Advice welcome please :-)

JD82_2

For months I have been struggling to find ways of getting myself out of debt. Here's a short list of money I owe (give or take a few pounds):

Credit card (Virgin) £3000
Credit card (Tesco) £2000
Credit Card (Amex) £1000
Car Finance £3500
Current account (Barclays) £1500 (overdraft)

Total debt £11000

On top of this I have to pay £200 p/week rent


For several months I have tried to pay more than the minimum charge required on my cards, by paying £50 rather than, say, £23. However, each month this has an effect on my current account, going deeper into my overdraft (mainly because of interest charges - damn banks!!!!)

I find this extremely frustrating, and also very awkward, having at least 5 different bills to pay each month.

Recently I have been looking into getting a bank loan to pay off all my cards, the car finance and my cc overdraft.

Looking into it, not only would this be a much more convenient way of managing my finances, having just one 'bill' to pay each month, yet it seems to be a SLIGHTLY cheaper way of paying off my debt.

I just have this feeling of being in a 'viscious circle' and can see myself spending the rest of my life paying off this debt.

Any advice you guys can give me is much appreciated :-)

lil'H

JD82,

Hello and welcome, you'll get loads of help here. What would be really useful to know straight away is the interest rates for each of your debts, so you can make sure your paying them off in the right order (higest interest first) or move them to a lower interest rate card (0% if possible). Secondly when you've had a chance it's a good idea to post a SOA or statemnet of affairs listing your monthly incoming and outgoings, lots of people on here know endless amounts of good deals and will be able to tell you where you can save money to help with debts.

You won't be paying it the rest of your life, you've done the hardest bit and faced reality, now you can start climbing back up.

lil'H
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