Borrowing more on mortgage

Soldato
Joined
5 Mar 2010
Posts
12,347
Our monthly expenses are roughly as follows:

Loans: £550
Mortgage: £528
Car Loans: £280
Food: £250
Pensions: £170
Min Payment of Credit Cards: £150
Council Tax: £147
Furniture Finance: £140
Fuel: £140
Car Insurance: £86
Gas/Elec: £76
Flooring Finance: £70
Mobile Contracts: £62
Overdraft Fee's: £50
Internet: £39
Water: £35
Home Insurance: £15
TV Licence: £13

The sum of which is £2801, our joint income after tax is roughly £3226 therefore leaving us with £425. This isn't of course an exhaustive list either, we have pets to feed, then there's things like household items like cleaning products etc and this is taking into account my wife getting a £2k pay rise in September.

Insurances and gas/elec is the cheapest we could find, internet providers are limited as we have fibre to property, as much of the credit card debt is on 0% interest deals, our mobile contracts end in 6 months so we can get cheap sims then.

Before we bought our house, we didn't have any flooring or furniture finances, council tax was cheaper, we didn't have overdraft fee's, internet was cheaper, we were closer to work etc so we roughly had £800-£900 left with £4k savings back then and managed fine.

Some of those are eye-watering.

When you actually add up anything you have on finance, you're spending £1240! And that's excluding your mortgage!!!

How long do you have left on your flooring finance and car loans? It sounds like you both have a car, do you both actually need a car? As those are basically luxuries, you could practically save on £253/mth by getting rid of one of the cars and using public transport.

How far is it that you live from work?

Oh FWIW, i don't see you having a hope in hells chance of remortgaging with that finance stacked up, any responsible lender will see that you're clearly in a bit of a mess.
 
Caporegime
Joined
21 Jun 2006
Posts
38,372
A lot of not very useful information and a lot of belittling and berating the OP. Nice and helpful indeed...

people like this never learn if you hold their hand.

this is going off past experience. they need to be told straight.

a woman at work was in the same position as him. everyone used to sympathise with her and never gave her decent advice. i tried to once say maybe going for a brand new lease after your old car loan has just been paid off and the fact you moan about debt at least 3 times a day maybe isn't the best thing to do. she went in a huff.

they would rather keep their head in the sand.
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Oct 2009
Posts
9,224
Location
United Kingdom
I think sadly OP this is just a case of over exuberance of youth. Young graduates who have probably got a bit carried away with things. We all make mistakes and don't take what people here say too seriously...too easy to get on your high horse behind a computer. I don't see how its particularly helpful for anyone else to list their outgoings if you know what a reasonable ballpark figure should be??? You're obviously in a difficult position at the moment and certainly in a very precarious financial position so take heed of the warnings here.

I assume that your misses is up to speed with all the finances too? If not that'd be the first place to start. You mentioned clothes earlier in the thread and looking at expenses above if it were me I'd be reexamining my need to spending >£60 on mobiles, running 2 cars, overdraft fees in the first instance. Make sure you are on cheapest tariffs for elec/gas (looks fine) but also broadband (seems quite a lot). Cut down on luxuries a little and it will go a long way.

I'm no financial adviser but remortgaging will be unlikely in my opinion so early and I agree lenders will be certainly very interested in knowing all your outstanding debts.

You mentioned your Dad. Does he really know the extent of your financial situation...if not a solid heart to heart might be needed. Even to clear the most expensive unsecured debt and perhaps with an agreement of a standing order to pay him back monthly.

As for getting your misses knocked up...there's no right time to have a child and congrats.

Edit.

Didn't see student loans on there? lenders will want to know about those too.
 
Last edited:
Associate
OP
Joined
2 Oct 2004
Posts
1,048
75% of the loans and half of the credit card debt is down to our wedding & honeymoon, which to be honest, spiralled out of control and cost double what I was expecting.

The car loans is for both our cars bought 2nd hand at 3 years old, mine, a Mitsubishi Mirage and the wifes, a Nissan Juke, together they cost £12k, and we have 2 years left of the loan. I was thinking about selling mine and getting a banger, but I think at most I'd make £2k and I need a car to get to work. Wife works 35 mins away and I work 25 mins away, no real option to get public transport.

Our overdrafts are from our uni days, I had no financial help (dad not about, mum works at Asda) other than the student loans which didn't cover everything so had no choice, it's only recently that we've started to be charged for this.

As for the pets, it's only 3 cats, all rescued which we had long before the house.

Our phones, we had always done the thing of buying the phone outright with a cheap sim, we both did this and got a Nexus 4 for £200 with a £10 SIM and had them for years but it got to the point 18 months ago that they just didn't work and so we went for contracts.

Our car insurance for £86 is the cheapest we've ever had to be honest, we both had 4 years NCB before we went to uni but then lost them all, so we've only got 2 years NCB at the moment.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
2 Oct 2004
Posts
1,048
You mentioned your Dad. Does he really know the extent of your financial situation...if not a solid heart to heart might be needed. Even to clear the most expensive unsecured debt and perhaps with an agreement of a standing order to pay him back monthly.

As for getting your misses knocked up...there's no right time to have a child and congrats.


Didn't see student loans on there? lenders will want to know about those too.
e) but also broadband (seems quite a lot). Cut down on luxuries a little and it will go a long way.
.

I don't think we can approach her Dad for help, I'm sure he would but I really don't want to do this unless it's really dire and our house is going to get repossesed or something.

I don't pay of my student loan now it's 9% over £25k, my wife I think pays a small amount <£20.

The broadband is a bit awkward, we basically only have BT as a choice as we have fibre to property, sky, talktalk etc isn't an option and its 52MB.
 
Caporegime
Joined
21 Jun 2006
Posts
38,372
I think sadly OP this is just a case of over exuberance of youth. Young graduates who have probably got a bit carried away with things. We all make mistakes and don't take what people here say too seriously...too easy to get on your high horse behind a computer. Your obviously in a difficult position at the moment and certainly in a very precarious financial position so take heed of the warnings here.

I assume that your misses is up to speed with all the finances too? If not that'd be the first place to start. You mentioned clothes earlier in the thread and looking at expenses above if it were me I'd be reexamining my need to spending >£60 on mobiles, running 2 cars, overdraft fees in the first instance. Make sure you are on cheapest tariffs for elec/gas (looks fine) but also broadband (seems quite a lot). Cut down on luxuries a little and it will go a long way.

I'm no financial adviser but remortgaging will be unlikely in my opinion so early and I agree lenders will be certainly very interested in knowing all your outstanding debts.

You mentioned your Dad. Does he really know the extent of your financial situation...if not a solid heart to heart might be needed. Even to clear the most expensive unsecured debt and perhaps with an agreement of a standing order to pay him back monthly.

As for getting your misses knocked up...there's no right time to have a child and congrats.

Edit.

Didn't see student loans on there? lenders will want to know about those too.

i fear asking parents for help in this situation it will be a lose/lose situation for everyone involved.

it's avoiding responsibility for your own financial decisions. parents don't want to say no. but if i was the parent i'd be questioning his expenses rather than giving him money. he could take the money then see it as a gift or a loan he doesn't need to keep his side of the bargain on. i've seen this happen before. where the parent ends up out of pocket and not happy but they have no choice to bear it and it will stress the relationship.

put it this way if he comes up rocking to his dads house in a decent car, rocking a expensive smartphone asking for money it doesn't exactly look like he's tried to sort this out himself. i once had a dad pay his sons debt to me once. it was hilarious. i was like your son earns £60K (might have been £80K) a year why isn't he paying this himself. he told me that even though that may look like a lot of money to me he had just bought a house and his mortgage was HUGE. I could tell he was being taken for a ride.
 
Soldato
Joined
13 Feb 2012
Posts
5,775
people like this never learn if you hold their hand.

this is going off past experience. they need to be told straight.

a woman at work was in the same position as him. everyone used to sympathise with her and never gave her decent advice. i tried to once say maybe going for a brand new lease after your old car loan has just been paid off and the fact you moan about debt at least 3 times a day maybe isn't the best thing to do. she went in a huff.

they would rather keep their head in the sand.

Yes but read your post back and half of it is boasting about how awesome you (think you) are, and theres a big difference between being helpful and just being a ****.

Yes the OP has a lot of debts, yes some of them aren't the smartest but realistically he's asking can he do something by remortgaging to get in to a better position. Unfortunately it looks very unlikely right now, and even the marginal cost savings you have suggested wont help even closely enough.

While I also disagree with the option of asking for family help, this may also be the only currently available solution to the problem.

@BYTEr please give us 1 figure that is the total sum of your credit card debt, loans, car loans, flooring finance, and overdraft total. This is the sum of everything you realistically need to consolidate.
 
Caporegime
Joined
21 Jun 2006
Posts
38,372
75% of the loans and half of the credit card debt is down to our wedding & honeymoon, which to be honest, spiralled out of control and cost double what I was expecting.

The car loans is for both our cars bought 2nd hand at 3 years old, mine, a Mitsubishi Mirage and the wifes, a Nissan Juke, together they cost £12k, and we have 2 years left of the loan. I was thinking about selling mine and getting a banger, but I think at most I'd make £2k and I need a car to get to work. Wife works 35 mins away and I work 25 mins away, no real option to get public transport.

Our overdrafts are from our uni days, I had no financial help (dad not about, mum works at Asda) other than the student loans which didn't cover everything so had no choice, it's only recently that we've started to be charged for this.

As for the pets, it's only 3 cats, all rescued which we had long before the house.

Our phones, we had always done the thing of buying the phone outright with a cheap sim, we both did this and got a Nexus 4 for £200 with a £10 SIM and had them for years but it got to the point 18 months ago that they just didn't work and so we went for contracts.

Our car insurance for £86 is the cheapest we've ever had to be honest, we both had 4 years NCB before we went to uni but then lost them all, so we've only got 2 years NCB at the moment.

your cars are nothing special so i can only assume you took out finance with the dealer at a high interest rate.

the interest on ours is only 2.9% again it was a poor decision made. do you never look at interest rates?

same goes for the phones. when the nexus 4 stopped working why didn't you buy a phone for £100-£200 instead of £35 a month? (rhetorical question as I know the answer).

can you both not use 1 car for both journeys? as in 1 person drops the other off either at work or at a train station or bus stop along the way? or do you both work literally in opposite directions? ever thought of moving closer to work? for one of you anyway.

what would you do if both your cars ended up in the garage in the same week? this happened to us. steering failed on the bmw and clutch went on the mini (which messed up the flywheel too) we had before we bought the lexus. we had 2 massive bills too obviously for both. if this happened to you how would you pay for repairs on 2 cars? credit cards i'm assuming?

how are you going to manage when on mat leave? you know your household income is going to drop right? you seriously want to keep 3 cats and lose your home?

he's done for IMO. he needs to start selling stuff and getting rid of the phones and any contracts he has.

also £40 for just BT broadband is too high. should be £25 a month.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
2 Oct 2004
Posts
1,048
Car loans are 5.7% I think, didn't use the dealer finance.

Couldn't do as before and buy a phone for £200, we would if we could but didn't have that as disposable at the time.

No, 1 car wouldn't work, opposite directions.

If an unexpected repair bill like a cluth went then yes, we'd have no choice but to use a credit card, I've admitted that we are extremely vulnerable to these things, hence why I was wondering about borrowing more to pay some of out debts off.

How are we going to manage on MAT leave? Good question, my wife receives basically full pay for 6 months, then 50% for 3 months.

Couldn't get broadband for £25, we are in a fibre to property area, we don't have sky, talktalk available etc.
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Oct 2009
Posts
9,224
Location
United Kingdom
i fear asking parents for help in this situation it will be a lose/lose situation for everyone involved.

While I also disagree with the option of asking for family help, this may also be the only currently available solution to the problem.

Agree, perhaps a last resort but certainly an option to consider even for clearing x amount of the highest interest borrowing. I've personally found myself in difficulties before and I didn't approach my folks until very late. I know it'll be seen as weakness and failure etc esp on these forums but it is an option that shouldn't just be dismissed outright as long as you're demonstrating to them full commitment to cutting back elsewhere.

There's not a quick easy fix OP and it's alright saying you had the cat before and you need two cars, new mobile etc but realistically you need to cut back quite significantly if you don't want **** hitting the fan come mat leave time!

Yes but read your post back and half of it is boasting about how awesome you (think you) are, and theres a big difference between being helpful and just being a ****.

It did come across like this but a reality check also wouldn't go a miss. As for comparing your rate of borrowing to his, bit pointless not knowing his credit rating etc. Sure the rates are high but that might have been the only thing on offer, not that it was a sensible idea!
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
4 May 2007
Posts
9,377
Location
West Midlands
The OPS post of loans etc didn't seem too bad if it's for one offs (furniture, wedding etc). Just pay it all down as fast and as low APR as possible (e.g. Offset to mortgage if available /doesn't bring you into a higher LTV band)

OP has obviously recognised that he will curb spending and none of the items seem particularly high. Luckily as a new graduate I imagine OPs wages will be in line to rise in future too.

The problem with posting your earnings on here is you will get the high horse crowd immediately looking down on you.

How long to pay respective loans off and any at a particularly high APR%?

Edit: also OP you can get sky/talk talk etc on a bt landline. I don't think nitpicking minor purchases like these is going to make a massive deal mind you, posters like Psycho Sonny are just belligerent that their way is the correct way.
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
3 May 2012
Posts
8,639
Location
Wetherspoons
You should go and see a financial advisor.

Some of the advice here is absolutely terrible.

All the people saying not to put it on your mortgage, you may well be better off in the short, and long run by doing it, provided, going forward you can be more responsible with your finances and understand that it isn't a get out of debt free card to play every 2/3 years.

The money you can save in the short term will mean that when things like a new clutch etc come around, you can afford it without taking further credit, thus breaking the cycle of debt.
 
Soldato
Joined
13 Feb 2012
Posts
5,775
You should go and see a financial advisor.

Some of the advice here is absolutely terrible.

All the people saying not to put it on your mortgage, you may well be better off in the short, and long run by doing it, provided, going forward you can be more responsible with your finances and understand that it isn't a get out of debt free card to play every 2/3 years.

The money you can save in the short term will mean that when things like a new clutch etc come around, you can afford it without taking further credit, thus breaking the cycle of debt.

Just running the numbers in a very basic way, it is extremely unlikely the OP can get close to enough money through additional borrowing on his mortgage to pay off the debt, which means it isn't even an option.

However the OP needs to provide more information before this can be made clear.

If the OP was in a situation to consolidate all their debt on to the mortgage then yes it would be a sensible suggestion, with a heavy caveat on being a lot more responsible and committing to overpaying the mortgage as well.
 
Soldato
Joined
5 Mar 2010
Posts
12,347
No, 1 car wouldn't work, opposite directions.

If things got really bad, then you'd have to make do with 1 car, even if meant dropping your wife off at work before driving to yourself to your work (whichever way round works easiest). Yes, it's certainly not going to be convenient, and may mean that you're at work an hour before you need to be, or may have to hang around for an hour after you finish for your wife to pick you up. But bottom line is that it is certainly possible, and would be a way of drastically reducing some expenses. The problem is you're paying for this convenience/luxury, rather than using that to pay off some loans.

From everything you've described, it sounds more like a ride it out storm. You've got a few loans/finance agreements ending in a year or two, so that should free up some much needed cash.

I think you're both just going to have to be extra scrupulous when it comes to buying things, for example, i'm sure you could reign in your food bill an extra £50 a month, that equates to £600 a year.

You've not mentioned any hobbies or habbits, do you or your wife drink/smoke? (i'd hope she wasn't smoking if preggers :)). Cutting out any booze from your shopping trolley will reduce your costs, even if it means going sober for many many months - would benefit your health though.

Not sure what else to add to this thread, it sounds like you both were a bit naive with credit, and are only just realising the consequences now. Some people would say that despite all those loans, you're still lucky to have some money left over at the end of the month. I think it's just going to have to be a case of riding it out.
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Mar 2004
Posts
15,779
Location
Fareham
Our monthly expenses are roughly as follows:
Loans: £550
Mortgage: £528
Car Loans: £280
Food: £250
Pensions: £170
Min Payment of Credit Cards: £150
Council Tax: £147
Furniture Finance: £140
Fuel: £140
Car Insurance: £86
Gas/Elec: £76
Flooring Finance: £70
Mobile Contracts: £62
Overdraft Fee's: £50
Internet: £39
Water: £35
Home Insurance: £15
TV Licence: £13

The sum of which is £2801, our joint income after tax is roughly £3226 therefore leaving us with £425. This isn't of course an exhaustive list either, we have pets to feed, then there's things like household items like cleaning products etc and this is taking into account my wife getting a £2k pay rise in September.

Insurances and gas/elec is the cheapest we could find, internet providers are limited as we have fibre to property, as much of the credit card debt is on 0% interest deals, our mobile contracts end in 6 months so we can get cheap sims then.
Before we bought our house, we didn't have any flooring or furniture finances, council tax was cheaper, we didn't have overdraft fee's, internet was cheaper, we were closer to work etc so we roughly had £800-£900 left with £4k savings back then and managed fine.

From this and reading the other replies, it sounds like you need both cars for now. Once paid off I would not rush out to change them for a bit, instead enjoy the lack of having to pay for them monthly.

Your mortgage, home insurance, gas/elec, water bills and council tax seem very reasonable as a % of your take home pay, but your debt/loan repayments are very punishing.

For your pensions, is any of this voluntary contribution beyond the statutory minimum? Can you lower how much you pay into the pensions without completely removing employer contributions?

Your car insurance sounds a little expensive, at renewal have a better shop about. It's probably made a bit more expensive as you are paying monthly, and quite often bills are simply lower by paying upfront.

You should aim to get into a position down the line where you can afford to pay for car insurance, car tax, and home insurance in one go. You haven't mentioned it but also check your car breakdown cover costs as well and renew those elsewhere if unfavourable at renewal time.

For mobiles drop back down to sim only deals as soon as realistically possible.

You need to sort out that overdraft asap, it's just eating into your ability to pay back your other debts and not really giving you anything positive. Your bank account should always have some kind of a positive balance.

Internet is a little on the expensive side, you cite options etc, but I've usually had some degree of success in negotiating a better price with BT, especially if going to an 18 or 24 month long contract.

Can you drop the TVL and live without it for a bit? Paying for Netflix or something instead would be cheaper, especially if you have a family member you can piggy back off of that doesn't mind sharing it.

You should definitely consolidate your loans somehow. Borrowing more on the mortgage is great in theory but I don't think they would let you given your finances, however I assume there is no harm in asking your lender.

Applying for lots of credit can look bad, but have you considered taking out a 5 year personal loan to clear a reasonable degree of your other debts? this will cost you interest but should be less punishing monthly, but you can use it to tighten belts for a bit and get back on track to making your debts manageable.

I'd consider the family thing instead of a personal loan, but definitely on the basis of paying it back. I've done it previously with my own parents but they know I am good at paying it down, and I never ask for money unless I need it.

I am a little concerned about the maternity thing and how much income you provide on top of your wife's. It sounds like she has the better paying job with more job stability, as such I would probably plan around her actually going back to work and you spending time at home looking after the kids.
 
Soldato
Joined
15 May 2007
Posts
12,804
Location
Ipswich / Bodham
I don't think we can approach her Dad for help, I'm sure he would but I really don't want to do this unless it's really dire and our house is going to get repossesed or something.

It IS already dire, sorry. The huge positive is that you know that you have to do something about it, the negative is that your options for getting out of it are incredibly limited, you don't have good financial discipline and you're about to receive a hit to your income and your costs are going to rise further once the baby is born. You were in no position to buy and furnish a house, and it is crippling you. Get some help before it becomes an emergency, please.
 
Soldato
Joined
16 Jun 2005
Posts
24,029
Location
In the middle
Might be 'swallow your pride' time and get a part time job for a few months to clear some debt. Even a few shifts at a Mcdonalds a week would clear that CC in no time at all.
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Jun 2011
Posts
5,468
Location
Yorkshire and proud of it!
Might be 'swallow your pride' time and get a part time job for a few months to clear some debt. Even a few shifts at a Mcdonalds a week would clear that CC in no time at all.

This is good advice! A few months of one or both of you doing a side job to make some extra can tip the balance and get you out of some of this. It could clear your overdraft and maybe your credit card debt too. It's not about covering everything, it's about changing your situation from just managing to paying off.

Also, maybe look at those phone charges. I realised not long ago I was barely using the data and minutes with my provider and swapped to Vodafone PAYG. I get a £10 bundle once a month and that's it. 98% of my phone communications is by txt or app and txts are cheap as chips. And there's usually WiFi around for me to use so my data usage is minimal. Might be a bit before you can get out of contract, though?
 
Back
Top Bottom