How can i Consolidate debts to keep them affordable

twiggy55

i would like to know if anyone can help. i have a large amount of credit with various loans/credit cards and car finance. my income has dropped making the payments very hard to make so wanted to know if there was a way to reduce the monthly payments by consolidating all into 1. the problem is my credit rating has dropped from 906 to 450 because of the amount of credit i have. there are no arrears, no ccj's, no defaults in fact everything is always paid on time. so i think its the amount thats affecting it. currently circa £50,000. i am looking to borrow £35,000 which means i could return the car and pay the difference thus reducing my credit by £22,000. my house doesn't have enough equity in it. ANY ADVICE.

dancingfairy

Hi Twiggy - you say you owe 50k? the banks will look at it as if you plan to borrow 35k on top so a total of 85k -I'm sorry but you'd have to a pretty good salary before the banks would consider lending you that much, and if your salary has recently gone down .....
Besides which borrowing more money/refinancing is rarely the solution
I suggest you get in contact with one of the debt charities such as National Debtline, CCCS or your local CAB to discuss your options. There are lots of options out there such as a dmp, IVA, Bankruptcy etc etc - it's just finding the one that's right for you.
Best of Luck
df

Sarah75

Hi Twiggy,
I have about the same amount of debt as you - I've only missed 1 payment in my whole life ( and that was only 20p!), I always pay more than the minimum but I cannot get any more credit. I have had to admit to myself that the fact I am in so much debt is because I cannot manage credit and so why should anyone give me more? It's taken a long time to realise this and accept it. I suspect that you won't be able to get another loan so your next step is to go through everything that you spend and see if you can cut down. I discovered that I was spending over £80 a month at my local corner shop on rubbish - you go for milk and come out with a carrier bag of stuff that you don't need, you know what's like.

If you're really struggling then as dancingfairy suggested you could try citizens advice etc. But try to cut down your spending and you might be surprised at how much you can save.