50k debt

[MiniChoc]

I'm desperate to be debt free but it seems like a million miles away at the moment.

We're 48k in debt. Don't own a house. Can't even tell you how we came to it really other than a set of stupid mistakes and an expensive wedding

We're using the snowball method so minimum payments on all the credit cards and then throwing everything extra at the one with the highest interest. We have about £1000 a month to throw at it right now. Which means I'm looking at 4 years of living like this to finally get debt free

I swear when it happens I'll never, ever get anything on credit ever again. I can't believe we've been so stupid.

Is the debt in both your names
If it’s just in your name or some of it’s in your name consider you going bankrupt depending on the amount
My DH did this years ago and he is debt free owns several properties now perfect credit rating
His ex wife was still paying of debt from back then even after my DH was out the other side of bankruptcy and building up a new credit history
May not be as simple to do now but it’s worth thinking about

Well done on tackling your debt. You are doing the snowballing right - you overpay on the debt with the highest APR (the percentage interest charge).

It's worth looking at your bank statements as it is possible that the overdrafts are even more expensive than the credit cards. It depends on the bank but you'd be surprised at how expensive overdrafts can be. If they are the same as the cards, then I'd go for overpaying the overdraft first as it's your smallest debt so you get that psychological boost when it's gone.

The other thing I would do in the hope of being able to switch to a 0% card in a couple of years is to just pay £5 per month over the minimum payment on the other non snowball cards as only paying the minimum can be one reason why it's harder to switch the debt.

Stepchange are brilliant but I'm not sure if a debt management plan would affect your DH's job in finance. They'll be able to advise you and their budget planner can be used on a standalone basis. Good luck!