Help me please

loveka

Hi. Listen, DO NOT put it on the mortgage. You risk losing your home and ending up with nothing, you would be making unsecured debts secured. What if you get ill either of you, or get made redundant, and can't pay the mortgage?

As I said to you, he can do this himself by phoning/writing to each credit card company and telling them he is in financial trouble. They still reduce payments to what he can afford, they still stop interest. This is often referred to as self managed dump.

My partner did this, they are paid off now, mainly because 2 of the credit card company's offered him a full and final settlement. So he paid 20% of the balance and the debt was gone.

Compare this to adding the debt onto the mortgage, where you are paying the debt, plus the extra interest on the mortgage, and you are putting your home at risk.

CAB are volunteers, they provide a great service, but the advice is not always right. They advised us to sell our endowment policy to pay the debts, they categorically said this was all we could do. Had we done this, we would have had nothing to pay off our mortgage at the end of the term. We would have had to find £125,000 over the 9 years we had left on our mortgage. So paying off a £50,000 debt would have cost us £125,000

loveka

Not a dump, a dmp sorry. Bloody autocorrect!

coolcait

loubell wrote: »

...but their are restrictions i.e income and affordability it is not as straight forward as i first thought, i ....

DAS isn't for everyone, but it's pretty flexible. So what restrictions are you talking about?

loubell wrote: »

....firstly we did contact stepchange a year ago when we thought it was getting out of hand (i didn't realise how much) and they right away suggested a DAS but citizens advice said no way they wouldn't accept us ...

Re BiB, that seems like yet another reason for you to speak to Stepchange again. I really don't understand why you haven't done that given the number of times it has been recommended on this thread.


Also, the bit about citizens advice isn't very clear.


If they said "No way, Stepchange won't accept you", that's really not their call. It's for Stepchange to say if they'll accept you. But you have to speak to them first if they're going to get a chance to do that.


If citizens advice said "No way, we won't accept you", that is their call. It's also another hint that you should speak to Stepchange - or one of the other debt charities.


If - and I know this has also been mentioned a few times - you put up an SOA, people can give you advice on budgeting as well as possible options for dealing with the debt.

alexrcraig

You can pay it off! It takes hard work and determination.

Here is my basic tips:

Is it possible to take out the equity and is it at a lower interest rate? If so, see if you can take it out and pay off the credit cards so you are paying a lower interest rate.

If this is not possible, call the credit card companies and negotiate your APR. See if you can get your interest down. It never hurts to ask. These can be quick wins and seem so simple, but you could save yourself thousands of dollars.

Next I would find a way to decrease your expenses. Is there anything you can go without? If so, great. Take that money to pay the credit cards off.

Next take the time to find a way to raise your income or make more. Perhaps get a side job or ask for a raise at work. This will allow you to significantly pay off your debt. You can increase your income by working more, getting a raise, another job, or freelancing.

This will take some time though. This is a process.

You did not get into your situation in one night so you will not be able to get out of it in one night.

Great job on the victory of cutting your cards up.

pennystretcher

If you are paying high interest on current credit cards - read this article:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/balance-transfer-credit-cards

Obviously do not spend any more on those cards. Even if you do that on couple of higher interest debts it's a start.

SOA would help, even if you don't want to post it here, do one for yourself and maybe post couple of "worst offender" entries here to get hints how to cut down and find more money to pay off debt.

loubell

asparagus1968 wrote: »

Hope you don't think I'm being pushy- but would you explain why you won't ask the debt charities for advice, as has been suggested a few times ?

Because i am scared....

grandma247

Debt charities are used to people being scared and they get people crying down the phone a lot. Read some of the stories on MSE of people who have gone this route and the successes they have had.

KxMx

loubell wrote: »

Because i am scared....

Opening your eyes fully can be a very scary prospect. And you may well be met with a very grim picture.

But, having taken my own finances in hand three months ago, it is very liberating and the feeling of control is very good, even when the picture is bad.

I can't emphasise that enough.

loveka

If I were you I would be more scared of losing my home because I had increased my mortgage to pay unsecured debts. I don't want to be harsh, but I'm afraid that's true.

Most people say a weight fell from their shoulders when they spoke to a debt charity. For me, I slept for the first time in 2 weeks. Please do it.

loubell

Thanks everyone my partner did that debt remedy thing on the stepchange website in his name only and it said that he has £278 available to repay debts monthly on a DAS which is a lot better than the £1100 he pays out just now he is going to phone them on his first day off my only concern is whether they will let him do it alone even though we live as a couple with a child?
I take it this is the right thing we are doing ?