Olivia Buck says ‘Hi’

Monday 1st May, 2008 – £9,499.45 in debt…

Let me introduce myself: I’ve just turned 28, I’ve been in debt for ten years, and now I’m desperate to pay it off. How did I get myself into this dungheap of a mess of a quagmire?

I’ve always been rubbish with money, and now I’m rubbish with debt. Being in the red was fine at uni - like so many students, I got used to spending money that wasn’t mine. After I graduated, I lived with my parents for two years and paid most of it off, but then I moved to London.

I’ll tell you this for nothing: Living in London is expensive. That’s the first of many shiny nuggets of wisdom you’re going to get from this blog, and I hope you appreciate it. It’s not like I was eating diamond-encrusted swans for breakfast, but an Ikea spree here and there soon adds up.

Over the last year or so, I’ve had the feeling I should be getting out of my debt-hole. My credit rating has gone past ‘high risk’ and into ‘extreme’ territory – only adrenaline junkies and the mafia would lend to me now - but mainly I want to cut up my credit cards because being in debt feels horrible.

So far, I’ve made the following efforts:

• Although I’m self-employed, I’ve got a second job as a part-time secretary. It’s almost unbearable, but it pays the rent.

• My biggest debt was on my Barclaycard at nearly 30% APR, so I’ve transferred half the balance to a Tesco card on an interest-free deal.

• After doing that, I cancelled my Barclaycard and set up a standing order to make regular payments. When I explained why I was doing this, the Barclaycard people were kind enough to drop my Standard APR by a couple of percent.

Even after that, I’ve still got credit card bills of £200 a month and those payments are covering little more than interest. I also have an overdraft limit of £3,000, which I was always straying past before I got the temping job (bad news at the time, but I might be able to claim back some bank charges – more on that later…).

So, here’s the bottom line: How much I owe.

Barclays overdraft: £3,000 (I’m always at the limit by the end of the month)

Barclaycard: £2,977.46 at 27.9% APR

Capital One card: £999.00 at 24% APR

Tesco card: £2,399.00 at 12% APR

NatWest card: £123.99 at 13% APR

That’s a total debt of £9,499.45 (plus interest), which I plan to eliminate completely by my 30th birthday at the end of April 2010. I then plan to fit Jupiter into a blender and become the first woman to unicycle across the Atlantic.

My first job is to pay off that pesky little NatWest card as quickly as possible. I currently pay off that card at £10 a month so, once it’s taken care of, I can add £10 onto my monthly Barclaycard payment.

I’m open to suggestions, so please help me out!

 I’ve got 24 months to get solvent and apart from Ebaying all my belongings and working overtime, I need to know: 

1. Can I make more money?
2. How can I save money so I can increase my card payments without feeling the pinch?
3. What have you done to pay off your debts?
4. What works and what doesn’t?

 Over the coming weeks I’ll be trying out any suggestions I’m given (apart from illegal ones) and regularly reporting back.