Deb consolidation / secured loan advice sought

Bettycheese

My partner and I have debts totalling aorund £40k. 2 x credit cards at approx £10k each (one interest free, the other high interest) and 3 bank loans totalling approx £20k.  We are homeowners with a mortgage, and considering looking at a secured loan to consolidate debts over around 10-15 years, hopefully bringing our monthly repayments down significantly, and losing the credit card debt, some of which is interest free, but some is at a normal interest rate (unable to currently move this debt to an interest free card as it is my partners, and he has recently become self-employed).  We're currently looking in to talking to a financial advisor, and happy to pay for decent advice, but thought would try here for any thoughts/ideas. Should we consolidate all, or just deal with the credit cards? I don't think adding to our mortgage is possible as we recently got a new mortgage deal, and are at maximum ltv. Please don't repsond to criticise or judge how we got to this point, but if you have any useful advice would be great to hear form you. Thank you.

Penguin_

Anyone on here will tell you turning unsecured debt into secured debt is a no no. What you need to do is head on over to the Debt Free Wannabe board & https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/debt-free-wannabe post a statement of affairs link to which is here SOA Calculator (stoozing.com) then let people see your true financial situation.

[Deleted User]

Lenders see consolidation as a big no no as it doesn't address the problems that got you where you are and there is no guarantee you will use the money to pay off your debts so have to judge your affordability on the basis of loan + old debts, not just loan, hence they won't lend. Don't pay for an advisor to tell you that either. Reducing your monthly payments just pushes the problem down the road and causes you problems in the future.

DCFC79

All you need to do OP is follow the advice posted, don't pay for advice form a FA, all they will do is sell a product that's expensive and they win and you lose. Its possible you can chip at it but you need to be committed to do it so that means no unnecessary spends on credit cards, in fact only spend what you can afford.

Cut your spending, look at your bills etc.

Sncjw

You do relaise that you will be assessed on affording 80k. You need a really high wage for that.

Get yourself on the debt free wannabe page and post a soa

sourcrates

Consolidation can be a double edged sword, its unlikely you will get such a loan in the current climate, but that may be a blessing in disguise, as a lot of people who go down the consolidation route, some more than once, don`t change there bad financial habits, so they keep on making the same old mistakes, and tend to end up in a worse mess than they were in before.

As homeowners your choices for debt solutions are limited to either better budgeting, or if that won`t work, an IVA or debt management, dependant on your circumstances, may I suggest you pop over to the DFW board, and ask there about your available choices.

macman

Don't consolidate, don't pay for advice. Take the excellent advice given above and increase your income/cut your expenditure: that is the only solution.