Facing up to the problem

dancingfairy

Have you tried getting a 0% card and shifting the most expensive debts on there?
Also what about seeing if RBS will take the other debts and put them on your loan for you? You need to shave about £50 off you outgoings so you may find this works out better - plus more of your money will be going to repaying the capital rather than interest - but check it will lower your overall repayments enough - you don't want to make things worse.

To clarify the order I would try is:
1) 0% cards - to try and reduce monthly debt repayments if rejected try
2) RBS loan - phone up and see if you can get all debt repayments together and substantially cheaper than you are paying at the moment (at least £50 preferrably £70).
If these fail I would try CCCS and the DMP.

Personally I would try and protect my credit rating with options 1 or 2 above but obviously if things are getting worse and these are not enough then the CCCS would be a good port of call.

mantamark

They don't really earn enough to loan anything off them, i dont think i could go to them to ask for money.

Extra income would be nice, but i generally work away mon - fri, its a bit tough.

I guess thats where it helps me, we've been quite quiet at work so far this year, but as of next week, im away most weeks untill may.

Hope this will bump my wage up a bit.

mantamark

I did apply for a 0% card last week, but i have yet to hear from them, which i guess is a bad sign?

So basically try & get a new loan with RBS?

Think i need to try everything else before i try a DMP, major last resort.

thanks for the advice!

dancingfairy

You need to earn about an extra £70 a month I think to balance-I'm allowing for the loife insurance and birthday presents etc that you will need . What about ebaying/car booting/a saturday job in a shop or something? internet surveys? clicks? etc? any hobbies that you can make money from? teaching some skills/making stuff to sell etc?

ecoelle

I agree with you, try to minimise spending first, if you struggle still then look at earning extra only go for more radical options if you really need to, i don't think you're in as bad a situation as you think. If your main outgoings are around what £1100? you can get the extra by doing overtime, an extra job and also by paying off your debts in the right order, if you can get rid of one of the credit cars you'll be in a much better position to pay off the others. Don't do anything drastic just take your time and work through properly what you are spending, the spending diary was a good tip, try to only spend cash and keep the receipts so you know where it went when you fill in the diary

dancingfairy

Wait and see about the credit card- they will let you know one way or the other - well they should do. I think you really need to do a spending diary as you really need to allow in your budget for birthdays, the odd treat, haircuts, clothes etc otherwise you will fail if you do not have a realistic budget to stick to. You need to have a long term budget not something that will only work for a few months. Do not rush into anything.

ecoelle

Off to bed, hope we haven't bamboozled you too much, i've subscribed to your thread and will pop by soon
elle

lieutenant_dan

I think in the circumstances you'd be better off going bankrupt, if you owe more than your annual salary (and that's gross remember, net would be even less) and have no assets such as your own house/flat.

You may be swimming against the tide for years and years, but it will affect your girlfriend too so that would have to be a consideration, but seems the logical way in your circumstances and will save a lot of stress and allow you to start over again.

mantamark

Thanks so much for all the help!

i did get sick of paying 6-7 quid every few weeks to get my mop chopped, so i purchased some clippers, no guard every 2 weeks, bargain!

Will get a spending diary going, and try to cut down on anything i dont need.

Another bonus with working away, we get our meals paid for, which is nice!

In theory, i dont have to spend any money at all when im away!

thanks again, will get cracking tomorrow to try & find out the apr's.

dancingfairy

That's a bit drastic isn't it? I'm sure he can sort the problem out without going bankrupt. It is an option but there are so many options to try first. It is not that mega huge a debt and he may well start earning a lot more in the future.