5 grand on the Visa card....advise please

I have 5k on the visa card and am having difficulty getting it and below the 5k mark for about a year or so now so whats the best advise, I earn €1600 pm after tax, outgoing expences are €350 on a car loan and drip fed insurance and €200 on housekeeping (living at home with parents)the remainder is my own, so whats the best option to get rid of the debt on the visa card.

Have you seen ? First thing might be to stop using the card (e.g. cut it up and/or cancel it) to avoid incurring more debt. might be of interest from the point of view of day to day budgeting etc.

Low interest personal loan (Making damn sure you take a scissors to the card, otherwise you`ll end up owing 10k!)

Not being nosey - but how did you manage to run up the debt in the first place?

credit card

Happened me once, bought a PC for about €1500 and a few other things. Then the bill came in for €2000, so I just paid off the minimum and the next month it was €2500........ For a finish I took out a loan and set up a direct debit from my bank account to pay the balance on my credit card every month in future.

Re: credit card

How did I get to the point of having 5k on the card, well a few years a go I bought computer probably around €2000 and I have a broadband IOL direct debit of €50 a month and I used to get cash top up of 40 or 50 quid every other week, I also have a penchant for the gee gees with an online betting site which adds and subtracts from the card every other week, BTW don't fall in to the obvious trap that I have a gambling problem because I don't (where did I hear that before) seriously,I do like a wager and it does add to the bill but it also takes a lump of it a times and I hardly used it(the card) for a couple of months but I'm still paying nearly a ton or more on interest a month and as soon as you get few hundred together the head gasket blows on the car or something else unforseen happens and what you had for one thing gets used on something else if you know what I mean.

Re: credit card

and I used to get cash top up of 40 or 50 quid every other week,

A cash top-up for what?

I also have a penchant for the gee gees with an online betting site

Have you curbed this at all in the light of your mounting debts?

Did you have a look at the links I posted earlier?

Re: credit card

Just curious.........if you put all your gambling wins and losses on a spreadsheet of sorts, for a 12 month period, would you be + or -, and by how much?

Do online gambling sites provide users with a tracker account of losses and gains.........and if not, (as the technology is quite simple) is it obvious why not?

Lastly, the head gasket blowing, is kind of out of your control. You are in debt. You want to clear that debt. You gamble. If you cannot/will not stop gambling, at least until the debt is cleared, I'm afraid to say that you do have an addiction. But the biggest barrier is admitting it.

I smoke, irrelevant of my financial situation, I do not stop smoking when I have financial issues. I am addicted to smoking.

Re: credit card

I know it sounds corny and a feeling of denial and so on, but really I don't have problem with gambling, I would have a bet on average of once a week and very often its fortnight or longer, I am keen follower of horse racing and accordingly have strong views on some races and am prepared to support that with hard cash, overall at worst I would hold my own over time, but you probably guessed I'd say that, trust me, I don't feel the need or inclination to gamble whatsoever, I am probably rather poor at managing money and I would bet more that I can afford to and tend to live for the day instead of budgeting for the future. I feel that if cleared the visa card and was paying a fixed €200 a fortnight of a personal loan I would be more in control instead of the card going in and out of the 5k mark every month or so.

Domper1 - you've been given all the advice you need but maybe it needs to be spelled out. If you get out of this hole that you keep digging for yourself, it could be the lesson of your life.

Do you realise how lucky you are to have free bed and board? You won't starve or be homeless. (I am trying to be sympathetic - really). If you are concerned about what your friends' think, forget that.

You have a disposable income of €1,000/month. So, what's stopping you from paying off €500/month on the credit card? And never using the card again or until your debt is cleared. Paying off the minimum amount is a bottomless pit of debt.

Using the card for anything just increases your debt with more interest added. The car sounds like another drain so could you not take public transport? Is there any possibility of an evening job not too tiring? If you're occupied you'll have less time to spend or be bored.

Do you really enjoy allowing a bank to charge you all that interest? Maybe stopping that would give as big a thrill as winning on the gee-gees?

By the way, I used to be a credit card addict (tho' always cleared it with cash or an overdraft). It was an "in denial" way of spending money. Now, nearly always use cash or the Laser card. I never saved a cent except in the Credit Union which was and still is a good place to get a loan. Or at least encourages a saving habit. Not a lot to brag about. I hope you can do better!


8)

Sorry Domper - you pay €200 for housekeeping. A very good sign.

Good luck

8)

Yes folks, you probably are right,I should pay at LEAST 500 a month off the card and will attempt to do so from here on and then try to organise my finances on a budget and less off a here today gone tomorrow attitude, and I do realise that I am quite well off with housekeeping and so on, public transport is not an option.

Have you sat down and considered what your plans/goals are both in relation to life in general and to your finances in particular (the latter should follow on from the former) and attempted to make appropriate plans? Have you kept a spending diary or done any sort of budget? What would be the minimum, maximum and average that you would you spend on gambling each week regardless of how many times you actually gamble. To be honest, your protestations of not having a problem with this suggest the distinct possibility of quite the opposite to me.

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Have you called up the credit card company and tried to reduce the interest rate that you're on ? Could you move it to a different company with lower interest rate. When you call the current company it may be worth pushing it quite a bit.. if the person on the phone says no then ask to speak to a supervisor.. it might be worth a try as a starting point.

Re: gambling while in debt to the tune of €5k

sorry to have to say this Domper, but you DO have a problem. anyone who has a €5k debt on their plastic and still uses a card to fund a gambling habit has some issues. worse still, you KNOW this is not good but:

1. seem reluctant to stop the gambling that is tied to your visa card,

and

2. are in denial about this being a problem

cut the card up straight away, pay back the debt as fast as you can (while still leaving you enough to get by) and do not get another card

Re: gambling while in debt to the tune of €5k

hi there domper

was in your situation before, still living at home, handign over a few bob, in my case it was 350 a month but i never had it sop good

all the food was bought for me, free heat and light but in my case i was saving for a house, not paying off a debt

i was saving a couple of hundred a month n decided to save more, so i took out € 500 at the start and put it stright in the credit union, i then couldnt spend it unless i queued up at the counter to get it back out

i learned to have one less drink at the clubs, nightlink n walk( stumble) instead of taxi, less take aways and the money stretched that bit further

if you pay off a couple of hundred more per month the interest starts to stay in your pocket rather than the bank

good luck, plus any tips for kempton

Re: gambling while in debt to the tune of €5k

You are lucky to be at home. €200 a month is for 'nothing' However you do have a 'ton' a month interest. If your parents lent you the €5,000 could you pay them back the €5000 within one year ie and make a more realistic contribution to your keep? ie €450 per month to clear the loan+ €200 lodgings+ €100 formerly interest. At the end of the 12 months you could keep on paying the €300 to your real financiers. Now that would be a dead cert winner. BTW ,ever see any poor bookies driving bangers or staying in hostels or forgoing any of life's little luxuries? if you do will you take a phone and post it on the net so we can see for ourselves. Good Luck.

Re: gambling while in debt to the tune of €5k

If your parents lent you the €5,000 could you pay them back the €5000 within one year ie and make a more realistic contribution to your keep?

Do you mean "pay them back [the €5K]" and also "make a more realistic contribution to your keep" or just making a higher contribution as payment in kind for the debt? Perhaps a loan from the parents might be too easy to renege on as opposed to one from a financial institution even if the latter is more expensive.

gambling etc

I agree Clubman, borrowing off parents is 'easy option' providing of course parents have the cash. Yes I did mean for the €5000 to be paid back at the rate of €450 per month total repaid €5400 and increasing the 'lodgings' to a more realistic €300. This €300 is made up of previous figure of €200 + the interest saved on the credit card ie €100 (ton) per month. So the pain is only €450 per month for the 12 months and mom and pop get a bonus of €400 to have a nice weekend away. All based on trust.

Re: gambling etc

Fair enough - it's a potential plan. Predicated, presumably, on Domper1 not using it as an opportunity to splurge on the gee-gees and land up in debt again?