Advice from you lovely people!!

gingerfurball

Hi...my DH and I finally calculated all the debt we have...from CC's, and two loans. It comes to £42k, this while not really a shock, we knew things were bad, it does seem impossible to overcome.

We had been in the process of trying to consolidate the mess into one loan from our mortgage company but we've been turned down. I've also tried to get better rates on the CC's (4 cards, MBNA £7440, Bank of Scotland £5820, Barclaycard £4114 and Alliance and Leicester £2237) all at the limit all at between 12.9 to 17.9 per cent.

We just cannot get a card with a better rate to take us...DH is self employed and although he does make good money we just seem to be paying out on the debt and consequently don't have much money left over.

I've been trying to cut down on our spending but I would love to hear if anyone has any advice as to how to help get out of the mess we are in.

Many thanks

briona

Hi Gingerfurball [great name by the way!]

Welcome to MSE!

Firstly, in order to offer considered advice, we would need to see an SOA [Statement of Affairs – basically all of your incomings, outgoings, debts and their APRs].

From that, people will be able to advise you on where you can make cutbacks and which order to pay the debts off etc.

Re. consolidation: DON'T go there! It's rarely the answer, usually offers only a short term solution and definitely doesn't address the problem of how/why you got there in the first place.

Briona

Bestthingsinlifearefree

Hi Gingerfurball,

You need to post a full statement of affairs (SOA)
1)all your income (salary,benefits etc)
2)all your outgoings food,mortgage / rent, car, petrol etc
3)all your debts amount, interest rate etc etc .

As much detail as possible, then members can give you their best advice.

Good Luck !!

gingerfurball

Okey dokey...I'll try my best to get a SOA organised...its a wee bit difficult with DH being self employed we get different amounts every week but I'll do an average.

mom23

Hi gingerfurball
As Briona says do not go down the consolidation route!!
I have been there twice have paid off all debts, been great for a bit then it's the slippery slope again!!! look at my sig!! :mad:
Was asked if i wanted to consolidate this time when fixed rate ran out on mortgage!! Thanks but no thanks!!! I am now snowballing /have cut right back on monthly expenses and i will do it myself!!!

queenofthedump

totally agree with the not consolidating thing as we have done it every year since 1998 and we are well in it never ever ever again- hindsight behing the wonderful thing that it is .....

So you can thank all those who turned you down they have probably done you the best favour ever.

gingerfurball

OK...now remember this is DH's business so it seems like there is alot coming in but there is ALOT going out too!

Earnings P/M (average) £3000
Working tax credit £300

Outgoings:

Joint a/c (pays all bills, mortgage, petrol etc) £1400
Mobile phones (5 in the house all PAYG) £40
A & L LOan (to consolidate debt doh!) £300 - £16k
DH's Masters degree (two years to go) £160
DH's professional association £75
Cards...
MBNA £200 (at limit £7440)
B'card £85 (more or less at limit £4114)
B of S £100 (as above £5820)
A&L £65 (£2237 limit £3100)
Credit Union £140 (£1500)
Car loan £315 (£8k)

Yikes!!

The cards are all between 17.9% and 12.9

We're paying just slightly above the minimum payments on the cards. I've applied for balance transfers and no go. I know if we could get the CC's payments down that we could manage to actually see the amounts go down.

Thanks everyone.

tyllwyd

If your DH is self-employed, when you say that earnings per month are £3000, is this before tax or after? Is this his profit or income (with expenses that could be claimed back against it)?

gingerfurball

Thats all before tax.

xela_17

Can you break down the household bills for us. i.e. home insurance, gas, electric, internet, home phone, sky etc. This is usually where some good savings can be made.

gingerfurball

I do think I can make some saving with the food...Electricity and stuff there is nothing I can do about 'cos we're in Northern Ireland. I am now on Madasafish for broadband.

Home phone is actually business phone so can't really do anything about that...we don't use phone much really.

We've cut Sky down to the very basic. I know we could cut it out completely but for the kids we're going to keep the basics.

Really I think that if there was any way to get lower rates on the cc's it would help enormously, just to actually see the debt going down. Its just the fact that we can't get another card to transfer the balances, we've been turned down for consolidation loan (glad now!) We don't mind plugging away at the CC's if we could just get a lower rate.