Help needed fast...

juju66

Long story, but I'll try and cut it short.

My husband and my two kids (third one is at uni) live in our own home which we own outright. We bought it several years ago when my husband left his banking job after a breakdown and we moved to another part of the country, with my husband becoming a full time student to retrain (he's now about to finish a PhD).

Unbeknown to me, my husband's credit card debts were getting larger and larger, and now total about £18,000. He pays about £500 a month for them, but his scholarship money is about to end and there are very few jobs where we live. We can't afford that kind of money every month and I think I'm right in saying that a figure like that will be decades to pay off. However we have to stay in this area at least another 18 months for the kids to finish school.

We decided to put our house on the market, pay off the credit cards and take out a small mortgage to buy something else, or stay and take out a mortgage on our house. We have accepted an offer, but now we have just been told that we would not be entitled to a mortgage because my job is a 'zero hours' contract, even though I am earning and the mortgage would be less than 20% of the house's value (even the mortgage adviser said it was crazy). We were told last year that it wouldn't be a problem, but apparently that information was incorrect.:mad:

As I see it, we have three choices:
1. Call off the sale, stay in our house for another 18 months and try and work out our debts, then try and sell again to move away. However, neither of us wants to do anything that will adversely affect our credit rating as we will almost certainly need a mortgage again at some point when we are earning and have relocated. I have heard of CCCS but I'm not sure what it is and if this is right for us.

2. Sell, pay off the debt and buy a much smaller property. The downside with this is that it would have to be VERY small (and we have two teenage boys!), and we may need to move again when we leave the area.

3. Sell, pay off the debts and invest in a small rental property somewhere, and use the monthly income to pay rent on a house here here for the next 18 months, then relocate. I know there are all sorts of pitfalls with renting and letting, though.

We need to make a decision fast. The worry is making me ill, and we don't want to mess our buyers about. I just don't know what is best any more. Grateful for any help - sorry it was so long!

kazwookie

Option 1 and put a SOA up here, to see if others on here can see any other ways of saving you money to go towards the debt.

juju66

Sorry, I'm quite new here - what's a SOA?

Tixy

Hi its a statement of affairs (income /expenditure / debts) using this calculator - http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html which lays out your full financial position so should hepl you and us see how far short you are of being able to manage, and what options might be suitable.

If you complete and post the results on here I'm sure you'll get some helpful advice.