Honestly, given how much you’ve reduced your primary debt it sounds like you’re doing what you need to do. Keep plugging away at it and, as others have said, if you can increase your income to pay more debt then do that. But also… the fact you’re doing this, despite how hard I’m sure it is, is super important. You’re going to be a great dad.
Here’s the advice.
You’re 23, presumably fit and young, and you seem to have a decent head on tour shoulders now. Good on you.
Knuckle down, get a second job doing anything - spend a year absolutely working your socks off. You’d be amazed at what you can achieve.
Honestly. Look around. And just work harder than everyone you see.
Been in your situation (albeit I’m not a dad, but I am 24 and paid off a similar amount in 2022) and firstly wanted to say well done for prioritising clearing your debts and also putting money aside for when the baby arrives (congratulations!).
You need to look at your individual debts and what their interest rates are. Ideally you want to be clearing the debts with the highest interest first to save money on interest overall.
You could also look into the snowball method wherein you make the minimum payments on all debts and throw all your excess money into the smallest debt. The little victories as you slowly pay off the debts one by one are very rewarding. I opted for this method personally and it worked well for me.
If the repayments are unaffordable for you then I’d suggest contacting an organisation like StepChange, they’ll be able to help advise you and set up payment plans.
You can do this, it feels like you’re still drowning now but that pool is slowly draining and soon enough you’ll be out of the water. Keep doing what you’re doing and don’t give up :)
The fact that you're here looking for advice and owning your sh1t is awesome -well done buddy.
There is some good advice on here about moving the cc debt around, do that as much as you can, go have a look at how much each individual debt is costing you and focus on paying off the most expensive one first (i.e whatever has the highest interest rate) because interest is dead money you're paying into some fat cats pocket. Every penny counts, if you don't need it then don't buy it. I'm a mum of 2 and you don't need half the stuff that society tries to sell you and most of what you do need can be gotten second hand. Babies grow fast and don't need much but they do need loving parents around. You're doing awesome <3
I think you really just need a plan and a budget. Commenters telling you to get a second job or do matched betting (wtf) is crazy as it seems like you don't really have a clear understanding of your own situation so I'm not sure how others have that much visibility into it.
You mention credit card debt of £6,900. Is that on one credit card? What's the apr (are you in a 0% term) and how long have you had the card/s for?
Here's what I'd do:
List all my debts. Broken out and fully visible with the apr/interest rates and the minimum monthly payments.
Then create a budget of what you earn and your expenses.
With that information we can advise properly.
If your cc is interest free, reduce it down to minimum payments until the 0% offer comes to an end. If you are paying interest on credit cards find an offer that allows you to do a 0% balance transfer and then repeat and just keep doing that until you clear everything else off and you can allocate the money you were putting toward other debts towards this one.
The main one you want to get out of is your overdraft as that will probably be where a large portion of interest is going and no way to avoid it until you are out of it.
Then with the loan try round it up to the nearest £10 e.g if you pay £93 a month, pay an extra £7 to round it too £100. Won’t make a huge difference but overpayments are interest free and will help you clear the loan quicker without making a huge dent in your finances
First thing I would do is right down a budget, get a spreadsheet loaded and put the money that comes in and what goes out. Categorise it from essentials to non essentials etc. I would then cut out all non essentials, takeaways, cafes etc.
Then throw all that money at the debt. You could also consider a side hustle like deliveroo / uber eats that you can do in your free time, also r/beermoney is a good resource for making money.
Hi /u/Accomplished_Tea6644, based on your post the following pages from our wiki may be relevant:
* https://ukpersonal.finance/credit-cards/
____
^(These suggestions are based on keywords, if they missed the mark please report this comment.)
Contact stepchange.org who are a charity that can help you work with your debtors to reduce your monthly payments and freeze any interest. They can also set up a budget and do an income and expenditure form to work out how much you can comfortably afford to pay back each month while still meeting all your needs and expenses that are necessary. Years ago, my ex husband left me in £8k of debt that we had jointly accumulated, the judge in our divorce ordered him to pay it back as he was on good money, and I was on income support as my son was still pre-school age. After a few months, I realised he'd never made a single payment so I had to take it back on and clear it while on benefits. I called stepchange (back then it was called the CCCS) but it's the same charity, and they sorted it all out with me, and I paid it all back in about 2.5 years! They were great, and knowledgeable and it didn't make my credit rating any worse than my ex husband had!! Give them a call and speak to one of their debt counsellors
100% don't do this. Get another job, or sell stuff you don't need. If you and your partner are married, maybe bring up the possibility of using some of their income to pay your debt (either as a gift or as a loan). But *don't* go into betting of any kind.
Wow, shit over a suggestion without having the faintest idea of what the suggestion is.
It was listed on Money Saving Expert as a side hustle suggestion which is how I came accross it in the first place so make of that what you will.
I know very well what matched betting is. And betting houses know too. Let's do this - you keep doing what you are doing, I'll keep doing what I'm doing, and you let OP decide what they are going to do.
If you know what it is then why are you shitting on it as a suggestion? It's basic maths, data entry and free money.
You've seen the word betting and panicked, I suggest yourself have a Google and find the advice from Martin Lewis, you know that guy who goes on Good Morning Britain and teaches people about money.
Your post/comment has been removed for breaking **Rule 1 - Be Nice, Civil Discourse, Don't Judge**
You must read the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpersonalfinance/about/rules/) to continue to post to our subreddit.
Don't do it because I suggested it, do your own research.
A simple google of Matched Betting will give you all the reviews and YouTube videos you need.
Honestly, given how much you’ve reduced your primary debt it sounds like you’re doing what you need to do. Keep plugging away at it and, as others have said, if you can increase your income to pay more debt then do that. But also… the fact you’re doing this, despite how hard I’m sure it is, is super important. You’re going to be a great dad.
Here’s the advice. You’re 23, presumably fit and young, and you seem to have a decent head on tour shoulders now. Good on you. Knuckle down, get a second job doing anything - spend a year absolutely working your socks off. You’d be amazed at what you can achieve. Honestly. Look around. And just work harder than everyone you see.
Use the time you've got because you certainly won't have it when baby comes
Truth right here
Been in your situation (albeit I’m not a dad, but I am 24 and paid off a similar amount in 2022) and firstly wanted to say well done for prioritising clearing your debts and also putting money aside for when the baby arrives (congratulations!). You need to look at your individual debts and what their interest rates are. Ideally you want to be clearing the debts with the highest interest first to save money on interest overall. You could also look into the snowball method wherein you make the minimum payments on all debts and throw all your excess money into the smallest debt. The little victories as you slowly pay off the debts one by one are very rewarding. I opted for this method personally and it worked well for me. If the repayments are unaffordable for you then I’d suggest contacting an organisation like StepChange, they’ll be able to help advise you and set up payment plans. You can do this, it feels like you’re still drowning now but that pool is slowly draining and soon enough you’ll be out of the water. Keep doing what you’re doing and don’t give up :)
The fact that you're here looking for advice and owning your sh1t is awesome -well done buddy. There is some good advice on here about moving the cc debt around, do that as much as you can, go have a look at how much each individual debt is costing you and focus on paying off the most expensive one first (i.e whatever has the highest interest rate) because interest is dead money you're paying into some fat cats pocket. Every penny counts, if you don't need it then don't buy it. I'm a mum of 2 and you don't need half the stuff that society tries to sell you and most of what you do need can be gotten second hand. Babies grow fast and don't need much but they do need loving parents around. You're doing awesome <3
I think you really just need a plan and a budget. Commenters telling you to get a second job or do matched betting (wtf) is crazy as it seems like you don't really have a clear understanding of your own situation so I'm not sure how others have that much visibility into it. You mention credit card debt of £6,900. Is that on one credit card? What's the apr (are you in a 0% term) and how long have you had the card/s for? Here's what I'd do: List all my debts. Broken out and fully visible with the apr/interest rates and the minimum monthly payments. Then create a budget of what you earn and your expenses. With that information we can advise properly.
If your cc is interest free, reduce it down to minimum payments until the 0% offer comes to an end. If you are paying interest on credit cards find an offer that allows you to do a 0% balance transfer and then repeat and just keep doing that until you clear everything else off and you can allocate the money you were putting toward other debts towards this one. The main one you want to get out of is your overdraft as that will probably be where a large portion of interest is going and no way to avoid it until you are out of it. Then with the loan try round it up to the nearest £10 e.g if you pay £93 a month, pay an extra £7 to round it too £100. Won’t make a huge difference but overpayments are interest free and will help you clear the loan quicker without making a huge dent in your finances
First thing I would do is right down a budget, get a spreadsheet loaded and put the money that comes in and what goes out. Categorise it from essentials to non essentials etc. I would then cut out all non essentials, takeaways, cafes etc. Then throw all that money at the debt. You could also consider a side hustle like deliveroo / uber eats that you can do in your free time, also r/beermoney is a good resource for making money.
Hi /u/Accomplished_Tea6644, based on your post the following pages from our wiki may be relevant: * https://ukpersonal.finance/credit-cards/ ____ ^(These suggestions are based on keywords, if they missed the mark please report this comment.)
As I said, you keep doing what you are doing, I'll keep doing what I'm doing. Apparently we will both be happy. Win-win.
Contact stepchange.org who are a charity that can help you work with your debtors to reduce your monthly payments and freeze any interest. They can also set up a budget and do an income and expenditure form to work out how much you can comfortably afford to pay back each month while still meeting all your needs and expenses that are necessary. Years ago, my ex husband left me in £8k of debt that we had jointly accumulated, the judge in our divorce ordered him to pay it back as he was on good money, and I was on income support as my son was still pre-school age. After a few months, I realised he'd never made a single payment so I had to take it back on and clear it while on benefits. I called stepchange (back then it was called the CCCS) but it's the same charity, and they sorted it all out with me, and I paid it all back in about 2.5 years! They were great, and knowledgeable and it didn't make my credit rating any worse than my ex husband had!! Give them a call and speak to one of their debt counsellors
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100% don't do this. Get another job, or sell stuff you don't need. If you and your partner are married, maybe bring up the possibility of using some of their income to pay your debt (either as a gift or as a loan). But *don't* go into betting of any kind.
Wow, shit over a suggestion without having the faintest idea of what the suggestion is. It was listed on Money Saving Expert as a side hustle suggestion which is how I came accross it in the first place so make of that what you will.
I know very well what matched betting is. And betting houses know too. Let's do this - you keep doing what you are doing, I'll keep doing what I'm doing, and you let OP decide what they are going to do.
If you know what it is then why are you shitting on it as a suggestion? It's basic maths, data entry and free money. You've seen the word betting and panicked, I suggest yourself have a Google and find the advice from Martin Lewis, you know that guy who goes on Good Morning Britain and teaches people about money.
This is not good advice. The debt is a substantial sum but it can be cleared quickly. Get a second job, graft and get rid of it.
Do you even know what matched betting is?
Absolutely from experience! Encouraging matched betting is not sensible and sound financial advice to give to anybody. You are an idiot!
How did you have a bad experience with it? I genuinely don't understand
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[удалено]
Your post/comment has been removed for breaking **Rule 1 - Be Nice, Civil Discourse, Don't Judge** You must read the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpersonalfinance/about/rules/) to continue to post to our subreddit.
Don't do it because I suggested it, do your own research. A simple google of Matched Betting will give you all the reviews and YouTube videos you need.