Don't know what to do

howmuchdebt?

Having read through a number of posts I think ours is a familiar story but that doesn't help me work out how to resolve it. Any advice would be really welcome.

We have a reasonable income, nice home, mortgage and in recent years have enjoyed our lives.... a little too much. Getting loans and credit cards has never been a problem (unfortunately) and now we have so much debt we don't have enough money coming in to cover the outgoings.

Our monthly income covers our mortgage, bills, loan repayments and the minimum payments on our credit cards but leaves us with nothing to live on - and I mean nothing. We've been stupidly juggling this situation for months adding to our credit cards which are now at the max. In total we owe £70k on loans and credit cards alone. We have 2 children and jobs which need us to put petrol in the car. I'm at my wits end, I can't sleep, I'm so worried about where we go from here that I can't concentrate at work and I really don't know what to do.

I thought about getting a huge loan to consolidate our debts but don't think we'll get one for that much and don't even know if that will resolve it.

Can anyone offer any advice?

RAS

Welcome

As a start, DFW generally reckons that consolidation loans are a mistake.

Until we know rather more about your situation, it would be inappropriate to comment further.

Until we know rather more about your situation, it would be inappropriate to comment further.

Here is the link explaining how to do an SOA http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/....html?t=107280. Post that up and people can tell you whether there is room for manouvre.

And this link is to the debt charities from whom you can get advice http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loa...elp-plan#help/

One option might be to do the debt remedy on-line of the CCCS web-site as that will give you a clue as to where you stand.

findingmyownway

First of all... welcome to the boards! You are in the very best place for advice and support in tackling this problem.

One of the first things you need to do is get a cup of tea, sit down and make a list of ALL your income an outgoings. There is a 'sticky' thread at the top of the DFW board which tells you more about this.

Good luck, no problem is too big to solve one way or the other. Please KEEP POSTING

x

hillbilly5

We were in a similar situation - 58k on cc's and loans (thankfully no mortgage and also no arrears on priority payments like rent etc.)
One of our creditors unexpectedly upped the minimum repayment and interest charges which meant that we could no longer manage.
Contacted cccs after hearing lots of positive stories on this forum and we are starting a dmp with them 1st march.
We shuld be debt free in 7 years!
The best thing was contacting someone who could help us. We are having to fend off calls from some creditors at the moment,but the relief of knowing that we are tackling the situation has been enourmous.
Best to put your soa on here as others will be able to help with where you can perhaps make some savings.
Best of luck.

affordmylife

Hello and welcome.

have you stopped spending now and are ready to face up to reality?

if you are post up an SOA and we will help you to sort it out.

good luck x

ms_london

Hi Howmuchdebt? - how are you?

You may be covering your repayments, which is great, but if it is leaving you nothing to live on, then you need to rejuggle what you are paying.

If you could post a SOA that would be a great help.

Once you have done that people may be able to help a bit more and give you some suggestions on how you can save money.

When you have all of the information in front of you, you need to sit down, work out what you need to live on, and then work out what you have left to pay towards your creditors. Then call each of them & ask them if they can either stop interest, reduce interest, balance transfer (if applicable) - explain you cant afford your current repayments and propose a new payment of $X each month - they may want to see a copy of your SOA. You may need to pro rata your payments between each creditor, i.e., pay the creditor with the highest interest rate the higher payment - think the snowball calculator on this site will do this for you.

This is a great site - helpful in so many ways!! Really helped me in getting rid of my 19,000 pounds debt thats for sure!

Let us know how you get on xx