The Money Thread...

[Glowy69]

Is there anyone on this forum who lives independently of their family, works for a living, and struggles to get by from month to month? You earn your money, spend your money, then pay day rolls round again and the cycle repeats. You can't really afford to save anything, and when an unexpected cost comes up, like car repairs, you're strawberry floated. Anyone like that here? Cos I get the impression most of you are successful high earners with money in the bank.

I'm the same. I earn enough and have enough to probably live comfortably, but I don't have enough to be able to save for anything. Saved a bit already though thanks to this thread.

How old are you?

Do you know, 18 months ago my parents generously gave me a cheque for £3,600 because a savings account had matured, and I was so proud to have all that money in my bank. It was by far the most I had ever had. But sadly, the very last of it has just been spent, and I don't recall treating myself to one little thing with all that money. It just went on my crap.

Can you lost what you spend your cash on? Do you spend it on junk? Or unnecessary items?

[Gario]

Is there anyone on this forum who lives independently of their family, works for a living, and struggles to get by from month to month? You earn your money, spend your money, then pay day rolls round again and the cycle repeats. You can't really afford to save anything, and when an unexpected cost comes up, like car repairs, you're strawberry floated. Anyone like that here? Cos I get the impression most of you are successful high earners with money in the bank.

I'm the same. I earn enough and have enough to probably live comfortably, but I don't have enough to be able to save for anything. Saved a bit already though thanks to this thread.

How old are you?

Do you know, 18 months ago my parents generously gave me a cheque for £3,600 because a savings account had matured, and I was so proud to have all that money in my bank. It was by far the most I had ever had. But sadly, the very last of it has just been spent, and I don't recall treating myself to one little thing with all that money. It just went on my crap.

Can you lost what you spend your cash on? Do you spend it on junk? Or unnecessary items?

I bailed my then-boyfriend out on a few things (unpaid council tax from an old address, replacing a lost iPhone and a broken TV) and he paid me back a bit each week, but because the money was only coming back to me in drips (and because I wrote some of it off), I wasn't able to build the savings back up again. I also paid out £400 for my car last year and now £400 for a road accident, which is the last of it. I know it's only money but my parents gave that to me so I wanted to hold onto it. Only upside is that my brother blew all of his last year, so I'm the number one son in that respect.

[Gario]

Please understand that I am both gay and adopted so I am predisposed to heavy spending

[Poser]

Gario - no pisstake - how old are you now?

It's just that I feel like I am only just coming to the end of my money strife, and I'm 35.

I spent years overspending. I too was a journalist, and it was so poorly paid it was scary (£7k starting salary as a graduate in 2000). It wasn't until I switched to PR that I started to work my way out of debt, but I got myself in pretty deep. At my worst, I had £15k of debt, on one £12k loan and across two credit cards.

There was a point, just after I started my second journo job and had moved out of my mum's, I was only earning £11k. I was really struggling to make ends meet and used to put loads of stuff on my credit card. Rent, council tax... I had credit card cheques and the bank was just happy to let me keep mounding it up. (Not blaming the bank - it was my fault, but they made it too easy.) I had a hot young gf and she was still at college, so I just kept on spending/supporting her. I was so naive.

It took years and lots of hard work for my salary to catch up to my debt, and eventually, gradually, overtake. Though I still haven't started saving, and I'm still paying off loans at £400 per month. These will be finished in January and I really don't think I'll take a personal loan again. I'm going to keep my car for as long as I can, and plough excess earnings into mortgage overpayments/savings.

[Poser]

Sorry - meant to add - Andrew M, Glowy - I genuinely didn't realise all that about your credit rating. Not in those specific terms, anyway - I've basically been following best practice to have a 'good' rating (I'm still a profitable customer for lenders; I have a lot of debt but I manage it very well). I'll be minted in 2015, though.

[Glowy69]

It took me till I was 30 to come out the other end of my debt gooseberry fool. Now I'm 32 I'm finally starting put money away, one account for shirt that goes wrong, the other for a deposit for a house.

[Gario]

Gario - no pisstake - how old are you now?

It's just that I feel like I am only just coming to the end of my money strife, and I'm 35.

I spent years overspending. I too was a journalist, and it was so poorly paid it was scary (£7k starting salary as a graduate in 2000). It wasn't until I switched to PR that I started to work my way out of debt, but I got myself in pretty deep. At my worst, I had £15k of debt, on one £12k loan and across two credit cards.

There was a point, just after I started my second journo job and had moved out of my mum's, I was only earning £11k. I was really struggling to make ends meet and used to put loads of stuff on my credit card. Rent, council tax... I had credit card cheques and the bank was just happy to let me keep mounding it up. (Not blaming the bank - it was my fault, but they made it too easy.) I had a hot young gf and she was still at college, so I just kept on spending/supporting her. I was so naive.

It took years and lots of hard work for my salary to catch up to my debt, and eventually, gradually, overtake. Though I still haven't started saving, and I'm still paying off loans at £400 per month. These will be finished in January and I really don't think I'll take a personal loan again. I'm going to keep my car for as long as I can, and plough excess earnings into mortgage overpayments/savings.

I've just turned 30 and my story is quite similar.

[Gario]

It took me till I was 30 to come out the other end of my debt gooseberry fool. Now I'm 32 I'm finally starting put money away, one account for shirt that goes wrong, the other for a deposit for a house.

How many shirts do you have that go wrong if you need a whole account set aside for the problem? Maybe time to upgrade to Debenhams.

[Glowy69]

Sorry - meant to add - Andrew M, Glowy - I genuinely didn't realise all that about your credit rating. Not in those specific terms, anyway - I've basically been following best practice to have a 'good' rating (I'm still a profitable customer for lenders; I have a lot of debt but I manage it very well). I'll be minted in 2015, though.

Just keep everything under control and you'll be fine. I was brilliant at it, then it all went to gooseberry fool. And I've ruined 6/7 years of my life fixing it,

[Glowy69]

It took me till I was 30 to come out the other end of my debt gooseberry fool. Now I'm 32 I'm finally starting put money away, one account for shirt that goes wrong, the other for a deposit for a house.

How many shirts do you have that go wrong if you need a whole account set aside for the problem? Maybe time to upgrade to Debenhams.

I meant gooseberry fool. gooseberry fool that goes wrong.

[Gario]

I don't even know how much debt I have. I used to move around every six months and not pay gas and electricity bills, so if I sat down with a debt adviser I wouldn't even be able to say what I owe. I've also got loans and credit cards but I only hear about one of them (from 12 years ago). I don't hear about any of the others.

[Poser]

How do you mean you don't hear about them? As in, they just come out your account by DD and you ignore it?

My honest advice would be to sit down and tackle it. I used to lose sleep worrying about my unknown, unquantified debt. I used to avoid using Lloyds bank machines to withdraw cash because they always insisted on flashing my account balance up at me.

It's like with anything, you need to get your head around it before you can start making it better. I know you've got/had other stuff going on in your life, and I know you're looking at other jobs, but I'd suggest, for example, that a move to London might not be the best thing at this stage if you have a lot of disparate debt you need to clear.

Interest rates are very low at the moment - there are record low lending rates being reported all the time. I know 'debt consolidation' sounds like something off a terrible daytime tv advert, but it really might be worth looking at, if only to bring everything together so that you know how much you owe and how much comes out your account at the start of the month.


Also, start reading Martin Lewis' emails and his website, if only to start getting yourself in the mindset of 'I'm going to make this better'.

[Holpil]

Why is it bad to have dormant credit cards if they're clear? I've got a couple that are just sat unused because they've previously been 0% on purchase cards and the introductory period has ended. Not a big deal, I'll probably just go ahead and cancel them now when I get around to it but why does it have a negative effect?

[Gario]

How do you mean you don't hear about them? As in, they just come out your account by DD and you ignore it.

I don't pay any of them. I only get one letter about one of the debts - all the others I haven't heard about for years.

[Minto]

Why is it bad to have dormant credit cards if they're clear? I've got a couple that are just sat unused because they've previously been 0% on purchase cards and the introductory period has ended. Not a big deal, I'll probably just go ahead and cancel them now when I get around to it but why does it have a negative effect?

Say I have 4 credit cards and 3 of them have limits of £2000 which I don't use. That's a possible 6k I could go out and blow tomorrow and possibly struggle to repay. They look at stuff like that.

[Glowy69]

Why is it bad to have dormant credit cards if they're clear? I've got a couple that are just sat unused because they've previously been 0% on purchase cards and the introductory period has ended. Not a big deal, I'll probably just go ahead and cancel them now when I get around to it but why does it have a negative effect?

Say I have 4 credit cards and 3 of them have limits of £2000 which I don't use. That's a possible 6k I could go out and blow tomorrow and possibly struggle to repay. They look at stuff like that.

What Minto says.

The credit is there...so there's a chance you might blast it all, plus y'know fraud and stuff.

Get them closed.

[Holpil]

Why is it bad to have dormant credit cards if they're clear? I've got a couple that are just sat unused because they've previously been 0% on purchase cards and the introductory period has ended. Not a big deal, I'll probably just go ahead and cancel them now when I get around to it but why does it have a negative effect?

Say I have 4 credit cards and 3 of them have limits of £2000 which I don't use. That's a possible 6k I could go out and blow tomorrow and possibly struggle to repay. They look at stuff like that.

What Minto says.

The credit is there...so there's a chance you might blast it all, plus y'know fraud and stuff.

Get them closed.

Cheers, I was conscious of having them just there when I get yearly statements with zero activity on it. I think I've been through most of the 0% purchase cards now , maybe if I cancel I can rejoin as a new customer in a couple of years too.

[Glowy69]

Why is it bad to have dormant credit cards if they're clear? I've got a couple that are just sat unused because they've previously been 0% on purchase cards and the introductory period has ended. Not a big deal, I'll probably just go ahead and cancel them now when I get around to it but why does it have a negative effect?

Say I have 4 credit cards and 3 of them have limits of £2000 which I don't use. That's a possible 6k I could go out and blow tomorrow and possibly struggle to repay. They look at stuff like that.

What Minto says.

The credit is there...so there's a chance you might blast it all, plus y'know fraud and stuff.

Get them closed.

Cheers, I was conscious of having them just there when I get yearly statements with zero activity on it. I think I've been through most of the 0% purchase cards now , maybe if I cancel I can rejoin as a new customer in a couple of years too.

Yeah that too. If you close them, you'll be allowed to join again. Money saving expert has a lost of how long you have to wait.

I know of two.

Nationwide is ten months
Capital one is a month.

[Poser]

Also, my old CC company once took a small payment for inactivity. The banana splits I don't know if that's still a thing, but it might be worth looking out for.

Lloyds, meanwhile, recently told me they were going to close my credit card because I had never used it. So I hooked it up to my play.com and Amazon accounts. It's just occasional games and DVDs that get put on there, and I pay it off basically straight away, or sometimes after a couple of months.

My limit is only £1,200 and I never go anywhere near that. In fact, I might get that lowered to £500 again while I think about it.

[shadow202]

The IVA isn't on my report mate, it was 8 years ago, stays on for 6. I'll be able to apply for a mortgage soon.

They also ask if you're currently in an IVA, not whether you have ever had one.

You know you'll be ask if you've ever had an IVA and if you're caught lying you be prosecuted for fraud and seeing as you work for a bank I'd guess sacked also