In debt and worried-advice please!

ladybird3

Hi everyone!

Hoping that someone out there may be able to give me a bit of advice and pointer in the right direction. I have found myself in a lot of debt and not really sure how to fix it, my situation is basically as follows
Having left uni a few years ago I went travelling and racked up a load of debt on credit cards etc, when returning home I moved to London and rented a flat with my now ex boyfriend. Although at the time I thought I could afford the rent it soon transpired that I couldnt and to solve my problem I ended up taking out a loan for £8k to cover my debts. For the last 2 years I have been paying out a hefty chunk each month to cover that loan.

Last year I was given a gift of money which I used to put down as a deposit on a flat. Thankfully my mortgage is quite small, I have only been in the flat 6 months but since then have ended up getting into debt again through all the costs associated with buying a house etc. As a result I now find that I have £2400 on my credit card and I'm £2k overdrawn on my current account, this is on top of the loan which now stands at about £6k and I still have 3 years to go.

I have been entirely stupid and not very good at budgeting but am now really scared. I have got a new job (yay!) which I start in Sept and will mean a £7k per annum pay rise, however in the meantime I really find myself struggling.

What I wondered is does anyone know how easy it is to free up equity in property? I went on to the website for my mortgage lender and they had a bit about additional borrowing for mortgage customers, If I could free up a little bit of money just to cover the debts and get myself back on an even keel I feel things may start to get better
Any comments or better ideas would be greatly appreciated!

[Deleted User]

you could ask the cc and loan company to reduce your payments for a few months(explain about the new job)this might give you some breating space.

BadgerFace_2

Assuming you have plenty of equity to play with, you shouldn't find it too difficult to free up equity.

bouncydog1

Post on the debt free board so others can take a look at your budget and help you make cuts so you can manage in the short term. You need to look at the whole picture of income and outgoings rather than just bits at a time.

There is a sticky at the top of the Board for posters giving a link to the spreadsheet to fill in and post. There will be a solution so try not to worry too much and let others help you.

worried_jim

Morning Ladybird- don't panic. Your situation is quite normal and easy to fix- honest!
I would recommend some good FREE budget and debt advice from payplan- http://www.payplan.com/
They will go thru your income and expenditure and help organise your debts with your creditors. If you call them now they will be able to start helping you today. I can not stress how helpful they have been to me as I was in a very similar situation and they helped me get my life back in control. I wish you every success, Jim.

ladybird3

Thanks for the advice everyone :beer:

Really helpful and I'm just on the payplan website now, will also go onto the debt forum and do the spreadsheet thingy

I know that the situation could be worse and there are other people out there in far stickier situations and in greater debt, but money is such a stressful thing and it really plays on your mind when things start getting a bit out of control

Will keep you updated!

worried_jim

Well done and good luck !