Debt Advice

nicks43skr

Hi,

I'm a 38 yo male living with my gf in a house we purchased together in September last year - mortgaged.

I earn a reasonable salary of £26k in a sales role.

I've always been quite "irresponsible" with money, but over the past 12 mths have been gambling online, and now have £4,000 on my credit card, and an overdraft on my current account of around £1,000

I've told my gf about the current account, and she reacted badly, but not the credit card - she would be likely to leave me.

I also have an unrelated £7,500.00 loan (over 7 years) which I have used for home improvements, etc.

I am now at a conundrum how to get back in the black, at least in my current account - I have battled to resist gambling.

I have considered an additional £3,000 loan to clear this and give me some bunce.

I currently pay £130pcm on my CC, and £108pcm on my loan - adding 3k would increase the loan payment to £170, thus a total of £300 per month

Can anyone offer any advice - I've also looked into evening work (I work 8-5.30 Mon-Fri) to assist me in digging myself from this hole.

Thank you in advance.

Cycrow

well, stop gambling would be the first thing to do.
as if you manage to clear your gets or get a loan the money could then go straight back to gambling getting you in more debt.

a balance transfer card might be a better option to reduce the interest on your credit card then focus on the overdraft.

what kind of money are you left with after the bills, and are there anything you can cut down on to save money

aridjis

if you don't resist gambling it won't matter how much money you have coming in, - there'll be more going out!!

nicks43skr

I have endeavoured to stop the gambling - it's incredibly hard to do so as i've inevitably chased my debts.

After all bills are paid, including current loan and credit card payments, I'm left with around £300.00.

datlex

Evening jobs are all very well but make sure you think about your health. Too much work can cause stress and impact poorly on work situation.

foxgloves

I'm sure that stopping gambling is extremely difficult, but that's the problem here. You do earn a reasonable salary but it's not enough to sustain this level of debt for long & if you keep gambling, the debt will increase. If gamblers won even a decent percentage of times, casinos wouldn't exist as a commercial concern. They are ONLY there to take your money. I would advise against getting a consolidation loan. Firstly because you might end up thinking that if you gamble some or all of it, you might just possibly win enough to pay back your debts (you won't), also because taking on more debt to pay off exisitng debt rarely works without significant behaviour change. We consolidated 3 times & each time carried on overspending & failing to budget. I think you need to look at all your outgoings & look at what you can cut back on. It may well come down to just buying essentials for a while to get in control if things. Learning the difference between a 'want' & a 'need' was a key part of us finally getting debt free (i.e Sky TV is a 'want', Food & heating is a 'need', etc). There will need to be household economies, so that means you & your girlfriend will need to work at this as a team. I understand youa re worried about her discovering the credit card debt, but the sort of economies that will need to be made to tackle the debt & stop it growing will need to be done as a household. To start with, whatever help you need to get to stop the gambling, do it!! You wouldn't go & poke your wages down the nearest drain, this situation needs to be turned around before it gets worse. Be strong!

Tixy

You are considering a £3k loan to pay off £1k on an overdraft?

And realistically where will the other £2k go? you earn a decent salary and should be looking to reduce your debts not increase them.

If you have £2k sitting in your account you are going to end up gambling it away, and if you keep extending your debts to do that you will get to the point where you won't be able to claw you way back out of debt.

You say you are trying to stop gambling - have you sought advice / support on this? looked in to GA have you self-excluded yourself from the gambling sites you have been using?

Does your gf know about the gambling? can she help you by offering support and helping you steer clear of such websites.