What can we try next?

Idiophreak

Moneymash wrote: »

So the minimum payment on all cards totals is £452. You say your girlfriend can afford up to £650 a month in debt repayments. That would leave her £198 to make an overpayment to the highest apr card and start the journey to becoming debt-free under her own steam.

...but at 29% APR, it's entirely possible that the minimum payments aren't covering the interest...so whilst they can overpay the more expensive one, the others will continue to grow, thus undermining progress...
(ETA: actually, looking at it, I think the interest should be covered by all these min. payments)

OP, you have my total sympathy - I know how frustrating it is to have your life put on hold by debt - and I well understand why you just want to tackle it as a couple and get on with your lives together ASAP. Sadly, you're just not going to be able to use her income to borrow with, so your ability to help seems somewhat limited...But you never know...Anything you could take off 29% and put onto, say, 7% would make a significant difference to the overall time she takes to pay the stuff off..so maybe even borrowing a couple of thousand could help...

BUT - don't forget that, with the credit cards, you pay a minimum payment (2.5%, something like that)...if you took a loan, depending on how long you borrow over, the monthly payment might be significantly more than a minimum payment on a CC...and that will take away from the amount that can be paid off higher interest cards...so the overall effect might be negligible.

Of course, it goes without saying...if you do take a loan on her behalf, get it all documented, draw up a payment schedule and both sign it every month she gives you the money...then if the worst should happen you'll have a pretty good record of what she owes you...hopefully you'll never need it, but it really is only sensible.

MrMoneyman

lynz68 wrote: »

I definitely would not take a loan out on someone else's behalf no matter who they were.

Could you afford the repayments on a loan of that amount if your girlfriend for whatever reason was not able to? Unfortunately none of us know what is round the corner.

As a rule of thumb banks will not allow available credit of more than half your salary.

It has taken your girlfriend several years to get into this situation so there is no quick fix to sorting it and to be fair she really won't learn from this if she doesn't sort it herself. Although she is not using the cards at the minute there is nothing to stop her starting to use them again. At the very least she needs to cut them up.

If you want to help her can you just not just do it by giving her any spare cash towards the bills not ideal though.

Your girlfriend really needs to post a SOA so that advice can be given where she could possibly make cutbacks.

appreciate you post, she doesn't have the cards in her possession so that's that bit sorted

As far as outgoings, there's only really a mobile phone bill, travel to work expenses and rent which her parents won't budge on, we've done all this so there really isn't much room for manoeuvre on that front. It leaves her with about £750, so that's about £650 on the cards and £100 to live on each month

Idiophreak

MrMoneyman wrote: »

appreciate you post, she doesn't have the cards in her possession so that's that bit sorted

As far as outgoings, there's only really a mobile phone bill, travel to work expenses and rent which her parents won't budge on, we've done all this so there really isn't much room for manoeuvre on that front. It leaves her with about £750, so that's about £650 on the cards and £100 to live on each month

...and what about your outgoings?

As lynz said, maybe the most useful thing you can do is give her a bit of extra cash each month to pay towards the most expensive debt...(you can either loan her the money or gift it)

Moneymash

Does your girlfriend have, or did have PPI on any of the cards? Do you have any PPI you can claim or her parents for that matter. A ppi windfall would be unexpected income that could be lent to your girlfriend for a much lower rate of interest than what she is currently paying.

You can also claim for card protection insurance, and even delayed flights, any long-lost savings accounts? Have a look through your paperwork.

MrMoneyman

I don't think theres any ppi stuff but its worth an enquiry, i think the logical thing to do here might be for me to apply for an interest free credit card, transfer the balance over from one of the cards and maybe pay it off if I can and help out that way. If we could get a family member to take out another interest free card that takes it down to 2 cards that would have interest on

happycamel_2

What did she spend all that money on? can she sell stuff to get the ball rolling on the overpayments? I'm afraid I'm another one who strongly advises you not to take on these debts, see the Lending to Family and Friends sticky on the Loans thread.

If she gets sick or made redundant or any number of things she may not be able to pay and then you'll need to cover all that yourself, potentially for years. In the grand scheme of the whole of your lives it will do neither of you any harm to wait a while to move in together. You'll need an emergency fund for unexpected costs not a big debt when you start your lives together. Sometimes the best things in life need patience and to be earned.

pauletruth

if your sure youre going to stay together why not help out with a few hundred a month. it will clear it so much faster.

bargainbetty

MrMoneyman wrote: »

I don't think theres any ppi stuff but its worth an enquiry, i think the logical thing to do here might be for me to apply for an interest free credit card, transfer the balance over from one of the cards and maybe pay it off if I can and help out that way. If we could get a family member to take out another interest free card that takes it down to 2 cards that would have interest on

No. This is not logical. Please read the 'lending money to friends and family' sticky to get an idea of what people are trying to say to you.

You may genuinely be in love, but getting financially straight is a serious business. Your GF needs to take responsibility for herself, and not expect people to get cheap debt for her. Help her out by treating her, helping her save money, find a second job and contribute if you want, to get the highest interest one of the small cards paid off. If you can do that, you can then approach them about low-life-of-balance transfers, and you empty the next card onto it, and so forth.

I have a good friend, and I still consider her a good friend, to whom I have lent approx £1k and I know in my heart I will never see a penny of it again. She simply refuses to acknowledge it exists. If you take out this debt and something happens, you'll be in the same boat. And don't be stupid enough to try to drag a third party into this, or mean enough.

Has it occurred to you that her parents won't 'budge on the rent' because she might owe them money? From bailing her out over the years? Or because they recognise that she needs to pay her own way?

Idiophreak

bargainbetty wrote: »

No. This is not logical. Please read the 'lending money to friends and family' sticky to get an idea of what people are trying to say to you.

Actually, it seems perfectly logical. Being logical and being "a good idea" aren't the same thing...

DCFC79

The idea of the OP taking out a loan to help the gf out should be left up to the OP to decide what to do, the lending money to friends and family thread has been pointed out. As long as he doesn't go in with feet first and thinks about it then its his choice.

It would have to be a last resort but an option nonetheless.