increasing mortgage a bad idea?

Herringbone

removed, thanks for advice

Brie

So you have a company car?

TV licence is too low - unless thats actually netflix and you never watch live TV or iplayer?

Building and contents insurance??  £60 a year for the house and £120 for the contents?  I'd normally expect it to be the other way around - but maybe it's due to where you live.

£300 other child expenses....so a child somewhere that you are supporting but no provision for having a holiday with them as no holiday fund?  (there may be very good reasons for this - not actually trying to pry)   But if you don't actually have any dependents why do you have life insurance?  

Assuming though it's accurate and sustainable I would be chucking everything extra at the 19.9% card as that could be gone in about 15 months (£8000 less £600 a month).  And then that £600 could be thrown at the 18.9% card and so on.  This assumes of course that the rates won't go up (which they likely will). 

Meanwhile I'd be looking at any 0% balance transfer cards that might be available - more likely to get one of those than a big chunk on the mortgage.  Failing a 0% card perhaps just another card that you can put your current spending on so that you aren't paying interest on any purchases from day one.  But you'd need to ensure that was cleared in full every single month.  You're very likely able to get a low rating card at least which has a stupid rate but that wouldn't be an issue as it would always be paid in full.  And once you clear one of the better cards you could cancel the low rating one to reduce the amount of tempting available credit.  

Brie

I can see you have answered some of my comments....

Herringbone

removed, thanks for advice

Martico

Hi Herringbone,

Yes, it's that CC interest that I'd look to tackle. Assuming that you think you have a decent credit history and are responsible with your debt going forward, and think that you'll be accepted:

Read Martin's guide on balance transfer cards, and do the recommended soft search to see if you might be eligible for one.
Even if you're only able at first (quite possible) to get a limit of £2,000 on a balance transfer card, that's over £350 in interest payments over a year that you'll be saving from your most expensive card. 

An alternative which I also did was to get a card that allows 0% in interest payments for a term (18 months / two years are typical) for all spending. Then use that for daily spends, and immediately pay that amount from your current account to your most expensive CC. You're effectively steadily swapping interest-bearing debt for 0% debt. Keep up with the minimum payments for the new card, of course, and aim to clear that by the end of the 0% term, or it will start charging interest.

If you go down this route (please read the guides fully and be honest with yourself if it would be good for you and not lead to you just amassing more debt) then don't apply for too many too soon. One every three to six months only, as each application is flagged on your credit history.

It's a long slog, but it does get easier as you go along, as each time you're cutting the interest that you're charged. 

I'd aim to attack the card with the highest interest rate first, focus on that, and pay just above the minimum (by a pound or so) on all of the others.

Good luck! You appear to have some spare capacity to attack the debts, it just needs some discipline for what could be quite a while

SusieT

With that SOA  I would not be adding to the mortgage. Firstly I would fix a set monthly payment on the cards of £210 £270 and £280 so that the credit history will show more than minimum payments, easy to budget for, and that the little bit extra will nibble at the outstanding amount so reducing the interest by a tiny bit each month.
By having the credit history showing more than minimum payments on the cards you will be more likely to attract a 0% interest transfer card, then you can transfer as much of the highest interest to that card.
I would pay the £8k card first, throw all you can at that one plus anysavings you are able to make on groceries (do not use the cards ror Christmas presents for your child though!), then hit the next high interest one with what you were paying to that card. The loan will sort itself out in about 4 years so its the cards you need to get rid of.
Well done for getting the fix on the energy costs, that will help you get the cards down a lot before the end of the fix!

kimwp

You seem to be getting a really good handle on your finances to sort your debts with one exception... Saying that holidays are funded out of what's left. This money also needs to be understood/ managed.

Also (you don't need to share this) have you got a good understanding of why you are in this debt? Your SOA shows an excess of nearly £1500 a month, but that doesn't tally with large amounts of debt. It's really important to understand the "why" in order to have a good plan for how to get out of debt.