A support thread for people paying off debt #2

[moneyworries9]

Hi all... hope you manage to find the thread?

The last one seemed to be such a success 😃 I will be honest and say that I haven't cleared as much as I would have liked but I know if I hadn't been on here, the debts would most likely have increased rather than decreased. I currently owe

£3,355 - loan
£1,600 - credit card

We do have some cash in our bank accounts. I'm in the process of paying for driving lessons so have about £1,000 in our current account, most of which is to cover that.

On the plus side, when I started the other thread, I had around £2,500 on my credit card and £3900 loan so I'm taking baby steps in the right direction.

The other thread was a huge source of support and motivation for me and I hope that this one will be for many others.

Feel free to give a quick summary to introduce yourself

@moneyworries9 she’s advised me too! Want one are you doing? I’m AAT x

I'm incredulous at this decision, I really am

I wonder if TiP would consider a page on FB that we could use to follow and support reach other instead of here ... I'd definitely join!

Not much else to report here, job hunt following redundancy continues. I was with the same company for over 20 years and had 5 internal promotions...dreading having to attend an actual interview

Hi All

Not sure if I need to start my own thread but am after some advice. I have 7 debts that I haven't really tackled, and have just been paying off the minimum. Total debt £6000.

The APR ranges from 25.1% to 69.9% , can someone (without judging my financial incompetency) explain APR to me and how would you go about paying these off quicker? sadly the largest debt has the biggest APR, but 4 of these are credit cards so I was thinking about paying off the largest debt with the credit card if it meant less interest if that's how APR works?! I am so embarrassed that I don't know this stuff.

Happy to list the debt if will help

Thank you in advance, feels like i am doing something just by admitting i'm useless!

Welcome ItBeMay...personally I follow the Dave Ramsey method for finances. His Baby Step 2 is paying down your debt...ignoring the APR, pay debts off starting with smallest balance first. It's working for me...have a Google on it and see what you think

Hello all, not been around for a few weeks as been taking as much overtime as available and I'm shattered.

Had got debt down to 32k+ but last month had to buy that car so two steps forward one back I'm afraid. Back on it now. Will backtrack and catch up on the full thread. Hope everyone else is chipping away faster than me!

Shocked and disappointed to hear about TiP. Was such a privilege to have an expert guiding the thread; helping those who have become unstuck financially and giving a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. Being in debt can be suffocating but reading her advice helped me think it is reversible. Wishing the powers that be will soften and allow her back in. Hoping the rest of us can offer support to one another in the meantime.

thanks @Mum4Fergus I was thinking about putting all the debt onto one card and paying that off as much as I could but then thought that may be too overwhelming. I think i will start with the smallest as you have suggested and have a look at Dave Ramsey.

itbemay if I were you I’d look at the credit cards and put all your payments onto standing order. Put them on at about a fiver above the minimum payment and leave them to run. Then chuck all the extra money you get at the lowest until it’s gone. When it’s gone put the SO money from the lowest onto the SO next lowest and then chuck any extra at that until it’s gone. Then you take that double SO and add it to the SO of the next one etc. etc. Hope that makes sense. This is called snowballing though usually you start with the highest APR but it feels good when you see debts disappear so starting at the smallest amount is a good way to start. Having the repayments on SO puts you in control of them as well and not the CC agencies.

Can you over pay the loans at all?

Paid off CC2 yesterday as the internet free period ended and was 25%!

I will not make a bulk payment of £1100 to the loan instead of £2000 as the £900 went on the credit card. Feels good that there’s only one place I need to throw money. Once maintenance is sorted I’ll pay
£223- minimum monthly loan repayment
£125- redirected from CC2
£200- from the maintenance (when that’s sorted)
———
£548 a month

Loan will be cleared in about 18 months

Bisha fantastic!! Hurray, well done

@Bishalisha well done! sounds like you have a clear plan for your loan repayment. Such a good feeling to clear a cc.
Ive cleared cc1. I have 3 cc left and will clear cc2 in the next 3-4 months.
Conscious will need to save for Christmas so less going towards credit cards.
My debt is down from £11913 to now £6094 since Christmas. I did a lot of overtime until last month however now there is none. I'm now back to paying my basic level (which is still above minimum)
Feeling a bit low about the no overtime as also reduces quality of living. Might try to sell some things on eBay.
Next month I will have halved my debt!
Although still a way to go

@coffeechoc

I know it’s frustrating that there’s no overtime but imagine if there had been none over the last 6 months? You’ve cleared a considerable amount of debt- well done!

@Bishalisha yes that's a good positive way to look at it. It should come out again but maybe not for the next few months.

You’ve done amazingly.

I’m going to call the CMS this morning to check the (non) progress of the DOE request on my ex. Am keen to get this sorted as it’s playing havoc with my overdraft and I’m keen to increase my monthly loan repayments!

Update- my case was referred to someone who was on sick leave

Ex called in March to dispute the amount (again- and even though he is paying nothing!), however the figures from HMRC say otherwise. Arrears are currently £3,600+. They’re calling him now to see if he will make a card payment lump sum towards the arrears (0% chance of him doing so) and are contacting the military directly to try to ensure this gets sorted. He’s on ‘the list’ so there’s a small chance I may get something this month, but should be next month (heard that before!). They’ll be taking I think £580+ to send me £580 from him a month once it’s sorted 🙄

Over a month since I last checked in on this thread.

Debt now down to £12,066 which is a little behind target - I diverted £300 of what should have been debt repayment into some extra fun at half term. Not wise I know. Still at least the number is going in the right direction. I will be better this month.

I joined this thread on 20th April (2months ago) and wrote the following:

CC1 = 1,773.68 (min payment this month 43.34)
CC2 = 2,573.43 (min payment this month 56.58)

I usually try to pay the interest amount plus 100.

I have a CU loan that is currently approx 10,000 - can’t check it right now. The repayments are 400pm. My DD is set at 410pm so I’m slightly ahead with my repayments.

DH car is costing 411pm but it’s brand new. He was driving an older car and his tax and insurance has reduced by around 1,000 per year.

Finally (!) I’m paying 400pm for DS college fees.

Thanks to you lovely MMs introducing me to the snowball method, CC1 is now down to €1,000 and should be cleared by the start of November. The snowball will continue on to CC2 then. I can’t wait to get working on that because the minimum payment only knocks about €20 off after interest. 🙄

I’m going to continue paying €400 to DS’s university throughout the summer so I’ll have almost 50% of his fees paid by the next academic year.

I’m lucky that we have €10,000 saved (€3,000 of that is untouchable coz it’s linked to the credit union loan). This time last year the only savings we had was that €3,000. This time next year I hope we’ll be able to save approx €800 per month.

Have you thought of paying off the credit cards from the savings? I remember Talking Peace saying it was a false economy to have savings earning marginal interest when you're serving debts with high interest?
Better to have 'head room' on a credit card for emergencies rather than physical savings combined with debt.

It's the opposite way around for me because my first steps back when I started getting things under control was to get all the credit card debt onto 0% deals. I do have some savings which will be enough to pay off what remains once the 0% deals are over IF there aren't too many months where I divert what should be repayments into fun times instead. If I put the savings into the credit cards now I would lose the bit of interest that could otherwise accumulate, but for no benefit.

If your cc debt is being charged interest, do try to get some of it transferred to a new card on a 0% deal.

How I did it (this was all before joining this thread) I had about £14k of debt across 2 different cards. One charging interest at 19% and one at 8%

I applied for a new credit card with a 0% that only granted me a credit limit of £5k. So I transferred £5k across from the 19% card, set the 8% to have minimum payments only and put everything possible of repayment into the 19% card.

By February, the debt on the 19% card was down to zero. In March, that card provider wanted to tempt me back so offered me a 0% balance transfer deal, so I transferred all the debt from the 8% card over to that.

That's the point when I started to feel things were under control. I stopped keeping the credit cards in my wallet at all - I had a separate card with a low spending limit and a DD which pays off in full at the end of every month - any spending is supposed to go on that.

The last couple of months I have put a bit of spending on the other cards, which I shouldn't have done. Will try to do better but suspect the summer holidays will scupper my good intentions.

I lost my other account, (punk412)

So I have been unwell with depression and weeping awful. I went out and bought a load of items I really didn’t needed but helped me feel better so I guess it’s good for my mental health. But now both cards are amazed and the £1500 I had paid has been spent again. :(

@pp12 sorry about your depression. Sounds like it pretty much sucks.

Can you maybe think of a way to have something that feels similar to a shopping binge but doesn't cost as much? Maybe (if it's about clothes for example) try to cultivate a feeling of triumph at seeing a particular "look" that would cost £200 and hit the charity shops to see if you can recreate the style for £20?

Woohoo my credit score went up 59 points and I’m back in the ‘good’ range- hoping this goes up slightly further when it updates to reflect the £1k payment I made towards the loan

pp12
Bishalisha well done!!

My debt repayments are on hold as I am not working over the summer, back hopefully in Sept. However the car and credit union loans will still be paid. For the first time in ages my interest on cc has gone below €30 per month so that's my win for the day!

Hi folks, just checking in...everything trotting along as before. Have had 3 interviews this week, hopefully one will come to fruition!

Itbemay....TIP would advise pay the highest interest % off first.
Set up standing orders with £10 ish above the minimum & leave it run.
Then throw as much as you can at the big one..when that's paid off do the same to the next big % interest rate...until it's all gone.