Independent Financial Advisors - a good idea?

Watson

First off, please forgive me if this isn't the best section for this question. It seems to me that it is, but I'm new here and might have missed a more appropriate forum.

I'd be very interested in the general opinion on independent financial advisors. I have a (quite low) mortgage, a bank loan and sizeable credit card balances, and I approached a local IFA company with a view to talking about possibly increasing the mortgage to pay off the other debts. I was surprised when they told me they would charge a £95 consultation fee just for a general chat.

Is this usual? Is their specialist knowledge actually worth that sort of outlay?

Many thanks in advance,

Watson

rprinter

Hi & Welcome.

Bearing in mind the advice you were going to seek, this is indeed the right place!

There'll be plenty of free advice here, forget any fee-paying service.
You could start by posting details of what you owe, to whom, with APRs, together with income details and you'll get loads of help here...

First off, see if we can try and sort this without you moving your unsecured debt into secured debt...

IN_LIKE_EVERYONE_ELSE!

"A financial advisor is someone that advises you until all your money is gone"
Groucho Marx

Watson

rprinter,

Thanks for the welcome, the speedy reply, and what seems to be a timely warning.

The broad outlines of my situation are:

Mortgage: Skipton Building Society. Amount outstanding £23,600, ends August 2015, monthly payment £246

Credit card 1: Bank of Scotland standard VISA. Balance £5760, current monthly payment £115, APR 19.95%

Credit card 2: MBNA VISA. Balance £8416, current monthly payment £190, APR 24.9%

Bank loan: Bank of Scotland. Balance £13,300, ends February 2012, monthly payment £206, APR 6.4%

I am self-employed and my average gross income for the past three financial years was £23,980.

Obviously, I shall be very grateful for any thoughts and advice. As the above situation probably demonstrates, I am not particularly finance-savvy - but I'm very willing to learn.

Many thanks,

Watson

black-saturn

I used to work in the office of a financial advisor and he was one of the most crooked people I have ever met. In the end he went bankrupt so he was obviously not so good at advising.

To be honest I don't think you need one. You can get all the advice you need here.

rprinter

Nuff Said!

OK Watson thats a great start you've listed your debts.

Now what about your other outgoings like council tax & all household bills, car/transport, shopping, pets, as much as you can please.

And what would your average monthly take home pay be then?


If you can list all of this we can start making suggestions. Whilst you're doing this I presume your credit history is OK at the mo ... ie no missed payments yet?

r

Watson

rprinter,

Thanks for the reply. I'll sort out and post the expenses you mention as soon as I can.

It's not easy to give a figure for my average take-home monthly pay, because I've always regarded my income as too erratic to be able to draw a regular salary or pay myself a wage: up to now I've just spent money when I've had it, and - I'm afraid - got into debt when I haven't. That's why I gave an average gross yearly income figure in my post above.

Generally, the periods when I've had money coming in and the periods when I haven't have balanced themselves out, with each new lot of income serving to wipe out the debts incurred during the preceding fallow stretch - but this time the balancing act has gone a touch awry. The bank loan, for example, was taken out for a specific reason and was considered safe because of an expected substantial payment for a job - but the job actually fell through at the last minute.

I could calculate an average yearly after-tax figure, but it wouldn't really represent twelve times my available monthly income, if I'm making any sense.

I realise that this is all horribly unorganised and amateurish, but it's what I've done for the past fifteen years or so.

I've been very careful not to miss any payments on anything, so my credit history should be OK.

Watson

mountainofdebt

I'm not disagreeing with black_saturn per se but the flip side of the coin is that I also used to work in a financial adviser's office and I thought he was brillant - and so did his clients as we only ever seemed to get new clients off the back of recommendations....so I guess the moral of the story is that for every good adviser there is a bad adviser.

I do agree that you'll get far more money saving advice on these boards

I've pm you about your mbna card, with info which may be of use to you.

Watson

Mountainof debt, thanks for the reply. I accept, of course, that there are good and bad financial advisers, just as there are good and bad everything elses. What took me by surprise was that £95 up-front consultation fee - though I suppose you could argue that really top-notch advise, tailored exactly to your needs, could be worth it, especially if you had nowhere else to turn.

I've pm you about your mbna card, with info which may be of use to you.

Thanks for that. The message hasn't appeared as yet, but I'll watch out for it.

Watson

Robert_Sterling_3

My top priority would be to do something about those horrendous interest rates on 2 of your credit cards. Look into the possibilty of getting 0% credit cards.

Watson

Robert, thanks for the reply. I agree about the credit card rates; I've been looking through the balance transfer articles on the site, and I think the best course for me personally would be a low-rate "stable relationship" card rather than a 0% one. Moving to 4.9% from BA Amex or 5.5% from Lloyds TSB would make a big difference, obviously.

What I'm not sure of is just what credit limits I would be offered on those cards; I suppose it's just a case of applying and finding out. After all, even transferring just some of my existing balances would be an improvement.

Watson