Advice please

John4702

Hi all,

If you would be so kind im after some advise.

I am in a pickle but as of a few months ago I gave all my cards to my other half and stopped spending.

Now for the advise please.

I have debts of £227,000 with a property worth £150,000.

£150,000 mortgage with a further secured loan from northern rock of £30,000

Credit cards of £27,000 with a total limit of £47,000.

Loans of £20,000

My incoming just about covers my my our goings with min payments on cards and with about 4 years to run on the loans. I am repaying approx £700 a month off the total debt.

I earn £40,000 a year.

Up and to this point I have been managing the credit card balances and keeping them at sensible interest rates allowing me to pay back about £300 a month on the cards after interest. The rest of the £700 I pay back goes to the loans...

Now I have a worry the credit card companies are starting to cut my limits removing the capacity for me to move balances around. This could end up crippling me...

I really need a back up plan as if I cant move these credit cards around I will certainly have more going out than coming in and no way to refuel my current account from credit cards... bit of a worry.

The concerns I have with DMP's and IVA's is it will have an impact on my credit rating for what years and years... like 11 for an IVA i would have expected. IVA for five years, then 6 more for the IVA to full off my credit file. Please correct me if im wrong.

Any advise on backup plans would be appreciated.

Thanks.

PS, no assets to talk of that I could get the cards down with.

RAS

John

it would help if you can do and SOA http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

John4702

In a nut shell

Paid 2400

Train fair 270

Mort = 940

Min Card payments 500

Loan payment 550

Other bills around 150

Thats all my money gone.

Partner pays for food, going out, and anything else which exhausts her wages as she is part time expecting our first child.

Hope that helps.

I find the caulators on these various sites not dynamic enough for me, as an example shifting a balance to a different card with a different min payment could release or take 100 more a month. etc

Merlinexcalibur

Train fair 270

Okay, I usually ask this where public transport is concerned in case there may be a way to reduce that cost above. Do you have any disabilities, ongoing illnesses? If so, there may be a way to reduce that not by much but by around 25% including national/local rail fares.

Nargleblast

You were going to arrive at this point sooner or later, as juggling credit card accounts only works for a while before you find you have no more room left to manoevre. You then start relying on credit cards to pay the bills that should come out of your salary, and once the interest starts clocking up you find yourself with massive debts. If you can use the SOA calculator on this site to give a full breakdown of your assets and liabilities then you should find some obvious savings jump out at you. It is possible you may have to go down the debt management plan or IVA route at some point, but cross that bridge when you get to it. First thing to do is post your SOA for advice and stop using those cards - you don't need to be throwing yet more cash into the bank accounts of those City fatcats. Don't panic about your credit rating because you are hardly likely to be looking to take out any further borrowing for the forseeable future.

John4702

Thanks for help.

RAS

Alos look at the snowball on https://www.whatsthecost.com