Hello & some advice please

GFN123

Hello all

I'm not really sure where to start, I hope this board is the best place, & please excuse me if I end up waffling or this gets long!

I would really appreciate some advice on my situation & the best way forward. It is much harder than I thought to hold my hand up & try & think of a way forwards, although my debts & situation are certainly not as bad as some, I would still love some practical, clear-headed guidance on what to do next.

I'm not sure what folk would need to know before they can offer advice? My circumstances are that my outgoings exceed my income by around £600 a month. I have credit card debt (£4,500 - at 0% interest but min monthly payments are still high on that) & am paying £100 pcm by direct debit to an ex partner (total owed to him £2,000, paid off £400 so far). Both my current accounts are overdrawn (one by £3000, the other by £600, thus I am paying interest on these). I have a mortgage, interest only, & obviously all the usual bills to pay. I don't have any savings.
I obviously need to reduce my outgoings drastically, & my single biggest expense after mortgage & bills is paying off my debts.
I will happily take on board any suggestions for cutting my spending down, but what has partly pushed it & my debts up is a whole assortment of unexpected large bills - car problems, boiler breakdown, blocked drains etc etc, seemingly unendingly over the last 18 months (& yes, hands up, overspending on top of this). So I need to get back on track.

The quickest way I can see to reduce my outgoings would be to consolidate my debts with an unsecured loan, but would I be stupid to do this when I have a 0% credit card deal still running? I plan to sell my house this year, & have enough equity to pay off all my debts at that time, but right now I am struggling. If I took out a loan it should cut in half what I spend servicing my debts, & then I would still need to reduce spending in other areas, which I accept, but I could pay it off in full when I (hopefully) sell the house.

I fully accept any kicks-up-butt which may be needed, as I'm not sure I am seeing the situation all that clearly & am just looking for a way out, ideally as quickly & painlessly (!!) as possible.

I'm happy to be totally frank if any further information is needed, I would just be very grateful if anyone has any advice they can offer or can see things from a different perspective that may help.

With thanks in advance,
G

fermi

Hi.

I'm not the best at sorting these things out, but others here are.

They will want you to post an SOA so the can get a better idea how to help and where to focus.

There is a link to instructions for doing an SOA in the sticky on the first page of the board:

Sticky: Debt-Free Wannabee Newbies Guide: Challenges, Honour Roll, Nerds & Where to start!

The other links in the sticky are worth reading.

Or you can straight to the instructions here:

Link: Help for First Time Posters

maddysaver

Hi and welcome - I agree with Fermi... but one small thing that jumped out at me in your post apart from the obvious that on the whole it's not a good idea to consolidate unsecured debts into secured.. if you did go down that route please check the small print.. we considered that course of action a while back and noticed that many penalise you for paying back early...or don't allow it at all on secured loans.

GFN123

Thanks for your replies. Sorry, should have read the 'First Time Posters' info first, doh!

OK, my SOA is as follows:

Monthly income:

Salary: £1313.64
Rent from lodger: £350

Total: £1663.64

Outgoings:

Mortgage: £597
Council tax: £92
Water: £29.49
Phone (line rental) : £12.00
Phone calls (average): £10
Gas & electricity: £40 (lodger pays half which I've taken into account)
Broadband: £25
Home insurance £28.69
Car insurance £30
Car tax: £15
Service & MOT (divided into monthly): £40
House repairs (average): £50
TV licence £10
Food: £150
Petrol: £160
Cigarettes: £60
Mobile phone: £15
Contact lenses: £13
Min payment credit card: £140
Payment to ex: £100

Total £1617.18

Debts:

Capital One credit card: £4456.84 - 0% till May 2008

Overdraft 1: £2739.36 (limit £2500) - 14.64%

Overdraft 2: £546.00 (limit £1000) - 10.8%

Debt to ex: £1600 - no interest!

Phew, I think that is everything!

tara66_2

Hi,

Well done on posting, I am not really experienced enough to comment but thought I'd bump your thread up a bit.

Is the food for one person you might want to try to trim that down, there is an OS forum with lots of practical tips for cleaning/cooking from scratch on a budget. Also your petrol is pretty high, is this for work? Any way you could cut this down.

It might be worth you posting the minimum payments on your cards so people can have a look.Do you know what the APR will be on your 0% card at the end of the 0% period? I know this is probably a bit tricky but could you ask your ex to accept a bit less per month for a while?
Sorry for all the questions, good luck
Tara

GFN123

Thanks for your reply Tara

I definitely need to cut my food bill down, I will have a look at the forum you suggested for that.
I can't do much about the petrol as I have to drive to work (need my car for work) & I also visit my boyfriend at least once a week (60 mile round trip).
The minimum payment on the credit card is about £140 a month (have edited original post to include this) , I'm hoping to switch to another 0% deal in May, but going over my overdraft limit continually is probably affecting my credit rating.
I can't change the amount I pay to my ex. Because I am in debt we agreed on £100 pm, but he is on a low salary & needs it almost more than I do, & I wouldn't want to put him in an even worse situation.

Thanks again for your input. Any other suggestions would be more than welcome too.

G