# real trouble...help



## hardtimes09 (6 Jan 2009)

Age: 41
   Spouse’s/Partner's age: 41

   Annual gross income from employment or profession: 56000
   Annual gross income of spouse:12000

   Type of employment: e.g. Civil Servant,  self-employed Civil Servant on pension rate of pay as on long term sick leave, husband is Civil Servant

In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, Yes
(b) saving?

   Rough estimate of value of home 360,000
   Amount outstanding on your mortgage: 300,000
*What interest rate    are you paying? *5%

   Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc 36,000 Credit Union 730 per month, 125 per month to my Dad who lent me 6,000 to buy car

   Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? no 900 per month
   If not, what is the balance on your credit card? 3 totalling 39,000

   Savings and investments:8,000 in credit union shares

   Do you have a pension scheme? civil service one each

   Do you own any investment or other property? no

   Ages of children: 13,10,7

   Life insurance: just mortgage protection

Other Monthly Outgoings
Sky 86
Life Insurance 101
Esb  100
BT  50 
Mobiles 50
Food/Petrol 1000
husbands credit union 200
Mortgage  1600

Yearly Outgoings
Car Tax/Insurance  1400
House Insurance 400
Oil 1000 



*What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you? *


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## Galway5 (6 Jan 2009)

If I am reading this correctly you have 3 credit cards with a balance of €39k between the three.

You also have a personal loan / car loan of €36k and a loan to your father of €6000. 

Total personal borrowings of €81k?

What jumps out at me are that the credit cards are probably costing you a fortune on interest because you are not clearing the balance each month. The solution that I can see is that you try to take out a medium term loan of 5 years to clear this. On a very rough calc using 10% interest rate a repayment would be approx €715 per month.

You should consider getting rid of Sky straight away, a saving of €86 per month. this saving should be paid against the new loan. You should ask your dad can you defer paying him back until you get sorted. This €125 should be used to pay down the new loan. 

If you can pay €900 per month off the credit cards this should also go to the new loan and this may reduce the term. 

The credit union may allow you to push out the term of the existing loan with them, seeing as you already have €8,000 in shares with them. You should check which interest rate will be higher - new loan or credit union loan and try and pay down the one with the highest interest rate first.

Do you need the car? I appreciate you have 3 kids, do you have more than one car or just the one? Just wondering whether there are any assets you can sell in the interim to get you back on your feet?

What is your husbands credit union payment for? Could this be used to pay down new loan?

Bottom line is the credit card debt needs to go and be refinanced over a medium term or partly paid off by sale of any surplus assets and credit cards then cut up and not used again.


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## anon473 (7 Jan 2009)

The 200 that is going to husbands credit union -  is that as well as paying off the 730 per month loan at the CU or is it going to shares? If it is savings (shares) then you need to redivert it to paying off the debt.
anon473


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## BoscoTalking (7 Jan 2009)

sit down with MABS or the Credit union. 39k on Cards is madness. you need to get rid of them and do as the other poster said regarding a loan. can you downsize the car? sell and share the car between the two of you? make savings in energy, food, phone use (get rid of landline?) social aspects of your lives?


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## Pope John 11 (7 Jan 2009)

Get rid of Sky, *save €86/month*

Get rid of BT, *save €50/month*

Cut down on the food consumption bill €1,000 by taking into account what items you can buy for less & think how many dinners you can get from each item. Remind the family that this is only a temporary measure.

I work it on the basis of the following/day, & this works for me:

€1.00 per breakfast per person (ceral,milk)

€3.50 per main dinner per person (for example pastas, rice, potatoes together with frozen vegetables with an additional item (chicken,meat,fish) make up actual dinners.)

€1.00 per lunch per person (fruit, bananas, apples, oranges)

and *save near €150/month*

*(Forgot to take the petrol from the above costs...so perhaps €1000 for food/petrol seems ok)*

If you have two cars, get rid of the most expensive one.

If you have one car, then trade it in for a cheaper one....say €5,000 would buy you a good car at present.


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## hardtimes09 (8 Jan 2009)

Thanks for all the help guys...was with the credit union yesterday and will know on Tues re consolidation.  I have cut up credit cards so at least they can't be used....am awaiting news on early retirement on health grounds...if I get this, which unfortunatly is very likely, I will receive a lump sum of around 40,000 and continue to receive my pension.  My idea would be to clear credit cards with this sum....would this be the best thing to do?

I know its a lot to have on credit cards but most of it was due to medical bills ect due to my illness.


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## colm5 (8 Jan 2009)

Hi
Remember that you can claim medical expenses back through tax @ 41% if you pay tax at that rate. You can go back over the last 4 years I believe. 

These seem really excessive, are you sure they are not two month costs?

Sky 86
Life Insurance 101
Esb 100
BT 50


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## hardtimes09 (8 Jan 2009)

Hi Colm5

Yes we claim back the med relief every year which helps....my medication is very expensive every month but thakfully only have to pay 90 euro, I also have to visit a GP and specialist every month and this sets us back 150 a month...we do claim it back but hard to come up with it every month if you know what I mean!

They are the monthly bills...we have sky plus and multiroom, I know we should probably get rid of it but at times it is all that keeps me sane, when I am unable to do anything else!  The Bt is monthly and we have unlimited calls day and night to ireland and uk plus unlimited broadband for this...again necessary to keep me in touch with family, we use skype for family in australia which means we can talk for free.  The ESb is 200 a month...I have managed to bring this down from 220 last year, which I think is good considering cost per unit has incrreased.

The mortgage protection is 101 a month, I feel this is high but have been told its normal?

Thanks for your reply...nice to know someone out there is listening and cares!


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## colm5 (8 Jan 2009)

Hi,
On a few points I guess

Your ESB is off the radar IMO @ 200 a month. You have oil heating I assume (with your oil bill) so I wonder where are you using all the kWh's? In may not be a bad idea to do an electricity audit of your home. As an example, my ESB is 40euro/month.

Mort protection cover is dependant on the level of cover I guess, and you may want to review you cover level. I know that I dont pay 100 euro a month, more like 40euro. The plan may suit you better, for your needs I guess. But shop around is my advice. Its very easily to ring broker for quotes etc.. In  cases, mort protection is useless anyways and they will try and get out of payment if at all possible.

Maybe consider reducing your Sky package to a less costly package per month.

Food/Petrol 1000 - not bad I guess for 5 people. Have you considered maybe shopping in lidl/aldi  to try and reduce your monthly food bill?
If possible try and reduce your travel costs. I know this maybe hard, but having kids cycling to school etc.. can all help a bit.

Hope things work out


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## hardtimes09 (8 Jan 2009)

Hi,

ESB is 200 a bill...thats 2 months sorry!  I did my weekly shop in aldi today and spent 117 euro...i did a food plan for week including dinners before I went and managed to get almost everything including meat, have never bought meat there before so hope its ok!  The few things i couldn't get i went to normal supermarket and spent 20 euro so I saved 60 euro so far this week!!

Very proud of myself!


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## PaddyW (8 Jan 2009)

That's as good a start as any. Keep pluging away at it.


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## D8Lady (8 Jan 2009)

hardtimes09 said:


> Hi,
> 
> ESB is 200 a bill...thats 2 months sorry!



Check to see if  your ESB bill was based on an estimated reading (should be an E on your bill if so). 

Was listening to radio yesterday and it turns out that estimated bills have been incorrectly calculated. Might be worth a few bob to you if you check it out.


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## Galway5 (8 Jan 2009)

Sounds like you are on the right track, best of luck with it and let us know how you get on with the credit union.


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## colm5 (9 Jan 2009)

Estimate bills are averaged out over time and based on national consumption averages. Every second reading is carried out by the ESB. You can also phone them and call in your reading.


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## ClubMan (9 Jan 2009)

You can also update an inaccurate estimated reading online. 

[broken link removed]


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