Some Debt Help

brianl007

Hello All,

First of all - congrats to everyone involved in this site because it is brilliant and deserves recognition.

Now to my situation...

I am really just after some opinions as to whether I should be worried about the situation I am in or not. I wont go into too much detail as I think the general jist should be enough.

I currently have debts of approximately £27,000. This is split between 3 loans (7k, 3k and 9k) and 4 credit cards (2k, 2k, 2k and 1k). When I sat down and looked at the figures it all got a bit scary but the thing is that I do actually have a plan in place to get rid of the debt (albeit over the next few years). The 7k and the 3k loans are being paid off regularly and will be completely gone in 2 1/2 years. The 9k loan has only started and we are looking at just adding that to our mortgage when we move it in 2 years.

The credit cards are being paid of regularly (although slowly) at £200 a month so the plan is to have them gone in about 3 years. The credit cards have a lot on them as I have put some big purchases (car, home improvements etc) on them because cheap life-of-balance rates are better than loans.

Obviously things will come up in the meantime that require money but as it stands myself and my partners wages cover all the bills and our normal monthly spending. I am on commission (normally a min of £500 a month but can be up to £1500) which we use as money for holidays and any extra spending.

The plan now is to throw a few hundred pounds a month at credit cards to try and get rid of them quicker.

My whole thing is whether I need to be worried or not? The debts are being paid off regularly (all the payments are direct debits so we dont have a choice) and in 3 years should all be gone.

Any opinions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Bri

susplum

It does seem like you have everything pretty much in hand, but you don't mention what you have left at the end of the month; is it close to the wire??

If you put up an SOA we could get a better idea of where you're at.

Skint_Catt

If you're not too 'close to the wire' a little fund for emergencies might be in order, so you don't add anything to the loans/CC's - just pay them off.

You seem to be in control of things at least at the mo? Correct?

S_C

Little_Miss_Winner

Hi Bri,

Welcome to mse.:beer:

My whole thing is whether I need to be worried or not?

Depends on your personal circumstances i suppose. Do you FEEL worried?

Ideally, it would be better NOT to have the debt, as we never know what is around the corner.
Have you thought about what would happen if either yourself or your partner was too lose your job? Or have an illness, which prevented working.
What about children, do you have any? Having any more?

The are many reasons for paying off your debts as soon as possible.;)

The inevitable being one of them. :eek:

Thats what i strive for, i would love the knowledge that if anything unforseen happened to our family, then we didnt owe creditors/mortage companies any money, that everything we owned was OURS.
And that there was a tidy nest egg sat waiting to be used as and when.:D

There are so many heart-wrenching stories on these boards about being chased by creditors, bailiffs turning up, being evicted, houses being re-possed, illnesses being diagnosed, partners passing away.

Yet while we feel sympathy for our fellow msers'.. we always tend to think it could never happen to us.

BUT just reading the stories the posters also thought it would never happen to them either!

Food for thought maybe?..............

lynzpower

What did you spend the debt on, thats a fair amount you have there.

personally, Id be very worried. If recession hits, then surely your commission will disappear, as anyone in a commission based role knows, times are getting tough in the economy these days and Id seek to pay this of ASAP.

angelavdavis

I agree with Lynzpower that you need to get your spending down to a level where you can afford to pay for things using your non-commission money. There are people on here who have got themselves in debt when overtime was aplenty and then fallen into problems when the overtime has dried up.

Toto

Good advice from the girls above, how about posting a SOA so we can look through it and pick out any obvious savings you could be making each month. If you can get your spending down to basic wage level, the rest could be put on the debt plus some in an emergency fund. I know most people here don't condone savings while you have debt, but I think it's a good idea to have a few quid stashed away for a boiler blowing up or a the wheels falling off your car, that way you aren't using the credit card to pay for anything and you could cut the thing up while it's being paid off, removing the temptation to ever spend on it again. I know my definition of emergency is different when using my savings than it is when bunging it on a card, suddenly there are no emergency shoe type incidents when my savings are being threatened.