Newbie needs advice

dunczla

hi all,


looking for some hints/tips /advice really, Ive got £15k of debt , 8k credit card , 6.5k loans plus an ODraft .
With my recent house purchase, mortgage is affordable but the debts are squeezing the hell out of my spare cash.
I need to sort it out really. my total repayments each month on my debts are approx £270 , Im unsure how best to deal with it all.

Im considering taking a homeowner loan to clear it all down to a neat £100 a month, ok it will be on 25 year terms but I need to reduce things. And get on the budget and save routine ! Is this a good idea?

I know its not a cheap way to borrow and it will be secured against the house but I need to sort things out. hmm whadda ya think. Im 29 and earn around £1200 a month.

poppy_f1

hiya and welcome to the board
if you post a soa (see the sticky at the top of the board) im sure people here can help
generally its not a good idea to consolidate especially onto a secured loan unless its the last resort

pania

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!don't do it!! If you increase the loan to a 25 yr term, that debt you owe will increase rapidly with the extra interest you pay!!:eek: put us up an SOA, exactly whats coming in and going out, all itemised and include everything you can think of, that way we can all help put where to squeeze that extra cash from. best of luck and we'll all b here to help you out.:T

dunczla

soa?

which thread?

The reason im saying im thinking taking a homeowner loan to consolidate all my debts into a small payment is to give me around £160 a month more in my pocket on top of running a tighter budget. which will give me chance to improve my house, save for unforseen costs (car repair etc ) and generally not struggle to stay within my means each month.

Ytaya

Statement of Affairs. This thread

Let us help you stay within your means by tweaking your budget first. To give you an idea why, go to the Snowball Calculator and put in the info for the loan you're thinking of. Look at the total interest paid over the term of the loan - I'll bet it's about £15k, yes? That's an awful lot of money to pay out without trying some other options first!

Tell us all your income, all your outgoings, all your debts (including APR and minimum payments). We can help You've got nothing to lose by trying!

SunderlandBlackCat

Hi & welcome to the board

As already mentioned above consolidation rarely works until you've had plenty of time to get a handle on your spending. Most of us on this board have done it badly at least once (twice for me) & just ended up in more debt.

Once we've seen your SOA we will be able to advise on ways of reducing your outgoings so you'll have more money available to snowball your debts.

poodlehorse

What they all said ^^^^^^. Please let us help you to sort this out before you consider consolidating, it is almost never the best / only option. Be as thorough as you can with your SOA and the collective MSE brain will do its best to help you cut back.

GettingThingsDone

Hi dunczla and welcome! First: three words - Light Bulb Moment...

As you may have guessed many of us have used consolidation loans to to try and get ourselves out of trouble, only to find a) it works out to be more expensive than we thought and b) it doesn't resolve the underlying problem and we just run up debts again.

Do your SOA (see the sticky) - and then do it again
Definitely use the snowball calculator
Don't Panic! When I saw the true numbers and the time it will take to pay it all off I had to have a sit down (putting it mildly!)

Hopefully at some point you'll have a moment of clarity (LBM) where everything just comes together...

Warning - this site is addictive!

Cheers,
G

hypno06

Good morning and welcome to the wonderful world of DFW!

I echo everything that has been said above - consolidation rarely works, and If I had a £ for everyone who has consolidated, intended never to spend again, but then ends up maxing out the credit cards again, well - I would not have half the debt I currently have, I'm sure!!

So, at the very least, make sure that it is the best/only option for you. By putting up your statement of affairs, we can see if we can free up some money for you in some other way.

By having a play around with the snowball calculator, you can put in your existing debts, payments and APRs and see when you will be debt free and what interest in total you will be paying. Then do the same for the loan, and see what you think.

Also, think about other things that can help you become financially better off - getting a second job, selling stuff on ebay/amazon etc. Have a search around the threads on here and you will find no end of ways to conjure cash up out of seemingly nothing!

Head over to the old style board to see how you can get your food/shopping bills down to the minimum.

Keep posting and let us know how you get on.

art_student

Hi! Welcome to DFW!!! Definately do what everyone above has mentioned and post your SOA. Then people can give you some more informed advice.

david_hellier

SOA please