Need to sort my life out - massive changes ahead

Willing2Learn

Happy new year to the three of you!!

Well done on approaching your wife with the SOA. Hopefully you can work through this debt problem together, as a family.

Do you really have £1,148 surplus after your monthly budget categories and debt repayments are deducted from your income? Or is that money "going missing" each month?

midlander81

Congrats for tacking this and posting on here. My one piece of advice would be to not let this take over your life. You are doing the right thing by dealing with the debt but don't allow it to become all consuming.

tlc678910

Hi, if you feel that you are now committed to the fridge freezer because your wife has said you will buy it you could ask her to speak to her sister and give her £200 towards as a compromise. That way she could afford a small fridge freezer but if she wants a big fancy American style one she will have to pay the excess herself (the bigger fancier ones are probably very attractive when someone else is paying).

pickedliver

Last night I signed up to MSE credit club. I have seen a few people on here recommend it. It was useful to check my actual debt totals. There was a £700 difference compared to what I had calculated but I think that some of that is due to not all of the accounts being updated on the credit report.

My credit score is currently poor at 674. I looked at my summary and it seems that the only negative factors are my high debt balance and my high utilization. I hadn't realized that having a credit card balance over 15K was automatically a negative factor, even if payments are up to date. I have quite a way to go before I get below 15K. Apparently personal loans are viewed more positively. I wasn't aware of any of this so it's been a useful exercise.

I really need to get my credit worthiness and affordability improved so that I can qualify for new 0% offers when I need them!

Does anyone know how long it may take for me to achieve a 'fair' credit score.

Unicorn_cottage

I wouldn't get to wound up about your credit score. The best thing you can do now is get the amount you are down as quickly as possible. Have you looked into snowballing your debts i.e. paying off the highest aprs as a priority?

pickedliver

Unicorn_cottage wrote: »

I wouldn't get to wound up about your credit score. The best thing you can do now is get the amount you are down as quickly as possible. Have you looked into snowballing your debts i.e. paying off the highest aprs as a priority?

I am not too worried about the score. I know that it's all fabricated anyway. The affordability does concern me though as failing to get 0% deals will mean that I end up paying more in interest!