Some hope!

curious_

I write this post as someone who has been both a 'lurker' on this forum and as someone who has posted looking for some advice / reassurance a couple of times. I guess this post could go in the 'Debt' section too, but I have chosen to post it here.

My finance and I got together just over 4 years ago. Shortly after moving into his flat together, I discovered a large pile of unopened post. It turned out that these were credit card and loan statements that he had been ignoring for a number of years as the reality of it all was too much for him to deal with on his own. He is a little bit older than I am, and had had credit cards with high limits offered to him, loans and a 100% mortgage offered to him not long after leaving University. Rather than running a mile, we decided to tackle the situation together. He confided to me that he had approached a number of organisations for help, but that no one would help him, stating that as he was making all the minimum payments on time there was effectively 'no issue' despite the fact that he could hardly afford to eat each month before I came along. We broke everything down into spreadsheets - our salaries and all outgoings, and slashed everything we could that wasn't essential. We then approached his bank for a loan to consolidate everything and reduce the interest being paid out. We set ourselves a limit of 2 years to do it in - hard going, but would rather have had a tough two years than extending the period any longer.

For the past two years, we really have knocked our pans in. We've not been on holiday together outside the UK, we rarely eat out. We've replaced weekends in the city shopping with weekends in the park with the dog. We've both put ourselves through weeks of courses and exams in work to earn more to make our lives better. We've lost friends who couldn't accept that we had to decline invitations to nights out eating and drinking. We've sold our snowboards, designer handbags, clothes (heartbreaking!!) and signed ourselves up for any overtime going in work. It has been far from easy - there have been tears and arguments but we've stuck it out together. In July, our 'big' loan will be paid off and will free up a considerable amount of money for us. We will have paid off approximately £25,000 of debt - on wages that are decent but not extravagant I think that's good going.

Last Tuesday, we submitted a mortgage application to Accord for a house that we've fallen in love with that will offer us such a better quality of life than where we live just now. I was so worried, as I feared our case was complicated, given the fact that we are keeping the flat that we currently live in order to rent it out. Reading posts on here, I thought that we were not the 'square peg, square hole' scenario Accord favours.

Yesterday afternoon, our broker phoned to say that he had been contacted by Accord who say that our mortgage offer is now in the post. Once we receive this, we will be signing the missives on our new home.

We never thought any of this was possible, especially given where we were 3 or 4 years ago. The moral of our story is, I guess - if you want something, you need to work hard for it. Nothing worth the effort will land in your lap if you don't put in the hard graft (unless you are very very lucky!).

This forum has been incredibly useful, but be careful. Only you know your full financial situation, and some of the posts on here will lead you to sleepless nights if you compare yourself to others and all the 'what ifs' etc.
We used a whole of market, independent broker who contacted us every day with an update - even if it was only to say he hadn't heard anything that day. Yes we paid fees, but I would happily pay them again to have the peace of mind he provided. Our broker was at our beck and call during working hours if we were worried or had a quick question. We were only asked once to clarify something for Accord due to him being so organised, and as I said, the process took 9 working days.

I hope this story acts as some hope for someone out there. Having been such an avid lurker, I will state that yes, I am aware that I should not be getting too excited until we have the keys in our hands in September (buying a new build, not built yet) but I couldn't be prouder of what we have both achieved and the situation we have saved ourselves from by working together.

Thrugelmir

Congratulations. :beer:

Your post to me is summed up in these words.

For the past two years, we really have knocked our pans in.

An inspiration to others looking for the way forward.

dimbo61

Well done on sorting out your finances over the last 4 years and I hope everything goes well in buying your new home :-)
Martin Lewis has given the UK a great website where people can get help and advice on how to get out of debt and stay out of debt.