husband just told me we owe £40,000.....

Firewalker

Whatamessbooboo, I hope your baby is well now. As to the rest, yes it is very distressing but it is only money. It is important but decisions have to be cold headed and calm.

Given that your mortgage is so small it may be worth exploring the possibility to extend it. Yes, interests are going to go up but all experts say that the earliest this will be happening is 2014 in the summer. If you play this smart by then you could pay what you owe and have some serious cash reserve.

It seems to me that your have an immediate problem - to start controlling the situation and fast repayment. The long term thing you should focus on is re- building your OH's business and possibly increasing your earnings.

Good luck.

Firewalker

timbstoke

I would have to say, higher payments or not, I'd avoid the remortgage option. At the moment, if there's a recurrence of baby's illness and you find yourself in trouble again, you have the option, albeit a last resort option, of telling the cards they're not a priority and they can damned well wait, and all it'll cost you is your credit rating and a few CCJ's. Not to undermine the value of a good credit rating, but it's not as important as somewhere to live, which is what you'll be risking if you convert it to secured debt.

It's not the 'quick fix' you're looking for - quite the opposite. The quicker fix is to tighten your belts, budget carefully, and overpay as much as possible to clear the debts. From the sounds of it, your income levels will clear this a *lot* faster than adding it to a mortgage, and once it's done, you suddenly have a substantial amount of extra spending money each month.

Butti

If you want some inspiration look up Tolip. Ok he is in a well paid job (clue in the name) but I think he cleared a debt of £105k in a few years. Required planning, some discipline and him and his wife working together. All these you can have.

B

Mrs_Arcanum

Teekaylon wrote: »

Thats exactly my situation yes an informal arrangement! i agreed to set up a standing order for both lenders on my bank account it really couldnt have been easier in fact the lady from Mercers (goldfish) told me as long as i offer to make some form of repayment and it was regular then Bcard would be cool with that.

I have now been with this arrangement with both lenders for 3 months approx and havnt heard a dickybird from either. I pay £50.00 to both ona combined debts of 19.5K. I realise some people just want to get rid of ther debt ASAP but my priority was to be paying off my debt but still living my life and not having to live on raw beans and sawdust for ever like some people dont seem to mind, i guess its what does it for youself each to their own and all that but thats my experience, hope this helps

They will often do this for a short period like 6 months or so, then you need to renegotiate as they will start whinging you are not paying enough. DH has done exactly this with his two cards (paying a bit more than you though owing less). Just managed to renegotiate an extension with one who are happy with the arraignment the others have only allowed another 4 months. - So perhaps not the easy solution it first appears.