Sorting Your Finances During The Corona Crisis

The Corona Crisis is very troubling for us all. As well as trying to protect ourselves, our families and others from contracting the virus, we also have to face the realities of what lockdown mean to us financially. Many people are currently on furlough, which means that our wages and earning capacity has been cut, whilst others have found themselves working reduced hours, made redundant, or in a very precarious situation of being self employed, unable to work, but not being guaranteed any money until June. This can make or day to day existence one of constant worry.

If you are worrying about paying your bills, here are a few things you should be doing to ease those worries.

Credit Card Help

If you have crippling credit card bills each month, you should phone your credit card company to see if there is anything they can do to lower the bills or even suspend payment at the current time, most companies are being very accommodating at the moment. If this is not possible, switching to a low interest card could be another option. Look at the possibility of a low interest credit card which would allow you to make just one monthly payment at a much lower interest rate. This could cut your current payments dramatically.

However, now, more than at any other time, you cannot ignore the need for a life insurance policy in order to protect your family and your home. This can be an affordable, almost preventative, payment that you can have as a piece of mind payment.

Contact Your Mortgage Company

Your mortgage is probably your biggest monthly and the one that worries you most – it is the roof over your head after all. You can now take a three month mortgage holiday without questions being asked about your future finance and most companies are being very proactive in their response, some even allowing you to do it online. Other companies have very long waits on their phone lines but it is definitely worth hanging on as you will be able to get the holiday, and there are many different ways of paying this back at the end of the holiday by adding extra months to your mortgage, or splitting the payment over the term time you have left.

Your Council Tax

Another large expense per month is your council tax. Check your local council website, many have added contact forms which allow you to look at suspending your payment during the current climate. Contact them using this, explaining your own current situation and then wait for a reply, this could then help during the current time.

Look At Any Membership Fees

In the course of your normal life, there can be many things you pay monthly fees for which you are not currently able to use due to the lock down and their closure. I’m talking about sports subscriptions like gym memberships, dating site fees when you can’t actually meet someone, or team memberships that you may pay for your children (my own son plays football for a team that has subs of £25 per month, but with no training or matches, this is pretty redundant at the moment, and will be until the season is able to resume.)

All these fees may be small amounts, but when you are not earning, they mount up, so see if you can indefinitely put them on hold.

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