My debt co olidation story A Chase Saunders Case Study I owed 60k on four
My debt co olidation story
A Chase Saunders Case Study
I owed 60k on four loa and 11 cards, but paid it all off and am now debt-free. Here's how you can sort your debt problems.
An easy to follow plan could help many relieve the burden of debt and high interest payments.
Britain has become a country of debt addicts, with many people relying on credit just to make ends meet. According to the latest figures from the Bank of England, we owed over 1,000 billion to mortgage companies. Thus, thanks to increasing house prices, mortgage debt has grown by 450 billion in the past 5 years.
Over the same period of time, u ecured credit (personal loa , credit cards, store cards overdrafts etc) has grown from 132 billion to 192 billion. This mea that u ecured debt has increased by 1 billion a month since May 2001, and now amounts to almost 8,000 per house!
Personal debt is at an all-time high and it is no surprise that millio of borrowers are struggling to keep up with their monthly repayments. I know exactly how they feel, because I was in the same situation, when I found myself owing almost 60,000, thanks to four personal loa (including a debt co olidation loan !) and eleven credit cards, most of which were maxed out!
Here are a couple of ti to handle debts:
Tip 1 - Budgeting
The first a ect you must tackle is your household budget. Househould financial mismanagement is very often the main cause of debt problems.
The first thing that you should do is list all of your priority expe es. These are the e ential bills which you must pay every month.
These include:
Rent or mortgage (you need to keep a roof over your head)
Council Tax (non-payment could lead to imprisonment)
Utilities (gas, electric, telephone and water)
Food (you need to eat!)
TV Licence
Hire purchase (for example, car payments)
Child Su ort
Secured Loa (your home could be at risk for non payment)
Travel costs
Clothing
Fines, ccjs etc
Once all of these costs have been met you will be left with your di osable income. This is the amount you have to pay your creditors. If you dont have enough to pay your creditors this is a warning sign that things are getting out of hand.
Tip - 2: Prioritise debts
Almost everyone underestimates just how much money they owe. Your need to stop ignoring the problem hoping it will somehow magically disa ear. Get all of your statements etc together and make a list of all the debts.
Don't list the debts in order of the amount owed. What you need to do is list them from the highest interest rate to the lowest, because it's better to pay off your most expe ive debts first. Store cards are usually the highest, because most charge rates of at least 26% APR. At this point you should destroy your credit and store cards. With better budgeting you should no longer have to rely on them and doing so will only increase your level of debt.
After you have listed your income and expenditure, make an honest a e ment of your situation. If you dont have enough to pay the creditors or don't know where to begin, get profe ional help from a debt co olidation service, such as Chase Saunders. They will draw up a debt-management plan for you and will negotiate with your creditors on your behalf.
If you have a surplus of cash after all of your payments then you have several optio :
You could make the minimum monthly payments on your debts while allocating all of your are cash at your most expe ive debt (the highest interest) until it's gone. Then tackle the next most expe ive debt and so on, until all of the debts are paid in full. This is known as ' owballing', because the rate at which you repay your debts owballs as your debts reduce.
If you have any savings, use as much as you can are to pay off your most expe ive debts. After all, there's no point earning after-tax savings interest of 4% a year when you're paying 30% on your store card!
In order reduce your interest bill and save time, you could co olidate your existing debts with a low-rate debt co olidation loan (or tra fer to a 0% card but read the terms and conditio carefully because one late payment could void the low rate). However, you should only co ider this if you are certain you wont be tempted to use your cards again! Many people who take out co olidation loa go on to build up more debts again.
If none of these optio are open to you it may be worthwile co idering a more formal a roach such as an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA). This is legally binding contract that can have up to 75% of your debts written off and is a viable alternative to bankruptcy.
A Chase Saunders Case Study
I owed 60k on four loa and 11 cards, but paid it all off and am now debt-free. Here's how you can sort your debt problems.
An easy to follow plan could help many relieve the burden of debt and high interest payments.
Britain has become a country of debt addicts, with many people relying on credit just to make ends meet. According to the latest figures from the Bank of England, we owed over 1,000 billion to mortgage companies. Thus, thanks to increasing house prices, mortgage debt has grown by 450 billion in the past 5 years.
Over the same period of time, u ecured credit (personal loa , credit cards, store cards overdrafts etc) has grown from 132 billion to 192 billion. This mea that u ecured debt has increased by 1 billion a month since May 2001, and now amounts to almost 8,000 per house!
Personal debt is at an all-time high and it is no surprise that millio of borrowers are struggling to keep up with their monthly repayments. I know exactly how they feel, because I was in the same situation, when I found myself owing almost 60,000, thanks to four personal loa (including a debt co olidation loan !) and eleven credit cards, most of which were maxed out!
Here are a couple of ti to handle debts:
Tip 1 - Budgeting
The first a ect you must tackle is your household budget. Househould financial mismanagement is very often the main cause of debt problems.
The first thing that you should do is list all of your priority expe es. These are the e ential bills which you must pay every month.
These include:
Rent or mortgage (you need to keep a roof over your head)
Council Tax (non-payment could lead to imprisonment)
Utilities (gas, electric, telephone and water)
Food (you need to eat!)
TV Licence
Hire purchase (for example, car payments)
Child Su ort
Secured Loa (your home could be at risk for non payment)
Travel costs
Clothing
Fines, ccjs etc
Once all of these costs have been met you will be left with your di osable income. This is the amount you have to pay your creditors. If you dont have enough to pay your creditors this is a warning sign that things are getting out of hand.
Tip - 2: Prioritise debts
Almost everyone underestimates just how much money they owe. Your need to stop ignoring the problem hoping it will somehow magically disa ear. Get all of your statements etc together and make a list of all the debts.
Don't list the debts in order of the amount owed. What you need to do is list them from the highest interest rate to the lowest, because it's better to pay off your most expe ive debts first. Store cards are usually the highest, because most charge rates of at least 26% APR. At this point you should destroy your credit and store cards. With better budgeting you should no longer have to rely on them and doing so will only increase your level of debt.
After you have listed your income and expenditure, make an honest a e ment of your situation. If you dont have enough to pay the creditors or don't know where to begin, get profe ional help from a debt co olidation service, such as Chase Saunders. They will draw up a debt-management plan for you and will negotiate with your creditors on your behalf.
If you have a surplus of cash after all of your payments then you have several optio :
You could make the minimum monthly payments on your debts while allocating all of your are cash at your most expe ive debt (the highest interest) until it's gone. Then tackle the next most expe ive debt and so on, until all of the debts are paid in full. This is known as ' owballing', because the rate at which you repay your debts owballs as your debts reduce.
If you have any savings, use as much as you can are to pay off your most expe ive debts. After all, there's no point earning after-tax savings interest of 4% a year when you're paying 30% on your store card!
In order reduce your interest bill and save time, you could co olidate your existing debts with a low-rate debt co olidation loan (or tra fer to a 0% card but read the terms and conditio carefully because one late payment could void the low rate). However, you should only co ider this if you are certain you wont be tempted to use your cards again! Many people who take out co olidation loa go on to build up more debts again.
If none of these optio are open to you it may be worthwile co idering a more formal a roach such as an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA). This is legally binding contract that can have up to 75% of your debts written off and is a viable alternative to bankruptcy.
