Debt of £15,000

Rodders30

Hi

My brother has ran up debts of £15,000 on credit cards and on overdraft in the bank and is currently unemployed and has started gambling.

My advice is to try and take out a fixed rated loan for the amount and pay off the credit cards so at least he is paying less.

He does not even bother to pay the minimum payments off each monthe either

Any advice on what I should tell him!?

Cheers

James

Spendless

YHi

Well I'm no expert but I'd say if your brother has a gambling problem you should seek help for him with that 1st.

Gambling is an addiction and unless he gets help any loans taken out are either going to fund his habit or he is just going to get into more debt.

I'm not sure what the organisation is called to contact (but its similar idea to AA for alcoholics). Either look in phone book or maybe someone else on here can help.

Since your brother is unemployed it may be hard for him to get a loan (unless it's at a very high interest rate).

Get an appointment at somewhere like Citizens Advice
and ask them for help in sorting out his debts.

Have you also posted on benefits board to make sure brother is getting all benefits he is entitled to.

Your brother is lucky to have a sibling concerned about him and I wish you all the best in sorting out this problem.

trafalgar_2

To help you

http://www.gamanon.org.uk/

To help your brother

Gamblers anonymous

http://www.gamblersanonymous.org.uk/

scheming_gypsy

Hi

My brother has ran up debts of £15,000 on credit cards and on overdraft in the bank and is currently unemployed and has started gambling.

Come on people.. don't write him off as an addict just yet. The original poster hasn't mentioned that the gambling is a problem..

Best bet is probably to speak to the CAB and for them arrange with his debters a monthly payment he can make.
If he owes 15k and not working he's probably stopped caring that he owes that much as he can't see a way of paying it.

Spendless

I certainly didn't mean to imply that I thought bruv was an addict.
All I meant is when people have debt they can see no way out of it must be tempting to think if only the jackpot/lottery/horse comes in I'll be sorted.
Of course it rarely works that way but then some people may think well next time and then the next and so on.
My advice was meant to get help b4 it reaches these stages.(accepting that it may not do)
All Traf was doing was posting links to people who could help. I had already said I didn't know the organisations names.
I'm sorry if my answer has offended the original poster or his family , this was not my intent.
.

scheming_gypsy

Sorry Spendless, i just picked up on you mentioning it and then Traf giving advice on where to look for gambling advice.. The only 2 replies were relating to the gambling rather than the debt so i was just raising a point incase all over replies went down the same path and didn't offer advice on the money side..


was my good deed for the day

trafalgar_2

I apologise I only picked up on , information of contact for gamanon,no offence meant :-/

Rodders30

Hi

My brother as far as I know has not got a gambling problem, but has started to go to local casino and meeting mates and is driving my folks nuts by coming back at 4.30am!

An opinion on how to consolidate the debt would be appreciated, but the twit ignores my parents and me so god knows what should be done with him!

Cheers

james

Spendless

As bruv is unemployed it might be hard for him to get a loan to consolidate debts.(unless at higher than usual interest rates).

He might be better of seeking help from a debt counsellor (I don't mean those that advertise on TV avoid them!)

Citizens Advice Bureau
Consumer Credit Counselling Service
The Federation of Independant Advice Centres
National Debtline

These are all free.

HTH

Reaper

I'm afraid the first step must be his. He must be willing to face up to the debt and be ready to do something about it. I wonder if the gambling is his (unrealistic) plan to deal with it - hoping for a big win to pay it all off.

There is plenty of free good advice available, both here and at the agencies listed above, but none of it will do any good until he is ready to listen.

As to how to get him to do that - I'm sorry I don't know. If he won't listen to his family is there somebody else he will listen to? A girlfriend perhaps? Whoever it is maybe you can get them to talk to him.

MSE_Martin

Hi Rodders

I don't know if you've seen but this week I've added a couple of new articles to the sites. One is

"Where to start with problem debts: a step-by-step solution."

Hope this helps

Martin