), get used to just spending that money and not adding onto your card, and DEFINITELY stop spending on your credit cards. Have you cut them up?



Sorry to have gone on. You have definitely come to the right place.



Ms_London xx

h£nry

Thankyou for some very helpful pointers, i do run a website hosting business but as yet its not taken off, although i do host various websites already of my own and a couple of others....My food bill gives £25 for food and the rest for whatever i want it for. I did get into a rut, ran up a couple of large bills, and then realised i had to pay them quicker than i thought, i'm only 20!!!

I've not used the cards for ages, just been hiding and not paing them off....panicking really, i'm getting some repayments off this week and am going to be pro-active about getting it sorted, i actually looked at my online banking last night, a bit of a heartache, but i now know where i stand. i also totalled my debt and wrote down some repayment plans and looked at other sources of income.....it currently stands at -£8,900....so its high but should be down to about £7500 in a few months if all goes to plan, by april next year i should have paid off at least 2 of my debts (both with wescot credit services) and the money from mum will be going to best use....

I am going to ask work about overtime as it is normally readily available for when my girly goes back ot uni. car boots and ebay is something i never thought of but will look into very shortly. I am having a bit of trouble in getting apr rates from egg and capitol one and their opening hours are very inconvenient for me.....anyone else found this?

h£nry

sorry, took so long in replying that you posted before i did!!!

my phone bill and mobile are the lowest i can get them, the internet is already half price as i work for the isp!! What i will do is make sure i have got this correct as i think i have gotten myself confused.....somewhere!!!

updated list:
outgoings/month:
loan £170
mobile phone £20
landline £20
car insurance £50
food £200 - possibly able to reduce this to say £160 would give me a bit extra
fuel £120
O2 repayments £76 - 6 payments left
Mint £55 - 7 payments left
Laptop £37.03
Internet £9 - less than i thought!!
Website Hosting £10

C-One £250 limit current balance £511!!!! - i have been hiding

Egg £750 limit current balance £804

i will call the card people tonight and see what i can manage, i am lucky in the sense i dont have rent to pay, but i own 10% of the house due to inheritance so thats lucky as i know others have to pay.

i think the key is i am terrible at over spending and am easily persuaded to go out, something i need to look at stop doing.

What is snowballing and how does it work?

Thanks again guys, my blood pressure is going down slowly....