Debt advice needed

chaffordred · 19 November 2005 at 4:34PM

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone can help me out. What you would reccomend as the best course of action to clear a "few" debts I owe (mainly CC's).

I was thinking about getting a consolidation loan to ensure I am actually paying off the capital on the loan as opposed to a lot of interest on the credit cards.

My circumstances are:

Male aged 33. Married with one child
Self-employed (last 3 months). Earn £3-4k per month. Steady income (franchise)
Owe 90K on mortgage (7 years into 25 year mortgage). House is worth £175-180k. Mortgage is with Direct Line.
No CCJ's. No Defaults.
My wife is employed part-time.

The only thing I have against me (apart from the amount of outstanding debt) is the fact that I have been self employed for such a small amount of time.

My debts (apart from mortgage):

£9555.00 on Smile Gold card (9.9% ). Payment of 191 per month (78.00 interest)
£8380.00 MBNA Platinum Mastercard (15.9%) Payment of 130 per month (125 Interest!)
£5453.00 on Smile Classic card (9.9%). Payment of 110 per month (45.00 interest)
£5865.00 on Cahoot CC (11.8%). Payment of 120 Per Month (57.00 interest)
£3903 on Cahoot flexible loan (10.97%) Payment of £78.00 per month (36.00 interest)
£300 on Comet time card (Store card)(29.9%!) Payment of £16.00 per month. (8.00 interest)

Total I owe £33,456 or £645 per month.

Out of the £645 per month I am actually paying £296 back. The rest is £349.00 in interest.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Magentasue · 19 November 2005 at 4:42PM

have just replied to you on the loans board - I think this is a more appropriate board so will cut and paste:

Suggestions:

Try the snowballing calculator on www.whatsthecost.com
Try and move some of your debt on to 0% cards
Don't spend on the cards you're paying off
Draw up a budget that shows where your money is going - cut back where you can so that you can throw as much cash as you can at your debt.

If you consolidate, don't build up more debt - unless you want to be paying back £600 or £700 a month for ever.

Your saving grace is your income - you have the ability to get debt free.

HTH

Old_iron_balls · 19 November 2005 at 5:22PM

same here...

Firstly, cut them CC's in half !
With your income you should have no reason to use them anyway.

To make any real progress you need to stop spending right now.
Throw every spare penny you can each month at your debts.

Play around with your figures and see if you can come up with a sensible budget to stick to.
The snowballing calculator will give you a debt free date to work towards but you must stick to your budget.

Christmas is just round the corner so it will be a real test of your commitment.

Tighten them purse strings & good luck

chaffordred · 19 November 2005 at 5:58PM

Magentasue wrote:

have just replied to you on the loans board - I think this is a more appropriate board so will cut and paste:

Suggestions:

Try the snowballing calculator on www.whatsthecost.com
Try and move some of your debt on to 0% cards
Don't spend on the cards you're paying off
Draw up a budget that shows where your money is going - cut back where you can so that you can throw as much cash as you can at your debt.

If you consolidate, don't build up more debt - unless you want to be paying back £600 or £700 a month for ever.

Your saving grace is your income - you have the ability to get debt free.

HTH

Just looked at the snowballing calculator and put the figures in for the 6 debts I owe. With a payment of £800 per month (an overpayment of £155.00 from what I already pay every month) I can be debt free in just over 4 years! :beer:

Thanks

Magentasue · 19 November 2005 at 6:01PM

Good luck!

Spendalot_2 · 20 November 2005 at 10:33AM

Cahoot may increase the limit on your flexible loan, then you can transfer the higher rate cards to there.

You are also paying a high rate on your cahoot flex loan - i have one and pay 8.5%.

You can apply to increase limit online, and no questions are asked about your employment status.

Spendalot_2 · 20 November 2005 at 10:35AM

Sorry, I also meant to say that you could ask Cahoot to reduce the rate on your flexible loan - I did not mean to just point out that my rate is lower!!

black-saturn · 20 November 2005 at 2:07PM

If you give us a list of your household incomings and outgoings we can try and work out where you could cut back. Good luck

Debt advice needed

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