£33,500 in debt on 6 credit cards. HELP

murph524

I have got 6 credit cards with total debts of £33,500.
(shell)4.9 lifetime balance £108 monthly
(Lloyds)5.5 lifetime $45 monthly
(capital one)6.9 lifetime £244 monthly
(amex)6.9 lifetime £188 monthly
(morgan stanley) £91 monthly
(mint) £158 monthly
Total per month £834

I have got 2 loans that end in dec total £370. wifes car £149 monthly (2 years still to pay)
My problem is that i am a taxi driver that does not earn the kind of money that i have spent. Net profit for the year was only £8,000.
Wife had a shop that went bust got cards to pay of debts. I do work a lot of hours to pay the cards but i am just paying of the min amounts With afew late payment. Recently Just tried for a consoladation loan of £30,000 but was turned down due to net profit not enough. Should i try one of those find a loan companies or should i just struggle on paying of cards
If any one has any ideas what i should do help would be gratefully recieved.
(ps i dont use 5 of the cards just 1 for a few things)
(pps i am at my wits end really starting to get me down) PLEASE HELP.

Uniscots97

Pretty new here myself, but what about posting an SOA (incomings and outgoings)? Then people can start from there to try and help you. Once you have that sorted then you can look at other things.

dancingfairy

welcome to the DFW board. Everyone on here is really friendly and full of good advice (even though some of it may be painful to hear at first).

You're in the right place for help. You need to make sure you can live within your means (by budgeting etc- have a look at old style board for cheap food ideas).

Have you worked out exactly what you are spending money on each month eg food,clothes, bills, insurance, food out, etc. By identifying exactly where you are spending your money you'll be able to identify the money you waste money on chocolate bars/ crisps/ magazines/ bus fares little things here and there that soon add up.

Do a SOA there's a thread somewhere which tells you how to include all your incoming, outgoings etc and people can suggest ways to cut back, make better use of them etc like switching phone tariff, electricity bills, buying cheaper food , etc,etc.

You could contact one of the debt charities that help people for free they seems to have helped a lot of people on here, or try the CAB - free advice is always a good start.

What about benefits - are you entitled to any? you need to check and find out.

CLAPTON

to be able to help we need to have a full picture of your finances

post a Statement of Affairs SoA see this post to explain further

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=107280

also say a few things like any children (how and ages ) , do you own or rent , if own how much is the house worth and how much is the mortgage

do you have PPI on any of the CC? ...if so then consider cancelling

lazy&indebt

Definately pst your SOA as said and defiantely cut the cards up!

leni

what shift pattern do you work?
do you own your taxi or rent it?
if you own the taxi, how about sharing it i.e. renting it out for the hours your not taxi'ing to make a little more income!
How about advertising on your taci - their's a company I was looking at earlier who pay between £60 and £220 a month for you to have a sticker display on your car!

angchris

hiya welcome to the dfw boards:D ok you have taken the biggest step by admitting you are struggling and now its time to sort it out! as others have said before we can help we really need a clearer picture so post your soa asap so we can all combine our knowledge and get to grips with knocking your debt on its ugly head!! in the meantime as taxi drivers busiest time is fri/sat nights i would suggest maybe looking around for another job in the week and doing taxi`s at weekends, also what is your wifes contribution? can she get a job? even part time would really help your current situation. for now the best thing to do is to stop using your cards completely because this is just making things worse and you will never get out of debt if you are still adding to your debt, do what i did and go into "starvation mode" cut out everything and i mean everything that isnt essential and live on the bare minimum and make sure you pay your cards/loans on time because charges soon rack up. do you need 2 cars? can 1 be sold?
yesterday i was fortunate enough after a long struggle to become debt free, it is a struggle and it will be for a long time, just grit your teeth and go for it you can do it!! after a period of time you can watch your acheivements by the balance you owe out dropping every month but to do this you need to stop spending on cards and start living within your means.

angchris

just a thought:idea: you obviousely spend quite a bit on petrol as a taxi driver so make sure you buy your petrol from either sainsburys or tesco`s and use the nectar card this soon mounts up and you can then buy "free food" from your points!:j i always go to sainsburys at about 7:30pm just to buy reduced stuff to freeze and make up most of my meals from this;) my other half has been known to go bin digging outside sainsburys(:oyes things really were that bad) and picking up all the long reciepts to take back in and get the points added :rolleyes: every little helps so they say!:D