yes, it is secured on my home, but even with the additional amount added to it, the bank only own 36% of the house - i.e the mortgage outstanding is only 36% of the house value. Feel so relieved now that I have sorted something out. Thanks again

thanks for the response. I have looked in depth at this, and if you read my other post will see that it is the only viable action for me. It will reduce my payments from 3K a month to £1300. Yes the debt is unsecured at the moment, but if I cant continue to pay it then they also have a right to make a charge on your property, so whichever way it needs to be paid. I have also reduced the risk of having to find 3K a month to finding 1300 by doing this, should the worse happen. I think the response you gave is quite scarey and could put people off doing things - there isnt a blanket case that suits all. In my case this is a very very good thing to do rather than a very very bad thing. I have not gone into this in a rash way, I've spent months looking into things and deciding. I am very unlikely to lose my house even if the worst happened. It is also not a secured loan I have taken out, it is an extension on my mortgage really. Basically I am borrowing money that is already mine anyway from the equity in my house to pay off debts that have crippling interest rates. How can that be a bad thing?

You may have seen my other post about my nightmare debt! Anyway today I have taken some advise from CCCS and also spoke to my mortgage company. I feel a bit better now! They have offered me a loan that is basically an extension of my mortgage - it is secured on the house, but am just adding to the mortgage, but I can do it for 5 years only, rather than the mortgage term. They've offered me a deal at 6.39% because unbelievably my credit rating was good, so I am going to put 70K onto the mortgage and pay it off over 5 years - we have done our calculations and it works out well for us. Now for the question and help I need from you guys.......when I get the money I will need to sort out what cards to pay. I was wondering if I could pay a settlement on any of them and if they would accept it. None of them are with DCA's and I have maintained the monthly payments, and do still have equity in the house, so they may well think I can afford to pay the full amount outstanding. But, because I have paid them horrendous amounts of interest of the years I wondered if there was any way of doing this - I have seen that people have done it before and settled for 70% of what they owe etc, but did they have to prove they were struggling to pay them? On paper I can afford it, but just want some back of what they have fleeced me! How would I go about asking for a settlement figure - do I tell them I am about to pay it off in full? And do I suggest a figure, or do I just pay the whole amounts? It has to be quick as if i write to them and await a reply it will be at least another month before it is sorted and I was hoping that I could call them and ask them and just pay it then if they gave me a settlement. I want to get these debts paid off within the next couple of weeks if possible and move on with my life after years of misery. Sorry again for the ramble, I just need some quick advise if any of you can help.

I am grateful for your advice, it is so much easier talking about it. My cards are on 30% plus apr on some of them, so if i got a secured loan at a 10% rate then it would still save me a huge amount of money I think. I have thought about the consequences of me missing a payment, and I think that if it ever came to it my partner could pay it for me rather than be at risk of our property having a charge against it. Are there any reasons i dont know about as to why i shouldnt take a secured loan - do you really think its such a bad idea with everything considered? What is the CCA about and what am I looking for when I request this from the companies? Sorry to sound dim, but I had never heard of this before visiting this forum! thanks again for all your help.

Hi surprise - sorry to hear you too were stuck in the circle I was. The problem is with mine is that I dont want to come to some agreement with them really because if I reduce my payments and/or freeze interest then it will still take me forever to pay it off and I just want it gone. My cards are with: Citi hsbc halifax cap one barclaycard marbles mbna m&s abbey I am sure that they are all done legally (although you may be able to tell me otherwise!) but I just want to pay them amicably if I can, and get them out of the way. I havent had any huge charges against me, just £12 here and there for late payment.

Thanks for response 42man. So sorry, I didnt make myself clear in my ramble - although i am in 100K of debt, I am taking out a loan for 70K to clear a big chunk of it - the rest of it we will carry on paying monthly as we can manage the payments on that and hopefully with the money we save by not paying the cards and interest each month, we can pay more off them and get them down at the same time.

Hi all I'm new to this forum and hope you can help me. I've been reading through some of the posts and it seems you are all a wonderful support and full of excellent information for people like myself. I am ashamed to say that I am in a huge amount of debt. It is all my own fault, and I am struggling through it. I cringe when I tell you that it is all because I had a really bad time for a few years, started by some depression etc, and then ended up with a gambling addiction. I used money from credit cards and am now in a huge amount of debt. I got help with the gambling, and the one thing I am proud about is that I have not gambled for over a year and have got out of the horrendous illness/addiction that it was. I know it was a bad thing to do, believe me, I regret it so much, but hope that you can help me a little rather than judge me for being the prat I know I was. I owe almost 100K to credit cards. I have spent the last year trying to pay them off and my plan was to keep doing this, however, I can only manage the minimum monthly payments and I am getting nowhere with making any progress towards clearing them. I have now decided to take on a secured loan - I know lots of people say not to do this, but having spoken to my partner, we think this is our best option - I am paying out almost 3K a month in payments to cards at the moment will an end date nowhere to be seen. However, if I got a secured loan then I can pay 1.5K for 5 years and not only save money each month, but also have an end date it sight. I jointly own our home, and there is equity in it to do this. I am very fortunate that I do actually earn enough to pay my cards each month at 3K but it leaves me with very little left to do anything else, which just makes me constantly stressed and worried about how I am going to manage, then I have to reply on my partners money, which in turn causes a huge strain on him. By taking out a loan it would reduce all this stress and be over within 5 years. Also, if the absolute worse happened and I couldnt work and lost my income for a couple of months, I would have to rely on my partner and it would be easier for my partner to find 1.5K to pay my loan, rather than 3K to pay my cards. I cannot go down the IVA route or DMP, because on paper, I can afford my debt - I also do want to pay it off - I take responsibility for it in because I spent the money and should pay the money back and am not looking for a way out of avoiding paying it, I do want to pay it but want to do it the easiest way possible. Also, when anyone looks at my income they see I can afford to pay it - its just that I want it over with and want to get out of debt a lot quicker than I will ever be if I just keep making minimum payments. I have got a bad credit record, due to late payments etc and am not sure where to go for this loan - do any of you know of any good companies? Also, in the meantime, I am in a bit of a mess and dont know how to handle my cards - I wont be able to pay them this month and a couple of them already have arrears that I have promised to pay off this month, and now i cant. I dont get paid if I dont work, and had a car accident that meant i couldnt work much last month, so this months wages are too low to pay them. What will they do if I am 2 months behind? Shall I contact them and tell them I am trying to sort out a loan, or what should I do? They are not with dca's at the moment, but I am sure that they will be soon if I dont keep them happy until I get my loan through. I could make a token payment to each of them, but it would be a tiny percentage of what they want as a minimum payment. Can anyone help me out of this mess I'm in - I am fighting and working so hard to sort this out but it really is a vicious circle - I work so hard to earn the income to pay it off, then have no money left all month - I dont sleep at night because i am so churned up over it, and just want an end to it all. Thanks for reading so far, I realise I have rambled!