Too much expensive debt and no help at hand

danthecoach

I currently have 4 credit cards, 1 loan and a car loan.

I'm spending over £215 servicing credit card debt a month, 230 a month for my loan and £335 a month for my car loan.

I really wanted to consolidate my cards so there was clearly an end in sight. But alas, the bank turns me down, as does 2 other lenders.

My credit score was good, but no-one will offer me anything. I'm being left with £200 a month for any extras, excluding petrol/food etc. I just want more disposable income, but how can I if no-one will help me consolidate?

HELP :mad:

RAS

Consolidation does not help, it actuially make it harder to pay off the debt long term.

Put up a full SOA on here and we may be able to help you sot out your options.

Have you spoken to any of the debt charities?

danielhewson

I havent tried any debt charities, who are they?

font=courier new]Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1940
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1940

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 333
Rent.................................... 325
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 60
Electricity............................. 30
Gas..................................... 30
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 30
Telephone (land line)................... 14
Mobile phone............................ 50
TV Licence.............................. 10
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 30
Internet Services....................... 15
Groceries etc. ......................... 100
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 150
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 35
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 5
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 30
Haircuts................................ 23
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1280


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 0


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 8500.....(333)......7.9
Total secured & HP debts...... 8500......-.........-!!

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Tesco Credit Card..............2557......51........0
Next Directory.................862.......80........0
Barclaycard....................2059......46.43.....0
MBNA Credit Card...............1300......33........0
MBNA Credit Card...............3619......85........0
HSBC Loan......................10672.....227.......0

Tixy

Hi

Looks like the end of the SoA is missing? is that all your debts showing?

If so then the summary would be
Income £1940
Outgoings incl secured debts £1280
Available for debt repayments £660
Debt repayments £522 (this will be more if debts are missing from the bottom)
Surplus each month £138.

Do you know the APRs for all your debts, so that you can decide what order to tackle them?

The debt charities - as per this link IMPORTANT - Where to seek professional impartial advice about your debts. - can usually help if people cannot meet their monthly minimum repayments and can advise on a course of action (such as a DMP or IVA), although most of the options are likely to have major impact on your credit rating. If you can meet your minimum repayments but are not making much of a dent in your debt then the best action is usually trying to reduce your expenses or up your income, and to see if you can shuffle the debt around to save any interest or sell any assets you have to start reducing the debt.

Tixy

Just a few initial comments on your SoA, and some suggestions as to what areas you could look at to see if you could reduce any of the outgoings at all.

danielhewson wrote: »

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 333
Rent.................................... 325 could you possibly get a cheaper rental place or houseshare to reduce costs?
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 60
Electricity............................. 30 looks quite high for 1 person, have you shopped around recently to see if you can find a cheaper supplier or a better tariff
Gas..................................... 30
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 30 is this unmeasured? consider going for a meter to see if you can reduce this cost.
Telephone (land line)................... 14
Mobile phone............................ 50 can your reduce to a cheaper tariff or use less?
TV Licence.............................. 10
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 30 can you cancel and go to freeview or try to find a combined deal for this landline and internet for much less than £59?
Internet Services....................... 15
Groceries etc. ......................... 100
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 150 are these all essential journeys? do you drive efficently? fill up at the cheapest place etc?
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 35
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0 should really budget for this (1/21 of the annual cost for tyres, servicing, mot etc)
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 5
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 30
Haircuts................................ 23
Entertainment........................... 0 might need to budget a bit here?
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1280


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0 ? how much is this worth?
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 0


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 8500.....(333)......7.9 is this the car? how much is it worth? how far into the agreement are you?
Total secured & HP debts...... 8500......-.........-!!

danielhewson

I currently share a house with my partner so the rent/bills are accurate. Im left with £200 a month which is really stressing me out.

eyeopener2

Do you want to re-post your SOA, just in case their is anything missing?

If you take the advice of the good people here (RAS and Tixy are excellent) then you will be able to address your problems. It won't be easy, it never is changing your ways, but it's worthwhile in the end. But if you have been overspending for a while maybe it's time to look closely at where it all goes and make some changes.

E2

Tixy

danthecoach wrote: »

My credit score was good, but no-one will offer me anything. I'm being left with £200 a month for any extras, excluding petrol/food etc. I just want more disposable income, but how can I if no-one will help me consolidate?

HELP :mad:

danielhewson wrote: »

I currently share a house with my partner so the rent/bills are accurate. Im left with £200 a month which is really stressing me out.

Do you mean you have £200 after paying for petrol food and all essentials and your minimum payments?
Or do you mean £200 and need to buy food, petrol etc out of that.

Either way it doesn't seem to tally up to your SoA. From what you have posted (and assuming no debts were accidentally missed off when you chopped off the bottom of the post) then after paying for everything (except things like entertainment & car maintenance) then you should have an extra £138 spare to put towards your debt repayments on top of the minimum payments. If you have this money and you start putting most of it towards your debts then they will start to come down. It certainly won't be an overnight fix but you'll be heading in the right direction.

Plus if you can cut back on any of the costs then this will also free up more for debt repayments.

If you don;t have £138 left for extra debt repayments then you need to have another look through the SoA, see if any debts are missing from the list and start keeping a spending diary to work out where that money is currently going.

You say you live with your partner - are these all of the bills or just your share or half of the bills. If its all then why are you paying everything, does partner not have an income and contribute. If its just half the costs and so elec is actually £60 and water is actually £60 etc then these are very high and you need to be looking into ways to reduce (switch suppliers, reduce usage, different tariff etc etc).