Advice needed.

Cae_Ras

Hi

Am new to the forum and looking for a bit of advice.

Im £18,000 in debt, £14000 on 3 different credit cards and £4000 loan, im payin about £200 interest a month on these 3 cards and paying off around £700 ( £500 ) minus interest.

I earn £21000 a year but doing a fair bit of overtime at moment so managing to pay it off, if the overtime stops then i am left with nothing after all my outgoings, mortgage etc and have a really bad credit rating after constantly applying for loans.

What should i do, give it a year and keep up with my payments and then try for a loan then or should i go down the debt management plan route, a secured loan is not for me.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

salster

Cae_Ras wrote: »

Hi

Am new to the forum and looking for a bit of advice.

Im £18,000 in debt, £14000 on 3 different credit cards and £4000 loan, im payin about £200 interest a month on these 3 cards and paying off around £700 ( £500 ) minus interest.

I earn £21000 a year but doing a fair bit of overtime at moment so managing to pay it off, if the overtime stops then i am left with nothing after all my outgoings, mortgage etc and have a really bad credit rating after constantly applying for loans.

What should i do, give it a year and keep up with my payments and then try for a loan then or should i go down the debt management plan route, a secured loan is not for me.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Can you post a SOA please?

Cae_Ras

Sorry what dose SOA mean?

A_fiend_for_life

Hi Cae Ras,

SOA = Statement of Affairs.


http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

Cae_Ras

Here Goes

Mortgage - £450
Council Tax - £63
Water - £10
Gas and electric - £40
Home Insurance - £6
Sky, internet - £20
School fees - £25
Mobile - £40 ( redemption, will claim back)
Car insurance - £28
Loan - £270
Virgin card - £100
Hsbc card - £110
Barclaycard - £70

Then around £100 on food and £80 on petrol, i think thats everything

Cheers

Cae_Ras

Bringing home£1300 bsic , £2000ish at the moment due to overtime, thanks

**Amy**

Hi

Thanks for the SOA but it would be great if you could post it using the link (above) as it totals everything up etc.

http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

It also shows your APR rates on your loans and your total debts on them etc.

I would not apply for any more credit for a long while. They are cracking down on giving credit out as it is, and if you keep applying for it it will make your credit report look quite bad.

Once you have posted an SOA we might be able to see areas where you could possibly cut back/save some money.

It might also be worth looking on the "up your income" board.

x

GeorgeUK

Hi Cae Ras

I think the first thing you should try to do is reduce the amount of interest you are paying. When was the last time you applied for credit? Do you think it would be possible to get a 0% promotional card? Have you had any late payments or defaults?

Also, knowing the totals and APR's of each card would help. You can sometimes get a promtional offer as an existing customer so not need to worry about credit checks. It's better to do this on an empty card though.

Cae_Ras

No chance of a 0% balance transfer as ive had 2 already and spent on yhem, that is why interest is so high, around 25% on all 3

GeorgeUK

You can have about 3 credit checks in a 6 month period before it starts to affect your credit score. I would try to either clear the card with the lowest balance if it won't take more than a few months to clear it, then after you get a statement with a nil balance, phone them to ask if they have any balance transfer offers. You may then be able to transfer some of that to a lower or 0% APR. Then repeat for the other cards.

If you don't have any that have a fairly low balance, i would pay the minimum to all and throw anything left over at the highest APR debt.

Cae_Ras

So you dont think i need to take some urgent action ( debt management plan, etc.