I want to consolidate but can't!

zippygeorgeandben

You seem like someone who wants to tackle this debt (responding quickly to individual responses on here and not taking things personally) so let's help you sort it out.
Consolidation rarely works (check out my sticky thread which is on the loans where basically I wanted to consolidate) and in the long run you're turning already long term debts into even LONGER debts. Ask yourself, how long do you want to be in debt for?
I like your 'I can sort this' attitude though.

theoretica

Do you need life assurance? Many single people don't need this. Or is it actually income insurance?

Dobbibill

Hi Marc,

Welcome to the forum.

The only things that jump out to me on top of what others have said are
- car maintenance - a nail in a tyre could happen any time, start budgeting for it now.
- It looks like you are getting single person discount on the council tax, look at spreading that over 12 months to budget consistently every month
- as a home owner you need to have an emergency fund in place (although it will seem like money that can be thrown at your debts, if you don't you will revert back to credit to fund anything that crops up unexpectedly)

Good idea to use cash, also keep a spending diary - rarely a SOA is perfect the first time and it may need tweaking as things arise that you hadn't thought of.

You probably won't agree with me but the bank has done you a huge favour by not allowing you further lending - this forces you to look at your budget now rather than further down the line when you have fewer options.
Don't expect an overnight fix though, this will take some time but it's do-able. Don't forget, the debt didn't arise overnight and isn't going to disappear that quickly either.

All the best, I'm sure you can do this

[Deleted User]

mdbuk wrote: »

despite what CheckMyFile says, my credit rating must be crap all because of that one missed payment in November.

More likely is that you are overextended.

You have so much credit that, by your own admission you can barely service it, so lenders are unlikely to lend you even more.

[Deleted User]

mdbuk wrote: »

I should probably have said that my plan was to pay off the Barclaycard and then close it.

But the lenders don't know you will do that.

For all they know, you will run up the balance again, leaving you with more credit than you can service, leading to you defaulting.