What is the best way forward

Life-must-be-easier

So here is the issue
We have a mortgage at 3.7%, 2 years to go until remortage is due (7 years in total until the mortgage is paid off) With early redemption if we pay it off now £55K, Property value now £230 - £235K, Im the youngest in our realationship but close to 60. Currently we have debts of £30K :eek::o(credit cards and loans all fixed rates), none of which are secured against the property.
No real savings:(
We have never had any CCJs and always managed to pay all our debts in full and most months a little more on each one, but money is tight (like it is for a lot of people).

By the way, we don't have nice holidays just a couple of weekend breaks a year, (and that is only when other members of the family invite us along, so cost is minimal) and drive an average unfinanaced car, we both work full time.:(

But we really struggle, it's making us both depressed. We fully understand that Mortgage, Coulcil Tax etc are PRIORITY, but paying the best part of £700 to cards every month, we now have no room for manuover,, it's crippling us,

Dobbibill

Hi, welcome to the forum.

Post up a SOA and the good people here will be able to offer tailored advice. (you can format it for MSE at the bottom of the form)

EssexHebridean

Can I ask - how have you ended up with those debts? Are the loans for improvements the property for example? My other question at this point is - are you still using credit for anything?

Dobbibill is absolutely right though - get that SOA done and we can take a look. You'll find the SOA link at the top of this board, in the "Sticky" post there.

Life-must-be-easier

Hi Dobbibill & EssexHebridean, thank you for your comments
Yes I will do the SOA
The debts are carried over from many years, refinancing, card to card, card to loans etc, loans to cards and bad advice, as an examaple, due to an issue with teeth, the dentist bill came in over several months at £3K. (these are not implants) so nothing nice. We had an old car, which we had years (10 +) and could not afford a newer car, it had a major service and MOT every summer to try and keep it on the road as we were doing about 15k miles and the services and susequent MOT repairs just kept creeping up, at the last bill just over 3 years ago the garage phoned and said that there was a major fault and with the service, mot, and repairs it would be £1200. At that point we decided not to have the work done and look around for another car that again would hopefully last us a long time. We brought a standard family medium sized car 8 years old and paid 4K for it (on a card). I cannot be without a car due to location of my employer and start and finish times, no one to car share with. My wife rides her mountain bike to and from work. Next was the boiler, that failed and had to be replaced, but with that the gas supply pipework to the boiler was too small and had to be updated. 2K later. We do not have nice holidays, lavish lifestyle, we have been to the pictures one in the last year and that was a treat from our kids, shop mainly at Aldi sometimes ASDA, but we just cannot seem to get out of the rut and build up a reserve for emergencies. But it is purely our own fault, and we are not suggesting in any way that anyone else is responsible. we are just trying to see if we are now going forward doing the right thing.

enthusiasticsaver

Post up an soa and people will suggest ways you can cut costs. It seems as if you have been overspending for many years although you do seem to be able to account for £10k of it on the boiler, car and dentist bill. If you are coming up to 60 then presumably retirement is not that far away. You do not want to be paying credit cards on a pension so it is essential to get a grip on this now.

Are you both working full time? On a fairly low mortgage with no obvious areas of overspending it seems strange you have built up this debt unless you are both on a very low income.

Are the credit cards on 0% interest? I would suggest you keep a spending diary so you can see where the money is going. Even the odd cash withdrawal can mount up over the years.

Do you smoke, drink or have pets as they are often the source of overspending although few people realise how much they are spending on those categories? Another one is bailing out adult kids.

Bazinqah

First off, haggle all your bills if you don't
Broadband/Electricity, can usually save quite a bit if you've had the same package for years.

are you on a 0% interest card? if not, then get one, save so much.

This one is a hit or miss as people don't fully understand it, but there is a section on this forum that caters to it (incase you are wary) but Matched Betting. I do it every month, and on average profit £300-700 a month, but you do need a bit of money to make money and being careful with it.

Life-must-be-easier

SO I have posted my SOA (twice) but it ha not appeared here. wifes just be paid, after everything £10 left until I get paid in a couple of weeks time. Has anyone read the SOA

Here it is again
Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1525
Partners monthly income after tax....... 712
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 150
Total monthly income.................... 2387

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 667
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 130
Electricity............................. 100
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 21
Telephone (land line)................... 40
Mobile phone............................ 45
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 230
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 155
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 24
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 50
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 36
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 30
Other insurance......................... 18
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
drains / water cover.................... 17
Od usage all acs........................ 12
Total monthly expenses.................. 1587


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 225000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1200
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 226200


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 55000....(667)......3
Total secured & HP debts...... 55000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Card 1 ........................4000......100.......0
Card 2 ........................14000.....225.......9
loan ..........................8000......307.......9
Card 3.........................1900......60........0
store card.....................150.......25........0
Total unsecured debts..........28050.....717.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,387
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,587
Available for debt repayments........... 800
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 717
Amount left after debt repayments....... 83

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 226,200
Total HP & Secured debt................. -55,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -28,050
Net Assets.............................. 143,150

enthusiasticsaver

Your partner works full time and only earns £712? Isn't that less than minimum wage?

You pay quite a lot for insurance. Do you do price comparisons? We pay around £115 per year for buildings and contents insurance for our 4 bed detached house which is a good deal less than the £36 per month you pay. What is the £18 insurance for and can you get cheaper life insurance? No mention of an overdraft in your debts so not sure why you are paying £12 per month for presumably a packaged account which mostly are a waste of money.

The groceries could be reduced a bit and can you get rid of the landline if you pay £45 for mobile phones too?

There are gaps in your soa for entertainment, haircuts, gifts and emergency fund which is a must. The biggest issue though is that as you say your biggest outgoing is unsecured debt payments which are crippling you. One thing you must not do though is consolidate as it looks like this is what you have done numerous times and it has made your situation worse. Eventually of course the mortgage and loan will be repaid which will free up some money to pay significantly more than the minimum which is the only way this will be paid off. Personally I would focus on the smaller debts first and then snowball the payments on to the larger cards and the loan.

-taff

Are the 0% cards and debts really on 0%?
If they are, then pay the ones with the higher APR first, or see if you can move these debts to 0% or money transfer cards.
You really need to increase your income if you can. Can your wife do another job?
Can you sell any assets you don't use? Ebay things, facebook selling etc.

Also take a look at the snowball clculator and see what you can play with there. http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

It might be worth considering a DMP although that will take a few years, and you may be paying it into your pensionable age....
Can you downsize at all?

There are lots of options, but you need to decide which way you want to go.
There'll be loads more advice to come I'm sure

Dobbibill

Life-must-be-easier wrote: »

SO I have posted my SOA (twice) but it ha not appeared here. wifes just be paid, after everything £10 left until I get paid in a couple of weeks time. Has anyone read the SOA

Here it is again
Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1525
Partners monthly income after tax....... 712 Can this be increased?
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 150
Total monthly income.................... 2387


Telephone (land line)................... 40 - this is high
Mobile phone............................ 45 - this is high too, can you get sim only deals for under £10 each?

Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0 - ? never? no glasses, nothing?

Buildings insurance..................... 36 - use TCB or Qu1dco to see if you can get a discout when your renewal is due
Contents insurance...................... 0 - is this included above? If not it's very expensive for buildings only and you need some, if it is, you can still cut costs by following the above

Other insurance......................... 18 - what is this?
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0 - nothing?
Haircuts................................ 0 - never?
Entertainment........................... 0 not even a cheeky chip supper every now and again?
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0 - you should have something here
drains / water cover.................... 17
Od usage all acs........................ 12 is this just a usage fee? do you pay debit interest too?
Total monthly expenses.................. 1587


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 225000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1200
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 226200


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 55000....(667)......3
Total secured & HP debts...... 55000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Card 1 ........................4000......100.......0
Card 2 ........................14000.....225.......9
loan ..........................8000......307.......9
Card 3.........................1900......60........0
store card.....................150.......25........0
Total unsecured debts..........28050.....717.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,387
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,587
Available for debt repayments........... 800
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 717
Amount left after debt repayments....... 83

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 226,200
Total HP & Secured debt................. -55,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -28,050
Net Assets.............................. 143,150

I have added comments above in red - you may well have considered these things previously but if not it's food for thought.