thank Goodness for this site

masterlumps

i think it is often easy for the simple thoughts in our heads to not translate quite as nicely as we think they do when typed, as i said before i never ment to offend, but it is the case as you said you asked for advice and someone (before me, but i did agree) advised selling the house. i dont think anybody, particularly myself thought 'sell the house, problem solved, easy as that, of course it is not 'do-able for everyone, but it was just ment to be a suggestion. i hope you find a solution

dancingfairy

Hi - I would speak to one of the debt charities about all your options - rearranging your debt is not necessarily dealing with it and it can be a case of out of sight out of mind and people invariably end up in a worse position because they don't stop spending.
You can also try and post your SOA on the debt free wannabe board and see what people suggest on there - they might be able to see some savings you could make - ie gas/electric, insurances, food etc - basically shop around for everything and weigh up whether every expense is necessary.
Good Luck
df

pippitypip_2

Ok, it seems your best bet that's most suitable for your situation would be to reduce your outgoings and throw as much as you can at your debts until they go away.

If you go into a DMP or any kind of self organised debt management that will impact your credit rating - you don't have to though, as from what you've said, you CAN manage the current payments?

If so, still do an SOA, and reduce your outgoings as much as you can to snowball payments to the credit cards. Once they're gone, find out if there are any penalties for making overpayments to your loans - if not - go for your life.

Once the loans are gone, then you get into the mortgage-free wannabe category - again- finding out if you can overpay and if OK to do so, chuck everything that you were previously overpaying (to credit cards and loans), to the mortgage.

Cutting down won't be fun, but seeing your debts reduce will be.

hth,
pippitypip

Running_man

Hi Jasmine
You dont actually say what animals you have got.Could you not downsize and take them with you.No I dont believe you should sell up and rent.Buy a smaller house.Then use remainder of money to pay off debt.

Is this not possible?

richardvc

What's the cause of your debt ? That's the issue that also needs to be tackled. Post your SOA on here and the real MSE experts will save you more money than you would believe !!

Whilst it is great to 'pay' it off in one fell swoop, in reality it is only being transferred to someone else and as this site will testify, we have seen lots of people 'settle' their debts to find that they are in twice as much debt 12 months later.

Tackling the root cause would be a good idea for long term gain !

Jasmine_Blossoms

Thanks so much for your replies. I do appreciate it.

We are getting our accounts audited - which will cost - but will be worth it. We should have done it sooner, but we were genuinely put out by what happened with the rogue insolvency practitioner, who now thankfully has been put out of action.

Have appointed an accountant and probably looking to go 'limited'.

We have had a run of bad luck - but are both tenacious, hard workers and we will get ourselves out of this corner - house and animals in tact. Cats mainly for the nice person who asked. I was involved in rescue work some time back and accumulated 15 altogether - we are down to 12 now and some live in a purpose built pen in the garden.

When I say bad luck - here is one example.

a year ago we were getting obscene electricity bills - humungus in fact. In one quarter we had a bill for £980!! British Gas were no help at all despite their claims of looking after the environment - they were happy for the meter to keep ticking and for us to keep paying them.

Anyway I recruited a local electrician firm to come in a suss out the problem - they were there for hours - testing every single socket and appliance with some gizmo attached to the meter. Turns out it was a fridge freezer I purchased from a local warehouse. The thermostat was faulty and was pulling all the electricity. Always, always check your fridge's thermo on a regular basis!

I'm freakish about the electricity now. I work in darkness these days.:rotfl: