Help! (Long - sorry)

secondhandsusie6cats

Hi all. I have been approached by a firm offering IVAs and it all sounded good until I read Martin's guide. I have more money going out than I have coming in though and am desperate to get out of debt. Here is a rough breakdown: -

Bank loan: £ 25,800.00
Credit cards: £ 10,000.00
Flexible loan: £ 600.00 Total: £36,400.00. I am re-paying approx. £700.00 per month.

I take home £1,250.00 a month excluding anything I make off e-bay, surveys or car boot sales.

My other outgoings are: -

Board/rent: £ 364.00
Petrol: £ 110.00
Phone/internet: £ 20.00
Mobile: £ 20.00
Prescription: £ 7.10
Charities: £ 25.00
Car tax: £ 15.00
Insurance: £ 16.00
Cat food/vet
bills: £ 100.00
Advantage
gold acc. fee: £ 12.00

= approx. £689.00 per month, making my outgoings £1,389.00 - £139.00 more than I have coming in. To make ends meet, I often have to transfer funds from my flexible loan to my current account.

I have asked my bank to extend the terms of my loan but they said it is already at the maximum. I am swapping card balances about to get interest free deals and can then use my Asda card for paying for petrol so I will get 2p a litre off. I live with a parent. My car is old so with help I can get repairs done save taking it to a garage. The insurance is as cheap as I can get and I need my car for work. My mobile is on contract so I can't give that up although I will be selling my old handsets to get some money back. I buy cat food in bulk when on special offer and am going to open an Alliance and Leicester current account to get a better interest rate. This will cut my £12 a month fee with Natwest but means the interest rate on my loan will go up. I am starting to do surveys and to sell stuff on e-bay (most of my debt is from buying stuff to make me feel 'better') and will start car booting when the weather improves. I already work fulltime, don't want a 2nd job as I am knackered already and don't think I could cope with the stress due to the fact I suffer with anxiety and depression. Much as I want to get out of debt, I am not prepared to cut the amount I give to charities or to re-home any of my cats (they are my babies). £1,200.00 of the money (plus interest) is owed to me by a family member who hasn't given me a payment for almost 18 months;I don't like to ask as they are in financial dire straits too but I did them a favour. On the up-side, when my mother sells her house I will get a share of the proceeds which should be between £15 and £20K. I think that is why I have become complacent about my debts as I tell myself I don't really owe that much.

My bf says my debts are the obstacle in the way of our relationship moving forward as if we were to marry, my debts would become his. I have told him that isn't the case; I ran the debts up and it is my responsibility to pay them.

Looking at the above; does anyone have any advice or suggestions? Should I take the IVA option up as it will reduce my loan and card payments to just £400.00 per month?

Thanks for listening

RAS

Welcome. A few thoughts below

secondhandsusie6cats wrote: »

Hi all. I have been approached by a firm offering IVAs and it all sounded good until I read Martin's guide. Good

I have more money going out than I have coming in though and am desperate to get out of debt. Here is a rough breakdown: -

Bank loan: £ 25,800.00
Credit cards: £ 10,000.00 - please can you break these down by provider with APR Also maximum limits and minumum payments
Flexible loan: £ 600.00 Total: £36,400.00. I am re-paying approx. £700.00 per month.

I take home £1,250.00 a month excluding anything I make off e-bay, surveys or car boot sales.

My other outgoings are: -

Board/rent: £ 364.00
Petrol: £ 110.00 - this is very high
Phone/internet: £ 20.00 - can you downgrade the contract?
Mobile: £ 20.00
Prescription: £ 7.10
Charities: £ 25.00 - I know you do not want to cut this but it is not costing you £25 - it is costing £25 plus the interest on your most expensive debt. Cut it in the short term, know you can make it up in the future.
Car tax: £ 15.00
Insurance: £ 16.00
Cat food/vet
bills: £ 100.00 - this is a lot - can you redduce it any more?
Advantage
gold acc. fee: £ 12.00 = ditch this

= approx. £689.00 per month, making my outgoings £1,389.00 - £139.00 more than I have coming in. To make ends meet, I often have to transfer funds from my flexible loan to my current account.

My bf says my debts are the obstacle in the way of our relationship moving forward as if we were to marry, my debts would become his. I have told him that isn't the case; I ran the debts up and it is my responsibility to pay them.

Looking at the above; does anyone have any advice or suggestions? Should I take the IVA option up as it will reduce my loan and card payments to just £400.00 per month?

Thanks for listening

Hi if your boyfriend is averse to debt, an IVA would not be a way forward as it could affect your ability to get a less costly mortgage. If asked you have to declare it even after 6 years.

It would be a good idea if you played with the snowball on www.whatsthecost.com.

Alos have a look at other income generating ideas here http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/protect/make-money

poorandindenial

Hi there

There is some bits that stand out but we need a bit more info to give your situation a full going over

The things I spotted were:

Board/rent: £ 364.00
Petrol: £ 110.00 - this is a lot of petrol, where are you travelling to, is there any way of cutting this down etc,
Phone/internet: £ 20.00
Mobile: £ 20.00
Prescription: £ 7.10
Charities: £ 25.00 - you can't afford this, ditch the charity contributions for now, you can always give extra once you are sorted; this is £300 per year!!
Car tax: £ 15.00
Insurance: £ 16.00 - have you checked this is the absolute cheapest you can get - it looks fine but you might be able to shave a couple of quid off
Cat food/vet
bills: £ 100.00 - do your cats need a lot of vet appointments and treatments? if not, can you downgrade their food, this is a lot of money at £1200 a year.
Advantage
gold acc. fee: £ 12.00 - what EXACTLY do you get for this?? I would ditch it; £148 per year

We also need more info about the individual debts that you have (APR, minimum monthly repayments, current balance etc) and there isn't provision for clothes, haircuts, birthdays, christmas etc.

Check the SOA calculator (see the SOA post at the top of the DFW board - it is an easy way to make sure you don't miss anything. Also check out the snowball calculator at www.whatsthecost.com and you might want to think about keeping a spending diary to check where your money is going each month, it is a great way to identify areas that you might be able to save on.

itsnever2lateisit?

I echo the replies so far.

I can understand your b/f stance, if you are servicing your debts he has to shoulder a greater proportion of the joint household costs.

I am a cat lover too, how many do you have? I have 3 and they cost about £100 a year each for food and about the same for vets.

As to your charity contributions, I hate to say this but you are not giving to charity at the moment, your lenders are! You need a sustained period of cutting back, your cats will have to be DFW's too, then you can resume all the things you want on a much more stable financial footing, and hopefully with your b/f;)

secondhandsusie6cats

for the replies so far.

I have 6 cats; 2 are on prescription diets for medical conditions but even so, I shop around on the internet for the best deals. Other cats eat Felix as good as it looks and I buy that in bulk when it is on special offer (thanks to my supermarket.com). They turn their noses up at 'cheap' food and besides, it goes right through them.

My car has an 1850 engine and it does seem to guzzle the fuel. On average I do about 200 miles per week. I try to do several things on the same journey so I don't have to travel if there is no need.

credit cards are Egg - owe about £8K, interest rate just gone from 0% to around 16% which is why I am moving it to MBNA and Capital One at 0% for a fixed period. £1300 on Asda card at 0% until May and will swap that to Morgan Stanley - again for a 0% deal. I owe about £600 on MBNA with an interest rate of about 17% - the worst is Cahoot which I owe £600 on at 19% interest.

Thank you for the spending diary tip; I will use that as half the time I don't know where my money goes. i will also open up an Alliance & leicester current account.

My bf has his own business and works incredibly hard and he hates bad debt. I've had the paperwork from the 'Debt Fixers' about the IVA and will show my bf the paperwork. If he is against it then I won't go ahead with it.

Today I have also joined as many mystery shopper and survey sites as time would allow and plan to list more items on e-bay this weekend. If the weather stays dry might even do a car boot sale on Sunday.

Any other thoughts?

Cheers

Susie