OMG, where do I start

Malteaser78

Right, I am a married home-owner never previously had any debt issues.

18 months ago I took on some of my wife's debts and put them on a 0% credit card. Since then I've been paying minimum balances and I've switched a few times to continue 0% rates - I can't afford to pay any more than the minimum balance as I have to pay all the household bills.

I recently found out that I cannot apply for a new 0% card as it looks like there's a default on my credit history.

I think this relates to my wife who missed a payment a couple of months ago.

Unfortunately it seems that my wife has accumulated a further credit card debt as well as the loan that she assures me that she is paying.

The net credit card debt I have on 0% is £8,700 over 2 cards and I have a further credit card bill that I pay off in full every month; however I don't think I can get a further 0% deal on my existing cards and evidently I can't get any credit at 0% anywhere else. One card's 0% rate will run out in October 2012 (£6,200),the other in March 2013(£2,500).

First question: What can I do to get a 0% deal or do I have to wait 6 months to get this kind of credit again? If this is the case, what should I do to minimise the damage?

My wife unfortunately appears to be a in a position where she has accumulated more credit and seems to be in some kind of problems. I have only just found this out(!). Obviously I'm a bit fed up, I think she has just over £20k of debt (£10k loan that I know about and £10k+ of credit card that I have just found out about). On her salary I doubt that she can get any kind of deal to help her out. I am assuming she just pays the minimum balance and has been accumulating the balance via interest and more spending.

Second question: Other than the obvious more drastic answers - runaway, divorce, etc (!!!), what options do we have and what should we do next? Is there an option for my wife to do a IVA/bankruptcy? Do we need to deal with this together and if so what could I do immediately to sort out the problems?

Arrrgh , problems,problems, please help me!!

opinions4u

Best to post on the Debt-free Wannabe part of the forum.

Unless your wife stops spending this problem will sink the pair of you.

Completing a statement of affairs, together, at https://www.makesenseofcards.co.uk may help you understand your options better.

MABLE

Malteaser78 wrote: »

Right, I am a married home-owner never previously had any debt issues.

18 months ago I took on some of my wife's debts and put them on a 0% credit card. Since then I've been paying minimum balances and I've switched a few times to continue 0% rates - I can't afford to pay any more than the minimum balance as I have to pay all the household bills.

I recently found out that I cannot apply for a new 0% card as it looks like there's a default on my credit history.

I think this relates to my wife who missed a payment a couple of months ago.

Unfortunately it seems that my wife has accumulated a further credit card debt as well as the loan that she assures me that she is paying.

The net credit card debt I have on 0% is £8,700 over 2 cards and I have a further credit card bill that I pay off in full every month; however I don't think I can get a further 0% deal on my existing cards and evidently I can't get any credit at 0% anywhere else. One card's 0% rate will run out in October 2012 (£6,200),the other in March 2013(£2,500).

First question: What can I do to get a 0% deal or do I have to wait 6 months to get this kind of credit again? If this is the case, what should I do to minimise the damage?

My wife unfortunately appears to be a in a position where she has accumulated more credit and seems to be in some kind of problems. I have only just found this out(!). Obviously I'm a bit fed up, I think she has just over £20k of debt (£10k loan that I know about and £10k+ of credit card that I have just found out about). On her salary I doubt that she can get any kind of deal to help her out. I am assuming she just pays the minimum balance and has been accumulating the balance via interest and more spending.

Second question: Other than the obvious more drastic answers - runaway, divorce, etc (!!!), what options do we have and what should we do next? Is there an option for my wife to do a IVA/bankruptcy? Do we need to deal with this together and if so what could I do immediately to sort out the problems?

Arrrgh , problems,problems, please help me!!

I feel like saying to you cut your losses and your wife. Sounds to me she is just a mill stone around your neck.

Buzby

You will not be blocked simply because of your wife's late payments - it is a marker, but not a default. That said, switching 0% offers and only repaying the minimum is classic brinkmanship, and under the 'responsible lending' criteria, will flag you as a potential risk. This will happen whether or not your financial affairs are linked - but I suspect they are.

jfh7gwa

opinions4u wrote: »

Unless your wife stops spending this problem will sink the pair of you.

You've already been given some decent first steps re: actually tackling the debt, but I wanted to emphasize this excellent summary again.

Tackling your wife's problem is a much bigger issue to deal with - once (and if) that problem can be sorted, the actual debt will get sorted with a little advice on here.

Be clear - your problem is your wife's behaviour/attitude. Fix it (therapy? a temporary split? cut off all financial ties? something, if she won't see sense)... or if it can't be fixed, time to move on.