Thanks everyone for your replies so far, its been a good help and I have started an account with Step Change to see what help is available to me.
I just want to add that things spiraled out of control around 12 years ago.
I had just got out working full time, I had a credit card and a small loan of 2k, a laptop on HP and a small amount of debt on a clothing account, I had maybe 4k worth of debt, then the bank rang me one day, saying they needed to see me, and didn't say why.
So organized a time to go in, being young and naïve, I said yes to everything, and was given a brand new credit card, a new 5k loan (iirc) which gave me extra to keep back, then a packaged bank account, nothing I had asked for, but not knowing any better, I accepted it all, then that's when things started going pear shaped.
Years later after I saw the mis sold package bank accounts, I was able to get a sizeable refund from the bank.
@Jasoncmor You say 18k over all accounts, is this all credit cards or is this broken down into different debt obligations? Are you able to provide a rough breakdown of what the debts made up of?
The debt is spread over 3 credit cards, and a loan, the loan of around 9.5k, and the credit cards adding up to over 8k aswell.
The loan was to help with college costs and paying off other debt, the credit cards started at 1 card, then I got a 0% card, transferred the existing cards credit across to try and manage it, then things got out of hand, so I found another 0% card and its just built up again.
While I have been foolish, most of the debt has been from paying for things I needed, and playing catch up, but also the debt has amounted to what it has due to the interest, i've moved things around regularly to try and help myself out, but its never gone as intended.
I know in the past i've made mistakes, but my biggest problem is i've never been able to save anything up for the things that I need, for example, car insurance comes around, then next month I may need car repairs / service, then dental care, then something else comes along, so I've been playing catchup for many years.
Have recently helped a friend of mine through this and took some pretty simple steps which seem to be helping him massively.
Step change is of course a great suggestion and for sure should be done but there are things you can do today to start changing things for the better.
1: Create a Incomings / Outgoings spreadsheet. You dont need any fancy tools just use Google sheets, commit to memory your total outgoings
2: Itemise and scrutinise your outgoings from your bank statements, highlight anything with a marker that did not have to be spent (eg subscriptions, insruances etc) and cancel them.
3: Seperate your monthly bills money from your free money by using seperate bank accounts. 1 for bills, 1 for spending.
4: Before going food shopping make a list of what you need and stick to it, dont buy things ad-hoc or on a whim.
5: If any hobbies you have are particularly expensive to participate in either reduce or change. eg my friend enjoys dirt bikes and every weekend was off somewhere new to ride them. When we added up his fuel bill alone it was nearly £600 p/m. He only commutes 18 miles a day so the rest was mileage for his hobby.
This is something I want to work towards soon, budgeting and planning my finances.
For quite a while now, I have been making spreadsheets of exactly what I've been spending money on at the end of each month.
Are you already in defaults on your debts and reported as such on credit files - if so, no harm in going for a DRO (Debt Relief Order) - assuming you have no house, a car worth less than £2k and less than £75 after non credit bills leftover a month. Debts are frozen for 12 months and assuming your circumstances don't improve, all debt written off after 12 months.
Also get onto the debt section of MoneySavingExpert forums, has a lot of posters that work for the debt charities on there, they were a gold mine of help during my bankruptcy in 2007.
All debts are paid on time, I have no defaults or anything, I've always done what I need to do to make sure I make the payments on time.
And thanks for the recommendation on MSE, I will check it out!
I would try and get a 0% Interest credit card first. There are loads of 34 month ones that should give you time to actually make a dent in the debt as you won't be paying just the Interest. Once it comes to the end of the 34 months just get another 0% and transfer any of the unpaid debt over and do another 34 months until it's paid off.
Currently got 2 0% cards, one virgin and the 0% rate ended last year, my 2nd one I think it has a few months left on the offer.
This is what I was going to suggest. Transfer credit card debt to an interest free card and use the grace period to pay down or pay off the debt. Do it piece by piece and to make it manageable, set targets and goals and work to them.
Due to my credit score, im not able to get any more cards at the moment.
I have a low score due to the amount of credit I have.
Are you struggling to meet the payments, or just want to try and clear it down quicker? Unless you're struggling, it's probably better in the long term to pay it off rather than enter into an IVA or debt management plan, as this can stay on your credit file for up to 6 years
I'm able to meet the payments month on month, but I dont earn enough to save any money, or to pay any extra, i'm living pay check to pay check because I cant escape.
Thanks again all
