Use pension to pay off debt?

Supermax44 · 6 August 2017 at 8:59AM

Hello,

My partner and I have accumulated a mixture of debt which is now a total of £17k. This is a mixture of credit cards, one store card and one loan. With the credit cards we have moved things around and are on interest free for them all. I also have another cc which I have used to set up my business which has a balance of £5k on it, interest free for another year.

We don't have any savings, my partner is paying into his work pension but thats about it. From my last job (prior to becoming self-employed) I had a works pension which is now sitting stagnating as we are not paying into it but it is accruing a small amount of interest. It currently has a balance of £17k! So you know what I am going to ask...do we cash that in, pay off the debts and then start a new joint private pension together??

I have no other pension pots so I would be starting from scratch and I am no spring chicken (43, partner is 37) so is it best just to keep paying off the debt and keeping the pension until I can start paying into it or do we cash it in and become debt free??

Would appreciate any constructive advice!!

Debtslayer · 6 August 2017 at 9:04AM

You are only 43 so can't cash in your pension.
Pensions cannot be touched until you're 55.

Your credit cards on 0% deals so focus on paying them off before the deal ends and getting rid of the debt that way.
How long do you have left on loan and what is the APR?
What is the APR on store card and how much do you owe?

You need to think how you accumulated so much debt and change your spending habits. Also you need to start saving in an emergency fund in case there's any problems need tackling or one of you is out of work