Hi Hufflepuff,
Thanks for posting those details.
Depending on your credit history to date there might be better deals than 6.8% available to you at the moment. There also might be lenders that would go to 90% or more (another £8500 of unsecured debts cleared if that's the case). You'd need to balance that against the risks of securing the debt.
Some people also consider a period of interest only mortgage to be able to pay off more unsecured debt (typically mortgage debt is cheaper than unsecured debt so this can make overall good sense). Another option is having part of the mortgage on a repayment basis and part on interest-only to match the mortgage cost to your other needs. The key-point with interest only though is that you will have to think through your long-term plan to clear the mortgage balance at some point in the future.
You might be able to negotiate reduced payments of around 1% of the remaining unsecured balances per month with the creditors. If you are uncomfortable with trying this yourself a debt management company could help. By way of example with £30000 of unsecured debts I think a fair proposal offering £300 per month or more would have a very good chance of success.
Andrew Graveson
Independent Mortgage Broker & MD Bright Oak Debt Management
andrew@brightoak.co.uk
www.brightoak.co.uk
