Need advice regarding what to do with my credit card debts
crazyhaggid
Forumite 156 Posts
My OH used to run a business with her friend, her friend sadly passed away about three years ago. My OH tried to keep the business running but it was very hard with just one person, so she ended up not making much money/a small loss each month. I had a credit card and I just used this when bills popped up like car repairs or a kid's birthday/Christmas. When it was near it's limited I opened another one up and did a balance transfer, with of course the intention to clear it when things got better. I repeated this until I ended up with three credit cards. Slowly we ended up using up all the available credit. I now owe ~£37,000 on the three cards. It was a vicious cycle where the more I paid towards the cards each month the less money I had per month so the more I had to use the credit cards just to get by.
We are now in a position where I pay ~£1,000 each month just to the credit cards, looking at my monthly budget once I've paid all my direct debit bills I am left with just over £100 to live on which is not enough for fuel to get me to work never mind food. I am just wondering what I can do now. About 20 years ago I was made redundant twice in a short period of time and ended up packing in working full time to go and study. Whilst I was working I had two credit cards, when I started my studies the Citizen's Advice advised me to default on the cards until I was working again. I did this, however one credit card didn't default but instead set up an arrangement to pay on my card. Three years later when I had finished my studies I got a decent job and I was able to clear both cards. However whilst the default dropped off after six years from the date of the default the arrangement to pay hounded my credit file for six years from the date of the last payment. Due to this I couldn't even get a mobile phone contract.
I need to do two things at the moment:
1. reduce what I am paying out each month
2. free or reduce the interest to let me actually clear some of the debt
I'm two years into a fixed five year mortgage and I'm not sure what I can do without destroying my credit rating, does anyone have any advice on a course of action?
We are now in a position where I pay ~£1,000 each month just to the credit cards, looking at my monthly budget once I've paid all my direct debit bills I am left with just over £100 to live on which is not enough for fuel to get me to work never mind food. I am just wondering what I can do now. About 20 years ago I was made redundant twice in a short period of time and ended up packing in working full time to go and study. Whilst I was working I had two credit cards, when I started my studies the Citizen's Advice advised me to default on the cards until I was working again. I did this, however one credit card didn't default but instead set up an arrangement to pay on my card. Three years later when I had finished my studies I got a decent job and I was able to clear both cards. However whilst the default dropped off after six years from the date of the default the arrangement to pay hounded my credit file for six years from the date of the last payment. Due to this I couldn't even get a mobile phone contract.
I need to do two things at the moment:
1. reduce what I am paying out each month
2. free or reduce the interest to let me actually clear some of the debt
I'm two years into a fixed five year mortgage and I'm not sure what I can do without destroying my credit rating, does anyone have any advice on a course of action?
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Statement of affairs, an essential first step : http://www.stoozing.com/soa.php
There will be a way to sort this out. People here will be happy to help as much as they can.
2023 £1 a day £54.26/365
5 of you and no haircuts?
Never pay to park the car when you are using over £400 on petrol each month?
We have two cars hence the high fuel costs, my commute is ~60 miles everyday. OH leases her car as she used to use it for her business, I've added this as a debt as it's got 11 months left on it. Once its finished we won't be leasing again, my own car is very old and has a low value.
Fuel costs still seem high even with a 60 mile daily commute. Is that £430 mostly generated by you?