Credit Card advice needed

brednall

!!! wrote: »

You're married right?

You should be supporting and helping each other out?

There should be no such things as "separate financials".

Is he aware of this debt?

I don't see this as helpful. We have always had separate financial situations. He knows I don't have much to spare each month.

[Deleted User]

brednall wrote: »

I don't see this as helpful. We have always had separate financial situations. He knows I don't have much to spare each month.

Does he?

Can he help give anything towards paying it down, as your husband?

brednall

I was looking for monetary advice, not marriage guidance.

[Deleted User]

OK - monetary advice:

Do you have a friend, relative, or perhaps even a partner who is aware of the debt and could also help pay it off for you?

eskbanker

brednall wrote: »

Mine and my husbands financials are separate and i need to concentrate on mine at the moment.

While I get your point that you feel they're separate, the fact remains that as well as the expenditure you list, there is also £7K of credit card debt in your name, which inflates your personal total debt to £17K plus whatever you owe on your car loan, versus what looks like a minimum wage income. I'm not saying that in a judgemental way but simply observing that this is how lenders will perceive your credit status, which will hinder your ability to secure better rates, as you've found.

So it's legitimate to ask if your husband is able to access credit in his own name, as this may ease the burden....

The other point to make about your SOA is that you've identified monthly expenditure of circa £130 less than your income, so theoretically you should have that surplus to throw at debt - is that realistic or have you missed stuff out?

Returning to your original question, the answer is yes, get whatever lower cost credit you can, in order to reduce the interest costs, but don't be seduced by attractive promo offers that would subsequently turn into higher interest rates than you're currently paying, unless you're confident of paying it off.

Apart from refinancing debt onto better rates, the only other options really are to earn more and/or to spend less, so if you're prepared to look at the overall household picture of income and expenditure then it may be viable for people to identify ways where savings are possible. This would be better discussed over on the debt-free wannabe board than this one!

brednall

eskbanker wrote: »

While I get your point that you feel they're separate, the fact remains that as well as the expenditure you list, there is also £7K of credit card debt in your name, which inflates your personal total debt to £17K plus whatever you owe on your car loan, versus what looks like a minimum wage income. I'm not saying that in a judgemental way but simply observing that this is how lenders will perceive your credit status, which will hinder your ability to secure better rates, as you've found.

So it's legitimate to ask if your husband is able to access credit in his own name, as this may ease the burden....

The other point to make about your SOA is that you've identified monthly expenditure of circa £130 less than your income, so theoretically you should have that surplus to throw at debt - is that realistic or have you missed stuff out?

Returning to your original question, the answer is yes, get whatever lower cost credit you can, in order to reduce the interest costs, but don't be seduced by attractive promo offers that would subsequently turn into higher interest rates that you're currently paying, unless you're confident of paying it off.

Apart from refinancing debt onto better rates, the only other options really are to earn more and/or to spend less, so if you're prepared to look at the overall household picture of income and expenditure then it may be viable for people to identify ways where savings are possible. This would be better discussed over on the debt-free wannabe board than this one!

As I explained there are always ad-hoc expenses where 2 children are concerned and these can't always be budgeted for hence the less disposable income. My job is not minimum wage but I work school hours each day so it is not full time

Andyjflet

So Barclaycard and Next are the biggest issues, Next interest is likely to be high. So how can you tackle the Barclaycard ?

In my opinion, if the interest rate is what 24% ? then could you look at consolidating for a £10k loan on a lower rate and clearing Next and Barclay card ?
This would cost you around £200 a month in repayments over 5 years if the APR was 5% ish.

The obviously close the Next account and close the Barclaycard.