Money, money, money

[stonybroke]

Hi there - could really do with some advice, opinions, experience! I have changed my name (what a wimp!) as I am too embarrassed to use my normal name. I am even nervous as I type, as I know some will wonder how we got in this mess.

Anyway... the subject is AGGGHHHHHH MONEY! We are in a major, and I mean major, mess and we have worked all weekend on figures trying to work out the solution.

I don't have the exact figures with me but the situation is:

We owe £30,000 on credit cards, personal loans, car loan.
We own our house through a shared housing scheme, where we have a mortgage for half and rent half. The equity is only around £8,000. Property prices don't go up very much where we live approx. £2,000 per year. Our mortgage is £31,500

We need a new roof, we only have two bedrooms and now need additional one with dd's arrival. We could convert our room into two bedrooms for 2 kids and we move into ds room. Our garden needs major work done - it is a big old concrete jungle.

We earn about £26,000 between us. I work parttime, childcare is £75.00 per week.

Anyway there lays bear the facts of the situation - scarey eh? We do not live lavish lives - don't buy many clothes, have had one holiday in 10 years, etc. I stayed at home with my ds for 3 years and that is where the problem began. We also bought our first house in the sticks which turned into a major mistake.

The figures this weekend showed that we get into debt every month just paying for our household bills and loan repayments. That leaves nothing for clothes, going out, christmas, birthdays, etc. No extras of any shape.

The option we think my be the one to go with (even though I am a avid watcher of Alvin Hall and he says never to do this) is to consolidate over 25 years (if we would even be accepted for this?) In theory this would reduce our monthly repayments from approx £750 to aprox £260 or thereabout. That at least would mean we would have some cash for clothes, school fund, christmas, etc.

Anyway, I think that is the details. I am shaking as I type this. Please Please any sound financial advise would be very much appreciated! I am off to the ladies to have a cry.

A 1.4% monthly rate is an 18.2% (approx) APR. (To get this: 1.014^12 )

The Egg card janh mentioned is 12.4% APR after the 0% grace period, so really beats this.

Sounds like you've gotten a lot sorted in a very little time. Hope the Monday meeting with CAB goes well.

Oh, and close your old account immediately so you aren't tempted to reactivate it when you are skint!

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money saving expert a great site too - found out how to make the Barclaycard 0% interest rate for life work - dh has just applied in our local shopping centre. Have to double check though as £50 minimum spend a month apparently (he thought could pay off every month and use for petrol) don't think it will work though according to the money saving expert, so may not use it. Will look into when I get home and see paperwork. Thanks Jodee! And yes we will cut it up and not use it if its not going to work. Don't worry - I am determined to get this working!!!

robinw - love the camping idea - I am keen but like yours my dh doesn't really fancy the idea. We wouldn't even have to purchase anything as my friend's dh runs a outdoor pursuit shop and has all the equipment we could borrow! Will have to get him to agree for next summer. We are going through a complete metamorphosis so hopefully.....!!!!!

money saving expert a great site too - found out how to make the Barclaycard 0% interest rate for life work - dh has just applied in our local shopping centre. Have to double check though as £50 minimum spend a month apparently (he thought could pay off every month and use for petrol) don't think it will work though according to the money saving expert, so may not use it. Will look into when I get home and see paperwork. Thanks Jodee! And yes we will cut it up and not use it if its not going to work. Don't worry - I am determined to get this working!!!

robinw - love the camping idea - I am keen but like yours my dh doesn't really fancy the idea. We wouldn't even have to purchase anything as my friend's dh runs a outdoor pursuit shop and has all the equipment we could borrow! Will have to get him to agree for next summer. We are going through a complete metamorphosis so hopefully.....!!!!!

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Gengis - cheap cards in our house = kids cards/art work etc... Can either let kids decorate them (if big enough) or let them do some scribbling/splodges of paint then cut out into arty shapes... Have noticed they stay up a lot longer in peoples houses, as even 'tough nuts' enjoy having contact with childhood. Askat playgroup/nursery for pics they have done with the kids if applicable... or stick photos of children on the front of the card.

Thanks dadslib you're right. This had already been explained by Aloha and Janh (was just reading through this thread again to see what other advise I could start working on!) Yep will get dh to cancell application this afternoon. As you say TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE - it takes me a while to get there but I do eventually. Sorry Aloha and Janh if you thought I was ignoring your earlier posts! Just so much here to take in! I think I will have to print out this so I don't get lost again!

waterbaby - on the make your own cards theme - what sort of card would you use to make it cost effective? And envelopes? Thinking of Christmas here!

stonybroke, I was very impressed with jodee's site too - dead useful - however re the Barclaycard 0% thing, apparently when it started you only had to spend £1 a month, and people are still getting that by signing up at shopping centres/going into branches and asking for it - there is a message board about it on the site - so give it a go.
CapitalOne's 4.9% is brill but doubt if you'll get a credit limit of £30K unfortunately - might get £10K - give it a try (it's also mentioned on the money saving expert as one if the best buys). And there is an MBNA card offering 0% for 9 months there too.

I think if you print this thread off (I'd be interested to know how many pages it runs to!) and go through it with a highlighter that'll help!

hiya janh! Had another look at the money saving website message board as you suggested. I don't see any mention of people requesting the £1 minimum purchase? Maybe I missed it? Anyway will go back to shopping centre this afternoon and see if we can get this - although judging from that message board and others here Barclaycard can be a bit of a nightmare!

dadslib, obviously 6-9 months is not going to solve the problem, but the idea is that when the time is up you transfer the balance again to another card with a 0% deal. That way you can go on for years paying back the debt without paying a penny in interest. You just have to be very disciplined and not use the card. I guess you could just cut them up as soon as you receive them.

If a time ever came when there were no 0% deals to transfer to, you certainly wouldn't be any worse off. You would have paid off some of the debt interest free and then would look around for a reasonable loan to pay off the rest.

My dh and I have transferred our balance 4 or 5 times like this, and we never pay any interest.

How much are your credit card debts? It obviously makes a big difference. If they are 5K or less, you can pay them off on 0per cent and you will be able to transfer the whole balance and keep doing it over and over again until the debt is gone. If they are are 20K, then you probably won't be able to transfer the whole balance and may have to put some on a 0% deal (cut up the card when it arrives) and do something else with the rest. I am sure the CAB will have good ideas. Pass them on when you get them!

BTW I have just tranferred 2K of credit card debt to a 0% deal and have cut up the card already. I have another credit card to use in emergencies which has no balance on it at all. The debt built up on egg because I could never remember to look up my details on the net, so just chuntered on making the minimum payment. Egg wasn't good for me. I need paper!

Or have more than one card. One in your name, one in dh's name, one in joint names...and that's just using one company. Use several companies too and you can use this system for large sums.

hiya, stonybroke! (Are you getting any work done today? )

If you go to the Best Balance Transfers page, and down to the Best Life of Balance deals, the 3rd paragraph has a link to the messageboard and a link about the loophole (they shouldn't have offered the £1 deal in the first place or something). The MB is mostly people telling where they have seen/applied for the £1 deal. Don't know if any of them have actually got it though.

Aloha I agree, I just transferred 1500 from egg and cut the bloody thing up. Am on marbles at mo. I too have an emergency one, barclaycard, which will NEVER EVER have a balance on it cos' it's 17.9%
If I had 3k or more on a credit card balance I am afraid I would get a loan and cut up/never own again my other cards.

beetroot, have a look at jodee's link - the best one at the mo is the MBNA with 9 months 0% and -tada! - a free "£70" watch!

aloha and wiltshire, I don't have a problem with the Egg card online, I like being able to check the balance as the month goes on and they send you an email when the statement is ready to print.

janh I think egg online is good too. Capital One is good but if you go over your credit limit you know about it

Janh, it is a fab site, isn't it! Glad to have been of service!

One word of advice, if you have a card with a low apr for the life of the balance transfer, whatever you do MAKE YOUR MONTHLY PAYMENTS ON TIME - I had a Marbles card (at 4% or something) with that deal, missed a payment (my own fault, went on holiday and forgot to make a payment beforehand) and because I had defaulted the apr increased immediately to the standard apr. Of course you can then switch to another card, but it's more hastle.

Hi there! Have applied for MBNA card, now have to see if accepted.

aloha - I am cringing to type this but.... Tesco's visa 3430.37 and Citibank 6334.45. Right I'm off to climb into a hole of shame...

Another thing, once you transfer a balance remember to close the account. In theory, you could then re-apply for another 0% deal a feew years later when your other ones have expired. Unless they have all got wise to this and block it. But if you had one card in your name and then re-applied later in your husband's name, might be a way round it.