£78,000 Credit Card DEbt

bandraoi

How much is your house worth?
Can your partner work longer hours?
Can you take on a second job?
Can you seek promotion at work?

How close are you to retirement (stopping pension payments?)

doitmyself

Hi OP
Some excellent advice here already and loads more to follow I'm sure. When you said your outgoings are £2000 a month more than your income you meant £2000 (which is) more than your income presumably?

I would saydon't be panicked into cancelling the pension, it's probably one of the better assets you have right now, together with your house - presumably you bought better 2nd time around? So, not true that you have nothing to show for your £78k debt.
And good that your partner is being supportive after being on the receiving end of a pretty big bombshell! so it's not all bad. As others have said you can do it.

On a separate note (I have no personal experience but read about it on here all the time) are you saying that Payplan/CCCS have effectively said they can't help you?

oakdale_minx

Hi - if there are 2 of you at home, with lots of planning and careful shopping you can chop £100 a month off your food bill . Hop over to the Old Style Board for some help.

The APR's of your credit cards. Phone them all up and ask if they can reduce the APR's . Some will, some won't. Barclaycard and Capital One both slashed my APRs. They were both around the 30% mark and one went to 14.9% and the other 12.9%.

Bank charges. If you have any bounced direct debit or cheque charges, charges for going over your overdraft, charges for going over your credit card limit, or charges for making a late payment - you can claim the last six years worth back.

Good luck.

O_M

helping_hubby

I've not got much to add because everyone has given you such good advice already.

I can reiterate that freecycle is a fab little site on yahoo groups. I see TVs (OK, CRT style ones) but loads seem to get offered as people upgrade to flat screens. You really shouldn't have a problem getting a free TV from there unless you live in the sticks or something.

If it does anything to motivate you my hubby has cleared £4k off his debts in 3 months. He's done this by reducing his mobile contract, taking pack lunches to work, we've cut our food bill by half (£100 a month for 2 people), he's made about £2k on ebay, and he downgraded his car - saving on insurance, road tax and petrol.

If I were you the first thing I would do is just double check the percentage interest rates on your credit cards. If you've taken out cash on them then the rates may be higher if you haven't accounted for this. I got caught out initially with my hubbys cards when I was working out which to pay off sooner, and although the rate was say 14%, on one card most of the debt was through cash withdrawals and that was charged at 29%!

Then I would phone up each of the card companies (as suggested in Martins article) and simply ask if they'll reduce the interest rate. You never know...you might just get someone in a good mood.

Then I'd start thinking about moving as much of the money on the highest interest cards to 0% deals or low long life deals. The risk of doing this though is are you just going to spend on these to the limit?

GirlRacer_2

Hey Sensible, Congrats on posting and well done on telling the wife, its a good thing that she's being so understanding at least now both of you can concentrate on getting the debts down.

Sensible77

Thanks for all the helpful responses. I am cancelling Sky and returning the rented TV. The car cost of £260 is an inclusive package including insurance, road tax and all maintenance & tyres. I have a 50 mile round trip to work so need a reliable car. I can cancel the lease but there is an early termination penalty to pay. I am off work for the next 2 days so will be able to give this much thought and be able to contact the necessary people. Thanks again for your help.

omg_3

Hi Sencible 77, good luck with your debt. If I were in yoyr shoes, I would consider talking to Mike in St Helens. I think he would be able to advise best route to take

dodger_121

I ran up 120k debt without letting my wife know we were in bother. Im now divorced as i was trying to buy happines and love, didnt work. My advice is cut back, work on it together dont be ashamed and stop spending....

gingersilverfox

Do you have any equity in your house? If so how much?

If you are solvent, ie assets (equity) + income (disposable over 5 year period) is greater than liabilities then listen to the advice of the people who post speak to Pay Plan etc.

If you are insolvent then sign up for an IVA if you can or file for bankruptcy. With your level of debt and disposable income then drastic measures are required. Once you have got rid of the debt THEN you can start looking at ways to economise. (top tip #243 re-use tea bags, less caffine and flavour but something wet to dip your rich-tea biscuit in!!)

Act quickly, grab the bull by the horns and take some decisive action.

Let me know how much equity you have. It may be some use and could help you.

JillD_2

could you car share to work ? even if there is anyone halfway there you could do a car share for half the journey ? this would help reduce petrol costs.

As others have said you should be able to cut down your food bill massively. we are 2 adults and 2 children (one in nappies which cost a bomb) and we spend £250 a month. If your house is anything like ours then this will be your wife's department so you will need to get her to get tough!!

Good luck
Jill