Please please please help me

Pesto2606

Hi,
I was hoping somebody could help me, I'll get straight to the point. My partner and myself are hoping to move in together somewhere in the near future. As our finances aren't quite up to scratch we were hoping to get things on track and then be able to look at getting a mortgage within the next 12 months.

The mortgage isn't the problem at the moment though. I have previously had bad debt and am doing everything I can at the moment to rebuild my credit. Including taking up the opportunity of joining the Cashplus Credit Builder. I have my contract mobile phone and I have recently joined with the Catalogue NEXT, Which I hardly order out of to be honest but if I do its only small amounts which I am hoping that will be notified back to Equifax etc that I can make payments in full on time.

My partner however is in a bit of debt which is a little over £15000. The bulk of this is a loan to which she agreed to pay over 5 years. She has 2 credit cards which she owes money on but not a massive amount.
Her circumstances have changed recently too and now she is finding it hard on a monthly basis to pay her lenders and have enough money to live. The bills are being paid and she hasn't missed any payments or anything like that but her credit card balance is creeping up due to the fact that she is not earning enough for her outgoings anymore.

We had a look at getting her a new credit card with Virgin and transferring the balance as it was 0% interest however the application was denied. Her loan is with her bank and as she has a gold account is probably on the best rate she can get.
We have been looking on the internet at these debt management companies which freeze the interest and take in to account all of her outgoings and want to help leave enough money to live. However we weren't looking at going down the road of getting an IVE for one of 2 reasons really. We weren't sure how this would affect her credit and also because most of these companies offer to pay off the debt over 5 years and wipe the rest and we're not really looking to pay of this debt over that amount of time. We would really like to try and pay it off quicker if possible. But that all depends on if there are any companies out there that can help freeze interest AND offer to make a plan to pay it off quicker than 5 years.

Does anybody know of any companies or have any ideas about how we can Consolidate her debt, freeze the debt, and possibly do it without affecting her credit rating? We don't want the debt written off we are quite happy to pay every penny back in full. We just need an impartial third party to look over it all agree a figure she will pay each month which is comfortable and give us a reasonable length of time to become debt free.

Infact has anyone got any ideas on what we can do next ?? Another loan to consolodate really isnt feasible.
Many thanks
Em

BeautyandtheBeast_3

Hi and welcome - Who is the loan with - is it HSBC?

Horace

Hi and welcome

Do not use a debt company as they will charge you and you will be paying them off for ever - approach one of the debt charities instead. If your partner is a high risk and has a poor credit rating then it is probably wise not to enter into a joint finances with her e.g. a mortgage. Maybe it would help if you could post your SOA (Statement of Affairs) https://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html (follow the instructions on there to copy and paste it to MSE removing the linkys on the bottom). Once we have an SOA we are better able to advise - it could be that she is spending too much on entertainment and food for instance (we don't know that so can't comment yet) but the folks on here will be able to advise on how to cut down and to reduce the debt. It would help if she stopped spending on the cards.

dannynixon

Ring CCCS or Payplan and speak to them. They will go through a statement of affairs and a budget and from there they will see how much you have spare for debt repayments.

For example, I have debts of 18.5k and start a debt management plan in october. It will shoot my credit rating to bits but it is more important to have money for me than good credit score.

Anyways after the budget with CCCS, I have £487 left for repayments and this is whats going to go to creditors. If they all freeze interest and charges, CCCS say I will be debt free in 3 yrs and 3 months.

It all really depends on how much spare income you have. Talk to them, they are free and you are not committed to anything until you sign paperwork etc.


DO NOT JOIN ONE OF THOSE COMPANIES FROM THE TV ETC. THEY CHARGE HUGE FEES AND IT WILL TAKE SO MUCH LONGER!!!

Unless you pay creditors off the way you are, your credit rating will be affected. Debt management plans and IVA's do affect your credit rating.

edinburgher

Using the SOA calculator stickied at the top of the page might be a good idea. One of the major factors for determining mortgage suitability is affordability and unless your wages are pretty healthy, £15k over 5 years will really eat into what banks think you can afford to throw at a mortgage.

Tixy

Hi

If you need to do reduced payments (either through an IVA, a DMP organisation or by negotiating with your creditors yourselves) it will invariably affect your credit rating.
Any such situation leads to defaults on your accounts - as you have defaulted from the original amount you agreed to repay, and these stay on your credit report for 6years from the date of default (the defaults are usually around 6m after reducing payments).

However you must take some action if her outgoings exceed her incomings as the position is not sustainable - as others have recommended it would help to see info on your incomings and outgoings.

Aside from that make sure you are getting any/all benefits you are entitled to, check you are with the best provider for utilities, mobiles, telephone, internet etc (use a comparison site and if you switch earn cashback through quidco). Also check insurances are best deals around, people often shop around for car insurance but forget to do the same for home and life insurance. Try reducing your grocery shop, cutting back on excess entertaining costs.
Also look if you can raise cash to put towards the debts via ebay, amazon, car boots etc.

theoretica

Most gold accounts charge a monthly fee- is she saving money by having one, and what would happen to the loan if she changed to a standard account?