To consolidate or not to consolidate?!?!?

Irishman2008

I hope someone can offer me some advise as this situation is driving me mad!

I currently have debts of £12,ooo (6,500 personal loan and 5,500 on 4 credit cards) It's costing me 305 a month servicing these debts and as i'm onl able to afford the minimum payment each month on the credit cards, the balance never seems to go down!

I've been considering consolidating my debts by taking out an unsecured personal loan and, i've been accepted in principle for a loan of 12k at 19.5% APR, with monthly payments at 235 a month.

This option is attractive to me as it will reduce my monthly outgoings and will be easier to keep track of instead of all these nasty cards.

Question is, am i doing the right thing? As i said before i cannot afford to pay any more than i already do each month, so i see no other option than to take the loan.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated!!

Cheers.

CLAPTON

you need to understand why you built up the debts in the first place
have you addressed the issues that caused the debts
have you a proper budget and do you stick to it

the great danger of 'consolidating' and having 'all the debts in one place' is that you simply continue to spend on the CC and build up fresh debts.

Whether is sensible to consolidate some or all the debts depends upon the details

-for the loan ... how much outstanding, whats the APR, how much per month, how many months left to pay
-for the CC
how much the debt, the APR, the minimum payments?

-for the new loan ... how many months is the loan over?

how good is you credit rating... can you get 0% BT CC or low life of balance cards?

-can you get a part time job so you can pay back more?