Olivia demonstrates mechanic skills…

Wednesday 15th October, 2008 - £7,899.83 in debt…

You might have deduced - whether from my creative use of language, my love of boybands, or my name - that I am a woman. Strange but true. Unfortunately, men who run garages also tend to notice this. They hear a shrieking ‘car dunce’ alarm when I step onto the forecourt, and try to charge me for a new engine, gangway doors and some magic beans.

Perhaps because of this, my car’s MOT last year cost nearly £400. If this is going to happen every year I might have to give up my Daewoo Matiz which, despite having a 0.8 litre engine, is an incredible car and has served me well. But it’s looking like I might not have to do that quite yet…

My secret weapon is the council MOT centre. These exist all over the UK to put council vehicles through their MOTs, but they must be open to the public as well. As they only test vehicles and don’t do the repairs, in theory they have no particular interest in telling you there are millions of things wrong with your car.

Unless there are millions of things wrong with your car, of course.

My Matiz is about eight years old and is slowly falling apart, wheezing along like the last staggering corpse in a zombie film. I know I’ll have to put her out of her misery one day, but the things that fall off her tend to be tyres, brake pads and headlights - nothing important.

If I was any good with cars, or equipped with a Haynes manual and willing to learn, I could have checked this list for anything I could repair myself before I had the car tested. Unfortunately, I am neither.

Obviously she failed her MOT, but I’ve been given a list of what needs doing and had a quote of £230 + VAT for the repairs, which are booked for Friday. So far, so good…

 ’Tis the season of good will!

Tuesday 14th October, 2008 - £7,899.83 in debt…

It’s Christmas time - there’s no need to be afraid.

Well, it’s not quite, but the keys to managing your money are in preparation and budgeting, so there’s nothing wrong with getting excited two months early. That’s my excuse, anyway.

So what can we do at this early stage to make Christmas a bit more bearable, money-wise? This is what we can do:

     1.  Start your shopping early, but don’t start buying presents yet. Make a list of all the other stuff you’ll need - food that will keep, wrapping paper, decorations, etc - and buy it when you see a good deal. This will prevent panic-buying at a later stage. If you start on presents now, you’re likely to change your mind between now and December, and you might find it’s too late (or too much hassle) to get your money back.

     2.  Talk to friends and family about Christmas decorations before you start buying new ones. You’ll probably find they don’t use everything they’ve got every year, so you can rummage through their leftovers or even have a complete swap.

     3.  If you can trust yourself with it, and you’re currently debt-free, apply for a cashback credit card before you start spending. These can give you as much as 5 percent back on whatever you spend, but pay your balance as soon as the bill comes in or you’ll be charged interest.

     4.  When you do start gift-shopping, do it online and compare prices using sites like Kelkoo and Pricerunner. Equally, using MySupermarket to compare prices from four major supermarkets will save you money on your Christmas groceries.

     5.  If you haven’t got them already, apply for as many loyalty cards as you can handle. Hand them over when you stock up on Christmas food and presents, and spend the points later. Most supermarkets have them, as do Waterstone’s and Boots. Watch out for Boots ‘double points’ days.

     6.  According to the news, there’s some sort of global financial armageddon looming. If I hadn’t had to switch over for Neighbours, I’d be able to tell you more, but suffice to say that everyone will be tightening their belts this year. There is now no shame in buying presents from Ebay or TK Maxx, or going to pound shops for stocking fillers.

     7.  If you know anyone who’d appreciate some sort of greenery for Christmas, now’s the time to get some pots and compost from a garden centre and take some cuttings from your own plants (or your neighbour’s garden, but don’t tell them I said that). With the right care and attention, they’ll be small but beautiful by December.

     8.  The more people you can talk to about your debt, the better. Make agreements with as many people as possible that you won’t be exchanging gifts this year, or that they’ll only be small tokens for the sake of unwrapping something. If you don’t want to confess your debt, blame the credit crunch.

     9.  If you’re likely to be buying presents from Amazon, sign up for Amazon Prime first, which will give you free first-class delivery for a month. Don’t forget to cancel before the month is up.

Keep checking this blog for more ideas as the time looms, but if you’re looking for ‘bah humbug - I’m not spending anything on Christmas this year - boo hoo, I hate it all’, you won’t find it here. I love Christmas and I’m not going to let thousands of pounds worth of debt stop me enjoying it. Bring it on.

 Bad Month.

Tuesday 30th September, 2008 - £7,899.83 in debt…

Over the last few weeks, my financial situation has gone from bad to worse and has made me feel a bit despondent. In fact, the only thing that’s made me more emotional all month was the Pride of Britain awards. Now that I’ve stopped howling at the moon (”he threw himself ON TOP of the grenade! And he didn’t even go to hospital! OH MY GOD!”), I’ve managed to compile a list of the month’s successes and failures. The first list didn’t take long.

Whoop! Whoop! Success!

1) I managed to wangle a month’s free Amazon delivery through Amazon Prime, cancelled the payment as soon as I thought of it, and wasn’t charged. At last - a company that doesn’t try to steal from me.

2) I started work for AQA and made £328.80 in my first month, which isn’t bad for a sideline.

3) Rather than donating money to charities, I’ve been clicking on TheHungerSite every day and taken some food, blankets and empty printer cartridges to my local rescue home.

4) I’ve spoken to the boss at my temping job about working from home, and we’ve come to an agreement. This means that, as of this week, I’ve got a weekly wage coming in again. Hooray.

Aaaaargh! Failure.

1) I’ve paid off almost nothing. Although my usual minimum credit card payments have gone through (phew!), I haven’t been able to pay off any extra and I’ve even started using the Tesco credit card again. And, because the month hasn’t gone well, I’ve slipped into old habits of not opening my card statements. Luckily, I’m doing this blog so I had to do it eventually.

2) I still haven’t got an E.ON switch date! That’s nine weeks now! Time for an angry phone call, I think.

3) Barclaycard has raised my credit limit to a stupid amount without asking me. It wouldn’t be so annoying if I wasn’t so tempted…

4) Even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t be picking up anyone’s dropped coins off the street, as it’s occurred to me that I don’t actually walk anywhere these days and there aren’t many discarded pennies inside my car. Perhaps a bit of a lifestyle-change is required next month, but can I really go without my lovely Matiz?

5) I’ve had a minor wrangle with PayPal. I hate PayPal. PayPal must die.

Buh? Don’t know yet.

1) Now I’m thinking that booking the holiday to Prague might not have been such a good idea. I’m still looking forward to it, and the return flight cost me less than £70, but I’ve still got to book the hotel and get some spending money together…

2) I’ve started entering as many competitions as I can fit into my hectic schedule but I haven’t won anything yet.

So, there you have it: It’s not even Christmas yet and I’ve already had a really awful month. I might send a question to AQA: Would it be easier for me to (a) throw myself on a grenade and survive, or (b) get back on top of my debts?

PS. AQA will be featured on the Graham Norton Show, tonight at 10pm on BBC2, but you’ll have to sit through Travis if you’re going to watch it. And Graham Norton. Sorry.

 Olivia waits patiently…

Tuesday 30th September, 2008 - £7,926.83 in debt…

So, I’ve gone against PayPal’s wishes and cancelled the unauthorised transactions. Ha. That will teach them.

Well, I might incur ten small fees, but at least I’ll have stood my ground.

You’ll remember that, on Friday, I discovered that ten PayPal transactions, totalling about £80, were about to be taken from my bank account without my permission. To cut a long story short, PayPal told me that these transactions would be refunded eventually, but if I tried to stop them going through in the first place, I’d have to pay a fine for each separate returned transaction. I wasn’t too happy about this.

I spoke to the Financial Ombudsman yesterday morning, and they seemed pretty shocked that I’d been told not to cancel the transactions. My phone call was recorded as an official complaint, which PayPal will have to address within the next couple of weeks. Watch this space.

When I discussed the whole thing with Barclays, they agreed that I should cancel the transactions but the only way I could do this would be to cancel my PayPal Direct Debit, which I did.

Now all I can do is sit and wait, on the edge of my seat, for PayPal to respond to my complaint. Well, I might make the odd cup of tea and pop to the toilet every now and then - I do have a life, you know.

Take that PayPal!

Friday 26th September, 2008 - £7,926.83 in debt…

Yes, this is my second post of the day - that’s how angry I am. You know I said Barclaycard was my least-favourite financial institution? It’s been bumped into second place by PayPal.

According to a series of emails I received this afternoon, ten payments were made from my PayPal account to Skype (a partner of PayPal, suspiciously enough), totalling about £80. This was news to me - I hadn’t made any of the transactions myself.

About two hours later, ten refunds were credited to my account. But the refunds have been placed on temporary hold until the payments themselves clear. The money has to come out of my bank account and then be paid back in.

I emailed the PayPal complaints department explaining all this and asking why it had happened and whether I could ever trust PayPal again. I got a standard, template response explaining why my refunds were being held back.

This made my blood boil.

So, I phoned the PayPal so-called “help” line. Apparently, no one knows why the payments were authorised or who by, and the money is definitely going to come out of my account whether I like it or not. I explained that I simply can’t afford for the money to come out at this stage in the month - if it does, my rent payment won’t go through.

The PayPal employee (Julie from Resolution Services, just in case anyone’s got a spare five minutes and the ability to hack her bank account) told me that when the money comes out, and when my rent doesn’t come out, PayPal will cover my bank charges. However, if I have the nerve to go to my bank and ask them to cancel the dodgy transactions so they don’t go through in the first place, PayPal will CHARGE ME for an unpaid transaction! The same thing would happen if I cancelled my Direct Debit at this stage.

At this point, I “Hulked out”.

Julie also helpfully pointed out that, if I cancelled the Direct Debit, I wouldn’t be able to use PayPal again. I assured her that I would never use PayPal again for as long as I live.

And, what’s more (oh yes, there’s more), when I get my refunds they’ll be paid into my PayPal account. Because apparently it’s okay to take money willy-nilly straight out of my Barclays account, but paying it back in is against the rules.

The only thing I can do now is to get in touch with my letting agent and explain why the rent will be late this month, and wait for the whole thing to take its course. The PayPal agent didn’t say anything about the level of compensation I’d receive if my landlord decided to evict me for breaking the terms of my contract but, as long as I get my £8 bank charge back, that’s apparently all that matters.

Deep breaths. Go to your happy place, Olivia.

I can understand that sometimes PayPal can’t prevent dodgy transactions from going through, and it’s to their credit that they noticed quickly and put the refund procedure in place on the same day. However, the customer service I’ve received has been horrendous. Via both email and phone, PayPal’s agents have answered the questions they’re expecting to hear and not the ones I’ve actually asked. And, if I can prevent the unauthorised transactions from going through by talking to my bank, what gives PayPal the right to impose a charge of their own?

Apparently I can complain to the Financial Ombudsman, and I will be doing that, but I can’t imagine it doing any good after the event.

This has got to be the worst thing about being in debt. When something like this happens, the only thing I can do is let it happen. Or borrow cash from my family, inconveniencing them and embarrassing me. I’ve never felt so completely at the mercy of a financial company. What if each of those transactions had been £100..?

  I have to confess…

Friday 26th September, 2008 - £7,926.83 in debt…

Harumph. It’s getting towards the end of the month and I haven’t paid anything off. I suppose it’s confession time.

There’s something I haven’t told you, trusted reader. I’ve only been to my temping job for two days in the last… what is it? Six weeks? Something like that. I was hoping not to have to mention it, but here I go. You see, ever since my teens I’ve had problems with my back - it just doesn’t stand up to the normal rigours of everyday life, and it can’t really cope with full-time office work. This is why freelancing was such a good idea. I should have quit while I was ahead.

Anyway, my boss has been incredibly lovely and understanding about the whole thing and I’m going to see him next week to work out a plan whereby I can do lots of work from home.

But that doesn’t help with this month’s money situation. Because I’ve been freelancing a fair amount and doing AQA work on the side, I’ve still got money coming in, but it will be another couple of weeks before I see it. Because of petrol costs, food shopping and a fat cat who needs to be vaccinated against various catty diseases, I’ve even had to start using my Tesco credit card again. The shame.

Luckily, there have been a couple of months recently where I’ve paid off a lot more than the intended £470, so I’m not crying into my Sainsbury’s Basics Fruit ‘n’ Fibre just yet. Even if I have to give up the temping job, I’m still going to be earning money from home so I’m just going to have to manage my money a bit better from now on. 

It will be a new chapter in my life and my debt-paying-off experience: getting rid of almost £8,000 of debt without a weekly income. I’ll tell you what: if I had to worry about Christmas looming and paying for a foreign holiday, I might be a bit worried. Oh, hang on…

 Just block it!!!

Tuesday 23rd September, 2008 - £7,926.83 in debt…

Barclaycard has got to be my least favourite financial corporation now.

I’ve had my card for over five years and, during that time, I’ve exceeded my limit and missed the odd payment. The Barclaycard people know that I’m not great with money, and they’ve had to write me a couple of nasty letters. But, as with any long-term relationship, they’ve learned to love me for my faults.

Over the last four months, I’ve phoned them twice to tell them I’m paying off my debts and to ask for various favours. The first time, I asked for a decrease in my APR and a block on my card. They said they’d do both of these things, but in practice they did neither. The second time I spoke to them, they again said they’d block my card, but then they sent out a shiny new one.

Obviously they weren’t going to be any help in my quest to repay my debts, but I wasn’t expecting an increase to my credit limit. An INCREASE! To £4,000! I hadn’t asked for it - the letter just arrived out of the blue.

Now, I’m not unreasonable. I know that Barclaycard has to make money, and I understand how the system works. I’m not one of those people who’s going to start blaming the banks for my uncontrollable spending urges. However, I’ve been led to believe that the credit card issuers in the UK have some kind of obligation to be responsible lenders.

And increasing the credit limit of a customer they know is a high risk, and who they know is strugglng to repay her debts, just before Christmas…? That doesn’t seem very responsible to me.

 Olivia suddenly liked housework

Sunday 21st September, 2008 - £7,926.83 in debt…

There’s a strong link between money and pride. Paying off my debt has forced me to abandon some of my pride along the way, taking any temping job that’s been offered and doing badly-paid work I’d otherwise have turned down, but I haven’t yet stooped low enough to pick discarded 1p and 2p coins off the street.

According to this article, that’s exactly what I should be doing - I should hoover up other people’s loose change without batting an eyelid, and be grateful that some people have holes in their pockets. In fact, one eagle-eyed woman found £117 in a year on the streets of Bristol.

So, why would I feel too embarrassed to pick up, say, a 5p coin? It’s not morally wrong, as far as I can work out, and it will only get swept up by someone else if I leave it there. If I saw a £5 note lying around I’d pick it up, but scrabbling around for small change just seems a bit… scabby.

What do you think? Beggars can’t be choosers? Or is my pride worth more than £117 a year?

No date for Olivia

Friday 19th September, 2008 - £7,926.83 in debt…

I am perplexed. Over seven weeks ago, I started the process of switching my energy bills to a capped tariff from E.ON, but I still haven’t been given an official switch date.

I’ve given E.ON my meter readings, opened every bit of mail I’ve received from them, but nothing. What’s going on?

A little E.ON envelope plopped onto my welcome mat this morning, but it was just a very pointless letter explaining that, although their standard prices have gone up, my bills won’t be affected. Which is the very least I’d expect from a capped tariff, to be honest.

I’ve worked out that my previous suppliers owe me money because I’ve been over-paying for the past two years, so I want my rebate as soon as possible. That’s not unreasonable, is it? Should it be taking this long?  

 ”Look mum, a monkey!”

Tuesday 16th September, 2008 - £7,926.83 in debt…

I was munching my way through a packet of Value digestives the other day, mainly to keep warm, and I thought “this is the life”. As I picked crumbs out of both the jumpers I was wearing, I thought “there can’t be many people who can afford two jumpers”. Yes, I might have a bank balance of minus eight grand, but there are plenty of people worse off - I’ve got a roof over my head, and I’m not a scabby old pregnant cat who’s been dumped outside a rescue home.

Despite my good fortune, I haven’t donated to charity since I started repaying my debts. So, how can I alleviate my middle class guilt without spending any money?

Top ten ways to help out a charity on a budget:

     1) Phone your local charities and ask what they accept as donations, apart from money. One call to the rescue home I adpoted my cats from, and I’ve discovered they need binbags, blankets, old mobile phones and printer cartridges (but not Epson ones for some reason).

     2) Donate your old bras to the www.Breasttalk.co.uk Bra Appeal. It’s like a grown-ups’ Blue Peter appeal - as long as it’s in good working order, donate a bra you don’t want and it will go to someone who can’t afford one. This can prevent all kinds of back conditions.

     3) You don’t have to do the London Marathon to raise money - there are plenty of shorter, and funner, charity runs. For instance, the Great Gorilla Run is a 7km route through central London. You have to raise a certain amount to enter, but you get to keep your gorilla suit and there’s a free banana at the end.

     4) Any charity will tell you that donating your time and effort can be a lot more valuable than your money. ChildLine has been struggling to stay afloat for years, and can only answer two thirds of the calls it gets from distressed children. Find out about being a volunteer counsellor, administrator or fundraiser here.

     5) If you work in a shop, library, or any other public place, ask the charity you support for a donation box and some flyers. A small cardboard donation box typically holds about £70 of change.

     6) You’ve probably heard of the HungerSite, but do you visit it regularly? If you’re anything like me, you’ll give it and similar sites a couple of clicks every now and then, but get into the habit and you won’t regret it. The HungerSite fed nearly 400,000 people a day in 2000. Other similar sites donate mammograms, child healthcare and books for children.

     7) Fed up of the futility of your job? If you’d rather be doing something worthwhile with your time, you have two choices: (a) give it all up and become a brain surgeon, or (b) use your influence to get your employer to team up with a local charity or make a big donation.

     8 ) If you find yourself with a backlog of Asda own-brand cat food that your cats just won’t eat no matter how hard you try, your local supermarket has probably got a great big bin for donations that will end up at a local rescue home. Sainsbury’s and Morrison’s run these schemes.

     9) Charity credit cards donate a small percentage of what you spend to your chosen charity, but the APR on these things normally means paying loads of interest, which could otherwise be saved and donated. Whether a charity credit card is a good idea depends on your spending patterns - see the Credit Choices guide to charity cards.

     10) Finally, changing your shopping habits can benefit charities and save you money at the same time. If the phrase “charity shop” fills you with images of incomplete jigsaw puzzles and clothes that people have died in, swallow your pride and visit one. You’ll never buy a full-price Stephen King book again.