3 credit cards and cahoot loan

getridofmydebt

Hi, This is my first post and im looking for some help and advice regarding credit card debt and best way of repaying it in my situation.

Tixy

getridofmydebt wrote: »

Hi, This is my first post and im looking for some help and advice regarding credit card debt and best way of repaying it in my situation.
I currently have three credit cards with debt totalling around £27,000 and a cahoot loan with an outstanding balance of £9,000. At the moment i am paying the minimum payments on all totaling about £850 per month.
I would like to covert some or all of this debt into unsecured loans so least i can see the balances reducing. I have a good credit rating and never been late with any repayments. My problem is i am currently working in Spain where i have been for nearly 2 years now.(i am a restaurant owner so classed as self employed) When i look at loan application forms they say you need to be UK resident. My wife and kids still live in the UK and we have a house there. Any suggestions on how to reduce my debt and maybe the monthly payments.
the credt cards are with Egg (£10k) Virgin (£10.5k) HSBC (£6.5k) Cahoot (£8.7k)

Hi and welcome to the forums.

I imagine you might struggle to get unsecured loans if you are living abroad. Are you still on the UK electoral register?

As a seperate point consolidating the debt into a loan won't actually reduce your debt, you'll still owe the same amount of money, which will still need repaying. What are the APRs on all these debts? you may struggle to get a consolidation loan for a better rate, and because its often paid off over a longer period you actually pay far more in interest.

Rather than consolidating I think you would be better to look why you ended up with so much unsecured debt. You need to address the cause of the debt (spending more than you are earning). Have you written out a detailed statement of affairs (income & expenditure) to work out how much you can afford to repay off your debts each month? I would do this first and then you may find alternative ways to tackle the debts. Can you reduce your outgoings so that you can increase your repayments?

This is a use link to the statement of affairs calculator http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html if you also look at the 'snowball' calculator on the same site you can work out how much these are costing you in interest and what order to tackle the debts in to minimise the interest paid.

[Deleted User]

you have alot of equity in your home would a remortgage not be easist and cheapest way to sort this out? or even sell the house and buy something cheaper thus clearing all your debts?