Anyone who knows me will know that I have had debts now for a long time. These are entirely my own fault, apart from the excessive fees that my bank has hit me with time and time again which have added to the amount owed. Over time this debt has slowly increased, despite my best efforts to reduce it, as without fail any time I got close to getting it under control, some huge expense or other would rear its ugly head and swallow my attempts.
No longer. As of last night I now have 1 debt to 1 creditor, having finally consolidated them all (apart from the Studet Loan that is which really doesn't count, as I'm not earning anywhere near the amount I would need to to have to begin repayments on it).SoI now owe £13,200 to Egg Bank, in the form of a single loan. This will be paid off in monthly installments of £204 for the next 84 months, or 7 years to put it another way.
While that is a long time, I at last have the peace of mind of knowing that the debt will be cleared at the end of that time. As oppossed to the credit card I just scrapped, where my monthly repayments were merely servicing the interest, and which would have taken nearly 30 years to pay off according to the woman I got all this sorted out with on the phone last night. Also, the loan is arranged in such a way, that I can make extra payments to it, should I have the money to do so.
Which brings me back to the fees the bank has been charging me. According to the law, those fees are illegal and thus the money can be claimed back from the bank. To the best of my knowledge, my bank owes me somewhere in the region of £6000 from the last 6 years of such fees. I intend to claim it back and use that money to pay off a big chunk of the loan early. Also there are the boxes of stuff under my bed to sell on ebay, another source of money to pour into getting that debt cleared a hell of a lot sooner than 2014.
