£23,000 of debt - just told my wife

Patek

Hi All

Today i told my wife of the huge debt i have built up over the past 18 months.

18 Months ago i lost my business due to theft and have struggled since. I built this debt up over 18 months trying to sustain my lifestyle thinking things would improve but they have not.

I have little to nil income as my wife pays me £500 a mth through her business and she is now in the process of setting up another business where i will work and earn £12,000 a year.

We have a joint mortgage and i struggle to pay the interest on these cards (22% on the biggest part of the debt.)

My wife offered to pay some off but she cant pay it all. What can i do? Can i ask the card company to accept a lump sum to clear the debt or not? If i did how would it effect me or my wife if we ever needed to move and get another mortgage?

Any help is appreciated.

desperate_times

You can just stop paying the cards or at least stop paying the minimum amount. You will go into arrears and after maybe six months will probably default. Interest will stop being added probably and you will then be able to pay down the loans slowly. Of course it will ruin you credit file for six years and will make getting mortgage very difficult. If you need to move may have to rent until credit file improves. Difficult situation but if you can't pay the cards you can't pay them and have to take the consequences.

in_need_of_direction

Why not accept your wife's offer and then throw part of your additional income into monthly repayments? That way your credit record is maintained which could be critical should your wife need to raise business related finance in the future.

Karen777

Hiya and welcome and well done for what must have been a really difficult conversation.

It would be worth speaking to one of the free debt advice charities to at least see what your options are and what the consequences might be of different approaches.

How important is maintaining a credit record? Do you know what your credit record looks like at the moment? (try noddle if not, it's free and pretty accurate).

Payplan and Stepchange or national debtline would be able to discuss options with you. Your credit card companies are unlikely to accept a less than full payment if you haven't missed any payments. Or you can the online debt remedy yourself if you don't want to speak to anyone.

Are the cards in your name only? If so, and you have no income, and you don't want to accept your wife's offer, one option as already advised by a previous poster is to stop paying while you seek advice, or make token payments, and tell them you are seeking debt advice and will contact them with payment plan shortly.

Good luck.

On_my_way

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

Why not accept your wife's offer and then throw part of your additional income into monthly repayments? That way your credit record is maintained which could be critical should your wife need to raise business related finance in the future.

It's absolutely vital that you both discuss all of this, as your wife must have been aware that you had little income but still were keeping up the same lifestyle.

It is vital that you continue to pay your debts and cut down on everything else asap.

There will be people on here who know exactly to help you. It's good that you have realised this now and not at £50k.