DFW Advice

Baileyborough

Hi guys,

Just curious about if people have any thoughts on my current situation.

Long story short, a series of crappy spending habits coupled with poor life events have resulted with my wife and I having just over 25k in cc debts.

Thanks to the advice on here (bit of a lifesaver), I've managed to mitigate slightly with balance transfers, and thanks to YNAB and here, we're working on a repayment plan that has us debt free by April 2020 (rolling money for paid credit cards into other cards, etc).

So far so alright.

This has taken a bit of a battering as my wife and I have moved to Ireland to live. The exchange rate hasn't done us any favours, and unfortunately due to confusions in the move, one of the ccs wasn't paid in time, so our biggest mbna card is no longer interest free.

This isn't the end of the world, as I can potentially re-juggle this to be the card that gets the biggest repayment (working top down rather than bottom up, balance wise). But it rattled me a bit, and made me think, is what I'm doing for repayments stupid? Should I be doing something else, like a consolidation loan?

My biggest concern is that we'd be in debt for a good bit longer with relatively little difference in monthly repayments (currently it's in the region of €800 per month over 3 years, all going to plan, vs €500-600 per month over a lot more with a loan).

I hope this all makes sense, but any thoughts would be great.

Thanks,

C

National_Debtline

Hi Baileyborough,


Firstly, because you now live in Ireland you will likely need some local advice as the laws are different in the Republic of Ireland to Northern Ireland and the UK (however, there are some similarities between Northern Ireland and the UK).


If you are considering any form of refinancing (loans or 0% balance transfers on a card) it will be worth getting some financial advice. You are right that you will repay more overall (and that could be enhanced further because of the euro) and when you refinance as you will pay interest on top of interest, and is that worth it? The alternative, if you are struggling, is to only pay what you can afford if you cannot maintain everything. Reduced negotiations have a negative impact on your credit file and can obviously be chased as well (mainly through the county courts or with debt collectors).


I would suggest you post a SOA, which I appreciate is not the easiest thing to do when you have the conversion rate, but just use an average conversion and let other posters have a look. There may be more options to consider. Good luck,


Laura
@natdebtline