Dodgy debts - is my debt a MAJOR problem?

[Deleted User]

Heres a list of my debts and it does worry me a bit. Wife seems to think its 'normal' for a lot of people to have debts like this.

M+S cc lim £7000 bal £3600 3.9% life £92 min
Amazon cc lim £11800 bal £6000 6.95% life £61 min
Sainsburys cc lim £8600 bal £8600 6.95% life £195 min
Tesco cc lim £3000 bal £2800 0% nxt 12 mnths £87 min
Barclaycard lim £10000 bal £600 17.9%

Others cards with zero balance:-
IKEA 19.9%
Egg limit £9500 17.9%
CapitalOne £1500 17.9%
MBNA £13200
AMEX Platinum £15000

Total CC payments is about £550 month. Total outstanding balance is about £21K.

Available total limit is near enough £80K. Scarey or what?

Loan - not sure about outstanding, £100 month.
No other loans.

Mortgage - £135000 outstanding, house worth £230000. Dead cheap tracker mortgage 1.1% above base rate. £580 month.

Income per month (both of us) £3100 month after tax.

Anybody comment on what they'd do in my situation? Apart from stop spending so much money !!!

AlwaysWorking

If by 'normal' your wife means that a lot of people have a similar amount of debt, she's probably right, judging by the number of people who use this forum...but that doesn't make it ideal. I'm quite new, so not the best person to offer advice...if you post up an SOA, this will help them more clever people see where you can cut back, allowing you to pay more off your debt. Good luck!

tallyhoh

Its relative to your income & circumstances. It depends what would happen if you lost your job tomorrow?
Try using the "Snowball" which is a real eye opener.

[Deleted User]

tallyhoh wrote: »

Its relative to your income & circumstances. It depends what would happen if you lost your job tomorrow?
Try using the "Snowball" which is a real eye opener.

Whats the Snowball?

Luckily, my income as you can see is fairly high and both my wife and my jobs are VERY safe at the moment.

[Deleted User]

AlwaysWorking wrote: »

If by 'normal' your wife means that a lot of people have a similar amount of debt, she's probably right, judging by the number of people who use this forum...but that doesn't make it ideal. I'm quite new, so not the best person to offer advice...if you post up an SOA, this will help them more clever people see where you can cut back, allowing you to pay more off your debt. Good luck!

Aye. I suppose. I know its not ideal and I'm not that happy about it.

Hermia

[quote=[Deleted User];21102387]Whats the Snowball?

Luckily, my income as you can see is fairly high and both my wife and my jobs are VERY safe at the moment.[/QUOTE]

You should never rely on income! I know people who have had accidents or become ill and have suddenly gone from being high earners to living on benefits.

It may be more common for people to have huge debts these days, but I would personally be freaked out with such a big debt (especially having to pay that much interest as I hate giving people money for nothing). Can you try and show your wife what she could be missing out on by having those debts? If you both cleared those debts and started saving you might be able to retire early, move to a nicer house or have huge pensions.

Tixy

The snowball is a calculator that works out how much you will pay for you debts in total.

If you decide to do a statement of affairs
http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

then there is a snowball calculator on the same site which takes the info straight across.

If not there is this calculator.
http://www.whatsthecost.co.uk/snowball.aspx

As AlwaysWorking says plenty of people have a lot of debts, I guess if you can service them, if they are going down in overall balance not up, and if you know how you would cope if you lost one income (say due to one of you being ill for example. or made redundant) then some people would say it doesn't matter how much they are.

Personally although I can service my debts I'm trying to reduce them so that I can stop spending money on interest repayments and start spending it on things for me.

Do the snowball - it really is an eye-opener.

[Deleted User]

Hermia wrote: »

You should never rely on income! I know people who have had accidents or become ill and have suddenly gone from being high earners to living on benefits.

It may be more common for people to have huge debts these days, but I would personally be freaked out with such a big debt (especially having to pay that much interest as I hate giving people money for nothing). Can you try and show your wife what she could be missing out on by having those debts? If you both cleared those debts and started saving you might be able to retire early, move to a nicer house or have huge pensions.

Yeah. My wife does think we need to sort it out. Just doesnt worry about things as much as me...

[Deleted User]

Tixy wrote: »

The snowball is a calculator that works out how much you will pay for you debts in total.

If you decide to do a statement of affairs
http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

then there is a snowball calculator on the same site which takes the info straight across.

If not there is this calculator.
http://www.whatsthecost.co.uk/snowball.aspx

As AlwaysWorking says plenty of people have a lot of debts, I guess if you can service them, if they are going down in overall balance not up, and if you know how you would cope if you lost one income (say due to one of you being ill for example. or made redundant) then some people would say it doesn't matter how much they are.

Personally although I can service my debts I'm trying to reduce them so that I can stop spending money on interest repayments and start spending it on things for me.

Do the snowball - it really is an eye-opener.

Whoa. Thats scary...

At least all my debts are on low interest rates rather than full credit card rates of arounf 18/19%

bank_of_slate

Can't you get rid of some of these cards? Do you really need so many?
...Linda xx

[Deleted User]

bank_of_slate wrote: »

Can't you get rid of some of these cards? Do you really need so many?
...Linda xx

Well, I did have balances on some of them but I've now transferred them to the lifetime balance rate on my sainsburys card.

I do intend to get rid of some of them now.

But dont worry, I've got no plans to go up to the limit on any more of them - I'd be screwed !!!

I actually use my AMEX card for day to day stuff and pay it off in full every month. Get good cashback.