Looking for some light at the end of the tunnel

matada34

Hi,

Im writing this on behalf of my partner, she's having some debt trouble and we are trying to find the best way out of it.

She has debts mounting upto £25000, this is one loan with TSB for £11500, a Barclaycard with £5500 and I have £8500 of her credit on an interest free card.

This has mounted up over many years, unknown to me. She always keeps up with her repayments (minimum amount) but due to the interest there is no end in sight anytime soon.
She has spoken to citizens advice and step change and they offer a debt management plan as the way out, however she has recently got a new job after being on maternity leave and thinks the DMP will effect her new job. They do credit checks etc and DMP may not be a good thing.

Along with this she has depression and anxiety which is currently under control, obviously this debt causes a huge amount of worry for her.

We are not married, im the home owner (my mortgage) and pay all the bills but we don't have much money left each month,

I'm trying to work out if there's a way that all this debt can be put into one new loan which is low interest, the repayments could be kept up, with the current minimum repayments (£500 a month) there are loans out there which could get this gone in 5 years (ish).

Obviously the issue is with her already having alot of debt Mr bank manager is not going to give more, along with her just starting a new job, also note she has had previous bad credit, however her current credit rating isnt too bad. She has kept up the repayments for this debt for years now. Is there anyway to consolidate this in to one loan?

Any help or thoughts would be much appreciated.

Thanks

sourcrates

Hi,

Well I would not consolidate the existing credit, that can lead to all kinds of trouble, you would have to close down the card accounts and not use them again.
Unfortunately a DMP will have a negative effect on your credit file, as you won't be making the contracted payments, there's every chance the accounts could be defaulted.

In what capacity is your partner employed ? And for what reason, and how often is she credit checked ?

National_Debtline

Hi Matada34,


I agree with the points sourcrates has raised, consolidation loans rarely work, plus you will pay interest on top of interest and to try and get a personal loan for £25,000 would be hard in its own right anyway. Realistically, your partner could try overpaying the debts as much as possible to drive the balances down, or if the minimum payments alone are becoming a struggle then some sort of reduced negotiation would be the only other option.


She needs to see how often she would be credit checked - is it annually, biannually or just when she first starts? If she is only credit checked at the start then a DMP may be a solution. Debts can be stressful but a free DMP helps take a lot of the stress away for people. Good luck,


Laura
@natdebtline