Baby on the way, finance advice

hightides

Hi All

I need advice we have a baby due in March and i was just hoping for some financial advice and help with what to do next.

Here is the situation

We got married last year and got a loan to pay most of it off.

Our mortgage is due march but id like to sort it before january
At the moment we have an overdraft, credit card and loan. I was thinking of getting a bigger loan and paying off the credit card and the overdraft.

What would be the mortgage implications of consolitdating before my mortgage review.

would it be better to stay as is (never missed a payment) and have an excellent credit score.

or consolidate the debt into one place.

Thanks in advance for any advice

[Deleted User]

its never a good idea to borrow money to repay debt,especially at an expensive time when you may be tempted to borrow even more and start on a spiral of debt.
pay as much off the most expensive debt and overpay the credit cards even a little looks good

Weird_Nev

Complete a full statement of affairs. That way the relative sizes of your debts are readily apparent and can be attacked in the most sensible way.

"Consolidation" doesn't actually do anything magic, it just exchanges one debt for another. Often, over a longer term, thus accruing more total interest.
What happens when that loan looks a bit big, or the credit card bill has been run up once again?
Get another bigger loan to cover it all?

If you're making all your payments then you should have enough to live. Focus on the highest interest debt and pay it off, then snowball that amount onto the next debt and so forth.

Contrary to what people think, having a child needn't actually be that expensive. I think our biggest single expenditure was £180 on a new travel system from mothercare, and we outlaid probably less than £500 getting set up.
From memory:
Cot: second hand gift from friends
Car seat/Buggy/carry cot travel system: £180 on offer from mother care.
Clothes+ Blankets: We spent about £50, the rest were gifts from friends and family.
Steriliser/bottles/thermometer: £100 from Boots
Changing station: Really nice one borrowed from friends for 6 months.
Medula breast pump: £80, sold back on for £80
TENs machine (Never used it) Bought for £30, sold for £40 on ebay!
Reuseable bamboo nappies: Bought a bunch for £200 on ebay, sold them in 2 £100 batches when done.

Other than that babies just need hugs and all your waking time and more, and a few extra quid a week on nappies and formula.

Well worth signing up to NCT though. We made friends for life and got lots of useful tips and some bargains from the sales.

sourcrates

Echo the above, we borrowed to consolidate credit cards, small loans, etc, then my then wife lost her job, we had new baby at time, long story cut short, ended up with 134k of both secured and unsecured debt, had to sell house to repay, but still left shortfall of 34k, repaid by IVA, now, nearly, debt free, but just an extreme example of how debt can spiral out of control, everyone says "it wont happen to me" but it was so easy when they were offering you Hugh home loans that you could never hope to pay off, as circumstances change, and not always for the better, people always think there in control, but it doesn't take much sometimes for the bottom to fall out, after five years, 134k of debt, and one broken marriage, the penny finally drops !! you take that loan at your own peril............