One of the most depressing aspects of being in a considerable amount of personal debt is the percentage of your monthly income that is spent attempting to service all of these debts.
During the early part of the ‘naughties’ credit was widely available and priced considerably less than in the early 1990’s (and indeed today!) which resulted in many of us taking out more than we could reasonably afford.
What started out as repaying a couple of hundred pounds on an interest-free credit card taken out a couple of years ago, can quite easily extend to a hire-purchase repayment for the car, a bank loan for the new conservatory, the sofa and kitchen on interest-free credit plus an additional credit card that you took out for that holiday!
Before you know it the small debt portfolio or molehill that you thought you had accumulated looks more and more like a debt mountain with each passing day!
Monthly finances start to become quite tight and you find that the majority of your income is spent repaying debts and paying the mortgage or rent. This is without an unforeseen change in circumstances such as loss of job or illness etc.
So, as it’s a new year, you did the sensible thing and sat down with a pen and piece of paper to work out exactly what you owed and whom you owed it to. The shopping list of debt looked something like this:
- Hire purchase for the Ford Mondeo – £12k over 5 years
- Bank loan for conservatory – £10k over 7 years
- Interest-free Sofa – £1500 over 3 years
- Interest-free kitchen – £6k over 4 years
- 2 x credit cards – Balance £9k
Then comes the maths… so, twelve plus ten add the six, oh and the nine and the little bit for the sofa and oh my goodness I owe almost forty thousand!! No wonder I feel like the majority of my monthly income is being spent on repaying debt! It really can be that easy. Next you sat down and worked out how much you were repaying each month:
- Car payment – £245
- Bank Loan – £150
- Sofa – £42
- Kitchen – £125
- Credit card minimum payments – £265
which totals a whopping £827 per month! By the time you’ve added a mortgage payment of £800 and the monthly utility bills of £400 and you have spent almost all of your household’s total income of £2,200 – a not untypical figure for Britain in 2011.
With food, petrol, insurance, clothes and household essentials still to be paid out of the £200 remaining, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that things are going to be tight and that’s well before the luxuries of Sky TV and a summer holiday are thrown into the mix.
If all this is starting to get you down then don’t worry. One free call to Lewis Alexander on 0800 018 6868 could be the start of your road to financial recovery. Through our trained debt management online specialists, your enquiry and call is treated in the strictest of confidence and they will listen to your personal circumstances before starting to work on debt management solutions to help you.
Unlike other debt specialists we won’t look to force you down a certain route, but will instead explain the options that are available to your personal circumstance – allowing you to choose the debt solution that suits you best.
We are specialists in working with creditors to find debt solutions for our clients and will work hard to ensure that you are treated fairly. All we ask in return is that you do have a regular monthly income coupled with some will power to stick to an arrangement.
Our free phone number from a land line is 0800 018 6868 and our trained advisors are used to speaking to clients who are experiencing personal debt problems who need debt advice UK. We know that this can be a stressful time, particularly if large percentages of your income are being used to repay debts.
At Lewis Alexander we are committed to finding the best debt solution for you, so give us a call today using free phone 0800 018 6868
- Your financial past does not have to be your financial future!
