Consolodation loan - advice appreciated

chris163

Hi guys

I am interested in trying to get some sort of a consolodation loan and wondered if anyone can give me some advice?

Basically 7 months ago I was forced to setup my own business due to the recession and thankfully its been a real success to date - however when I initially started I borrowed £4000 on a card (I needed money quickly to buy some stock after a good opportunity came up) and I had another card with approximately £7000 on it from home improvements. This started as a 0% offer when I was in employment but has since rocketed to about 18% APR. I planned to pay it off before it hit the interest, but as I said, due to the circumstances couldnt.

I am in a situation where I have built my business to have lived off my profits and also banked £35,000 for stock which is building up well each month. Although the combined interest rates of both my credit cards comes to about 19% APR, I am reluctant to pay it off as the £11,000 works much better for me per month in stock than the interest rate affects me - i.e. I can make approximately £2-3000 a month from my £11,000.

I am interested in trying to get some sort of a consolodation loan to make the interest rate more tolerable over say 2-5 years.

As I said, I am now self employed and have been for about 7-8 months however when I set my business up I accidently missed 2 payments on my mobile phone when changing my direct debits over and it seems to have had quite a bad affect on my credit rating! I have always used credit expert and used to have scores of 900-980 out of 1000 but the last time I checked 4 months ago it was something like 400.

I am 24, a home owner with equity of approximately £40,000, I have 2 other loans which are half way through which add up to about £7000 left so I guess my total debt is £18,000 counting my cards and this. I do not have a car loan. Each month is managable but if I can say decrease the interest rate by 5-10% on my cards that would be welcomed. (my loans are ok at about 9-10% averaged).

Obviously the other option is to pay more off per month which I could do, but at this early stage would prefer just a more managable interest rate and then potentially pay off my debts in a years time.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Many thanks