Help

Scubagirl

Hi everyone

I could really do with some advice. I have gone through a few things and basically have run up quite a bit of debt

Credit cards 2900 on one 0 per cent till jan 2012, 9200 on another 0 per cent till march 2012 and 5700 on a third 0 per cent till July 2012. I also took out a loan for 15000 for five years paying £333. What is really concerning
me is that prior to taking out the loan I was able to move my credit cards to 0 per cent. However I have been refused credit from two companies. My credit score is good according to equifax.

Equally I cannot believe how stupid I have been to be spending the amount I have been doing particularly as five years ago I didn't owe any money to a credit card company. I also want to buy a property in the next three years and am not sure how a mortgage advisor will look at an applicant having a loan and credit card debt outstanding.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I am only using cash but am still finding it very difficult to keep to my budget.

Thanks

Tixy

Hi

You are probably struggling to get new 0% cards because of the level of debt you already have. In the current climate people generally get rejected if they owe more than 50% of their annual salary. As your debts are £32800 unless you are a very high earner you will probably not be able to get any new credit regardless of how good your credit score looks.

Thats a lot of debt to have run up in 5years, you really need to work on reducing it down. Did you use spend any of it on things you could now sell to raise some cash to put towards your debts? or was it just on general overspending?
Have you now cut back on unnecessary spending? have you looked at all your outgoings to see what you might be able to stop or get cheaper? I'd suggest doing a statement of affairs to see how much you should be able to afford towards your debts each month, and how long it will take you to get free from your debts. If you post this up here we may be able to make suggestions to where you could save money to put more towards your debts. This is the format we use http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

In terms of a mortgage - until you have cleared these debts and saved up a good deposit then you won't have a chance of getting a mortgage. A mortgage lender will take into account your unsecured debts when working out whether to offer you a mortgage (and how much they will be prepared to lend to you).