£10000 in debt, tips obviously needed!

Billy_two_speakers

afoolandhismoney wrote: »

Hello

Over the course of the last few years by burying my head in the sand I've managed to acquire a sizeable amount of debt spread over 3 credit cards. Two of them are on a 0% deal, one until March and the other until June the other 1k is with Egg.

I've got a lot of equity in my house and I am thinking the best way to be clear of this debt is just to remortgage get the 10k I need and possible a couple grand extra to put aside for the proverbial rainy day. I've looked at my outgoings and can cut back on a number of things, Sky is being ditched, my mobile contract runs out in January and I'll be going pay as you go. Renewed my car and home insurance last month and got the best deals out there, and used quidco!

If I do get the extra money then it'll go straight on the cards then they'll get cancelled and I will never open another credit card account in my life! I was wondering, though, if it's worth looking into getting a personal loan instead of adding to the mortgage. I reckon I could pay out £150 a month on loan repayments while still having enough left over to make sure I don't get into this mess again!

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

if and its a big if you really really need to take the money from your house DONT TAKE A PENNY more than you need its not a good idea

busta1

Make the most of the 0% deals before you take any action - that's the cheapest loan you can get so don't repay it until the 0% expires. Meanwhile, pay off egg as much as possible.

Remo'ing for 10k may get expensive with fees and so on, and be wary of taking out the extra 'rainy day' money. I think you're better off building up a rainy day fund from scratch rather than borrowing it for something that might never happen. Plus, there's always the tempation to spend it on some emergency new clothes and big telly.

Also, don't assume that going PAYG with your phone is the cheapest way to keep a mobile. My GF used to be on PAYG, and she didn't use it much but found it cheaper to get a SIM-only contract for £15pm. We're both on O2 and they're great - I couldn't recomment them more highly.

afoolandhismoney_2

MrsPorridge wrote: »

Do you really need 2 cars? If your wife doesn't drive that much and you are using the train then maybe you can just get away with one car.

I'm trying to sell the car but nobody seems to want a 12 year old 2 litre Vectra!

I've decided I'll try and pay off the 2k on the 2 credit cards by June and then if I can manage that I might just be tempted to chip away at the 8k debt bit by bit. One big factor that's worrying me is my mate asked him to be his best man so that's a stag weekend, and an expensive wedding present to pay for. I know these things will always come up but if we're trying to budget it's going to be tough but I know we need to start sorting ourselves out.