Unsure whether to consolidate - please advise

zippygeorgeandben · 2 November 2018 at 10:48PM

Evening everyone, and have a lovely weekend. Just thought I'd tell you that I've increased my savings pot to over £2000 now. I'm hoping there is a webpage somewhere out there which tells you what you can buy for certain amounts of money when you reach milestones!
I went to Rome and stuck it all on the CC but I'll pay it off when the statement comes in!
November now, hoping to save another £750 or so this month. Onwards and upwards!
Enjoy the weekend!

zippygeorgeandben · 3 December 2018 at 10:49PM

Monthly Update

Hello everyone, well the Christmas season is nearly upon us and we know what that means!? Spending more than you would like to!

So in November I saved a paltry £27.00 but hear me out!
1) As I have lost about 15kgs since January and earn a decent salary, I decided to go to TM Lewin and actually have shirts which fit my body shape for the first time in my life. I spent £300 on several shirts and a suit. The shirts (non iron) are £22.50 each so I think good value. I really like how they fit on me too.
2) I sorted out my sister's Christmas presents. I know what they like and there was a good offer on the products so that's sorted.
3) £200 of the money actually goes towards breaks in 2019.
4) I didn't tutor as much as previous months
5) I bought a new phone as my old one was 2 and a half years old and the battery just kept dying. I paid £100 up front to make it a 2 year contract instead of 3.
6) Went to Rome in October and the CC was paid which was £250.
7) Bought 3 jumpers from Uniqlo totalling £90.

So I can account for my spending. It shows that now I have reduced lots of monthly necessities and paid off many CCs/Personal loans that actually even having months like this mean that I'm not going into any surplus funds.
Now we have the month of Christmas Parties, meeting up with friends etc so it'll be interesting to see what this month brings...

zippygeorgeandben · 3 January 2019 at 1:04PM

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOUR MSEers!

Wow, it's 2019 already. My DFD (debt free date) was supposed to be May 2019 but, well, I beat that didn't I!
How's December gone for me? Well I haven't got my laptop with me with all my ingoings/outgoing but I roughly underspend by about £50 (give or take).

Not only did we have Christmas but I had quite a lot of e'xpensive one offs' I'll call them this month. All these one offs were amounts such as £49.99, £89.99, £169.99, £200 and £250.
Dallas is booked again for February. This cost me roughly £925. I have been sending my sister £100 a month since June so that won't be too bad but obviously I'll have my costs when I'm there.
Now I do need to be careful as the tutoring has now finished. That was bringing in much needed revenue since I started in Sep/Oct 2017.
I'm not sure of my goals for this year but my partner and I really should look at moving to a bigger flat/conversion. This will be renting and will probably mean me paying out an extra £200 accordingly. However, this can be budgeted in as long as we are sensible.
I'm sure I'll have more information as I go on but for now, thanks as ever for supporting me. I'll continue to post monthly as it's good for me to continue to hold myself to account and not fall into my old ways.
Thanks for reading and give me a 'thanks' if you would be so kind!

pinknsparkly · 3 January 2019 at 4:51PM

Hay New Year! I've not seen your diary before, but paying off £20,000 in less than two years is quite something!!! May 2019 be even better for you! (And enjoy Dallas!)

family4tunes · 11 March 2019 at 7:32PM

zippygeorgeandben wrote: »

Hello everyone,
First of all, I can't believe I still remembered my username and password. It's quite a while since I've logged into MSE!
Anyway, here are the facts.
I currently have three debts I am paying off
1) £5727.54 loan(started at £11k)with Zopa @ 4.8% - I pay £230pm
2) £7568.74 loan(started at £12k in 07/2014)with Tesco @ 4% - I pay £222.61pm
3) £4211.19 credit card with Virgin Money @ 0% until June 2017 - I pay £200pm (which is more than the £50pm they ask for)
Total debt equals £17,507.47.
Total monthly payments are £653pm

I wish to reduce my monthly direct debit outgoings to give me more flexibility for stuff I want to buy.
After having a brief search, Sainsbury's have a loan for £18k (so this covers all the debts written above) @3.1% which would mean me paying £323.89pm.
TSB have a loan for £18k @3.5% which is £328pm. I'd be paying £1621 in interest for this deal.
Both these loan repayments per month are roughly £330 less than I currently pay off per month at the moment (which as I've said above, are £653pm)

I can't seem to find the wood for the trees here. What would you do?
Would you just continue to pay the three original debts off? I can afford these repayments (just) but it doesn't give me lots of flexibility.
Or would you consolidate all three debts, pay them off, and take out a new 5 year loan where the monthly payments would be reduced by over £300?
Or is there another option I should consider?
Thanks for reading,
Ben

Beware, just applying for another loan could hit your credit file rating. Also, most rates advertised are typical and not the rate you will get. This is because it is based on your personal circumstances and not of the average Joe they use to list their supposed rates on:

Snippet taken from this forum but different thread:
Interest Rate Lies / Scam?
9th Mar 19 at 6:52 PM

#1

Hi everyone,

I feel proper done by. I have excellent credit, and wanted to make life easier by borrowing a small amount of money for a car, but even though the interest rate on this website showed a company called Zopa was offering 3.4%, once I had gone through the actual application process it came back approved but with 13.5%. That has now been marked against my good credit rating, and I’m really mad about it.

Surely, this is a scam to hoodwink people in applying for a loan with them, but they knew all along those rates didn’t ever exist. Bloody scam!

Now what should I do?

I have since also applied through Tesco, but have to wait for their approval. In the meantime, I don’t want to apply a third time because that will also be marked against me. Grrr!

[Deleted User] · 11 March 2019 at 8:28PM

family4tunes wrote: »

Beware, just applying for another loan could hit your credit file rating.

The OP realised some years ago that consolidation was not the way to go.

family4tunes wrote: »

Also, most rates advertised are typical and not the rate you will get.

But of course, 51% or more of accepted applicants WILL get the headline rate, despite the conspiracy theories of some posters.

zippygeorgeandben · 16 March 2019 at 6:10PM

Good afternoon everyone from a wet and EXTREMELY windy East London.
Apologies for no updates since 3/01/2019 but I have found it difficult as to what to class as savings at this moment in time! I hope you weren't all thinking I'd wasted my years of hard work

I have updated my savings signature but again, it looks odd because January I got the money in from my sister and my savings for Dallas (Feb). February then came with a £2500 credit card bill (and £500 from the post office for dollars), meaning a overspend.
However, I'm not panicking as essentially, I came out without any major loss and deficit. I also paid for my accommodation for Bruges in the Easter holidays.

It's March now and I've been back tutoring for a couple of sessions and I am hopeful this month that I'll save a few hundred pounds hopefully.

I have been putting £250 per month into a regular saver since October. This pot now has £1500 and I haven't been counting this in as savings on my signature. Don't know why, just didn't want to confuse things really! What I do know is, is that I officially have savings now of £10k and I'm still debt free!
Anyway, thanks for reading and all your support.
Ben

zippygeorgeandben · 11 April 2019 at 12:11PM

Hello everyone,
Just thought I'd give an update. I'm not sure how to class my money situation at the moment. First and foremost, there are a few one offs happening this year.
Feb/Mar Credit Card - Dallas, been and gone, my bank account is still in credit and I'm paying £250 into a regular saver a month. Holiday paid off and spends so that's closed. Bruges - came back on Wednesday. All paid for and actually got £291 back from my friend as we had overpaid each month for our savings so Bruges closed BUT...
Apr - £2500 come off the credit card for Crete in May. It's my 40th on the 30th May my OH and I are off for a week in the sun (we go every year in August but this year cannot do this... explanation to come!). He owes me £1250 for the holiday. He's hoping to pay £800 this month to me. BUT it's all paid in full and I'm still (just in credit).
July - I'm in Paris for 3 days for sister's hen do so accommodation/eurostar to pay.
August - Majorca for a wedding (flights and accommodation for a week) - fortunately last year I put £1,000 away for this so I've paid mine (and OHs accom) so it's just flights now. We can't go to Crete because of this, so that's why that is in May (and my 40th).
I'm still continuing to put the £250pm away in my regular saver so by October this year that'll have £3,000 and I haven't touched the money I put into my Marcus account in October last year. I guess that's what savings are for though right? I'd rather not touch though!
Thanks for reading and any words of advice or any other information you think might be relevant, just say.

Dobbibill · 11 April 2019 at 6:37PM

No words of advice, you are doing brilliantly.

Lots of trips to look forward to.

Do you put money away specifically for holidays as part of your budget? That might help take the strain off a bit - a holiday fund/pot.

A huge well done though - to think how far you have come, it's amazing.

Verbatim · 11 April 2019 at 7:21PM

Wow fabulous holidays and all budgeted for, or no debt involved anyway. Enjoy!

Unsure whether to consolidate - please advise

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