Beany11:

I currently owe £37,000 out in loans and credit cards which all told means i pay around £1,000 to service the debt. Some are minimum payments and some are standing orders. I have a good job and whilst i have over £1500 a month coming in, with large bonuses of between £5,000 and £15,000 throughout the year. My problem is that i am relying on these and day to day the ongoing amount of £37,000 cripples me each month.

I still live at home, so i am unable to consolidate the money on a mortgage, and because it is more than £25,000 i don't think i can get ansecured loan either. I really want to reduce my monthly outgoing but cannot afford to enter into an IVA because my credit history needs to be clear for my job.

Is there anything I can do to help my situation?

Hi Beany11-

Can I just ask, how did you manage to build up that debt while living at home? It’s not a criticism, I am just wondering how much is built on cards versus loans.

The reason I ask is that if a majority of your debt is on cards you may wish to consider 2 options-

1. Try to find some 0% balance transfers to cut back on the interest payment on the cards, it’s great to hear you are keeping up the repayments each month, but if you have big balances the APR’s could be cancelling out what you are paying. I would suggest that if you can get a 0% card for a while make sure you OVERPAY each month to get the balance down, or you will be left in the same boat when the interest free period runs out.

Or

2. Try to find a loan to pay off the APR’s that are costing you the most and then get rid of them. If you commit to clearing some balances you may be able to consolidate a few cards. You may be paying a loan over 5-7 years but you will have a set rate of interest, and a set monthly repayment.

I Hope this helps,