Best Way To Clear My Debts

HP550 · 21 August 2012 at 9:50PM

The SOA was pulled together pretty quickly TBH but the bottom line is pretty much everything in goes back out.

Not overly concerned over any of the outgoings at this point to be honest and we can all cut back if need be. I do the usual shopping around and have a good / best deal on most things.

My main concern is the cards with 25% plus APR and the minimum payments never seem to make much impact in clearing the balance. Ideally I want a single loan or a couple of loans to the value of the debt and a set time period to clear it.

I am happy to pay out similar sums and leave the lifestyle pretty much as is. Seems a better solution than I am in now. Once cleared in 4 years there is room for savings and with the car paid off in 6 months there is an additional £260 in the pot per month.

eco_farmer · 21 August 2012 at 10:12PM

Forgive me but whilst i understand you have no desire to change your current lifestyle your current spending lives no room for lifes little challenges. i have spent many hours recently reading these boards and i really think given the "good position" you now find yourself in you should really try to find a little spare cash to put aside into an emergency fund. and also please listen to the wise words of London girl on consolidation loads, surely the best way forward is to try and 0% as much debt as possible then pay of the remaining as quickly as possible using the saved monies from the 0% cards and the £259 from the soon to end car loan. end result debt free much quicker and no temptation to slacken off in the process

much luck eco

InsertWittyName · 21 August 2012 at 10:16PM

I think you're too focused on re-financing your debt, when ideally you need to be focused on paying it off (where re-financing could be part of this).

Paying it off sooner requires more money, the only possible ways for this is increased income and/or decreased outgoings. Outgoings are generally easier to decrease than income is to increase.

Instead of going for a singular approach (re-financing) I would recommend covering all bases:

- Decrease outgoings.
- Increase income.
- Re-finance.

I've done all three over the last 12 months and you can see my progress in my signature below.

Good luck!

Emthemist · 22 August 2012 at 3:37PM

I'm with IWN on that one. The easiest way (if there is one) is to lower your monthly expenditure rather than increase your income. If you can lower the interest you pay (by shifting to 0% if possible) that will be a great help.

Also I noticed that you haven't included any water rates in your SOA. Other than that I think you've got all the advice you need!

Em

HP550 · 22 August 2012 at 5:36PM

Thanks to all who have replied.

Think we are going to go down the route of switching some of the debt to zero percent card(s) in my wifes name. I would guess if we are looking for 2 cards it would be best to stagger the applications over a couple of months. Maybe even settle for one card & one personal loan. This would ideally take care of refinancing about 40% of the debt but more importantly it would free my own credit availability up to refinance to something far better than the 26% rate on the card.

As said before cash should be freed up a little more early next year when car is paid off. This plus any "lifestyle" savings can be used to plough a bit more into the debt.

The main aim now is to get the debt reducing and making my significant monthly payments feel as if they are at least making a dent.

Once on the right track phase 2 will be to get the best possible deals and cleared as quickly and cheaply as possible. With all the debt under one name it makes doing anything very difficult. Switching it between us will I assume open up new options.

Thanks again to all.

orcocan · 23 August 2012 at 12:39AM

make sure you cancel the old credit cards immediately once you've transferred the balance across...

chevalier · 23 August 2012 at 5:52AM

you note on your SOA that there are three adults in the house. Is the third adult paying their share, at a minimum of the council tax and bills?

ellesbellesxxx · 23 August 2012 at 7:32AM

Sounds like you will have more money freed up when you pay off HP. Please please don't spend again on those cards... otherwise you will find yourself back here again. Cut down on clothes and clothing particularly, follow other advice above and throw all that extra at your debts.

cutestkids · 23 August 2012 at 8:49AM

Just something I noticed, you say that your wife has no debt, this may actually work against your plan at the moment, if she does not have any credit then it will be very difficult if not impossible to get the best 0% balance transfer credit cards in her name.

lenders want to see a history of paying off regular payments and managing credit well before lending to anyone, if your wife has not had any credit in her own name recently then there is no way of them being able to see if she is a good risk or not.

A bit of a catch 22 but the lenders are much more cautious about who they will give money to now.

HP550 · 23 August 2012 at 9:10PM

An update.

Was looking around what's on offer on money supermarket last night and got contacted by Fluent Money who done some "research" for me.

Best option they could come up with was Nemo finance. Secured loan for £15k at just over half the APR % of the main card. This would essentially give me a 5 year plan for two thirds of the debt. Payments would work out about £70 less than what I am paying just now. This £70 would be paid as additional on top of the remainder of the cards. Will also look at hefty overpayments to each card after car is paid off.

Not even close to accepting anything but it is one chink of light that gives me something to benchmark against.

Plan now is to shop around and see if I can get something pref unsecured. Worst case scenario would be secured but with a far better % rate.

Nothing achieved yet but now I have a startpoint and something to measure against.

Best Way To Clear My Debts

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