Mortgage & Loan Possibilities

[krattapopov]

Hey all,

Am hoping for some guidelines or other possibilities that I haven't thought of, that'll help me manage my finances better. High level overview is that myself and my wife bought an apartment in 2007, both working, both getting paid well. Bank then gave us a loan, two credit cards with limits of 5k each... anyway we went to town. At the time it was all ok because we could afford the repayments. We also have a credit union loan. (Sound familiar)

Anyway what's happened since is my wife was made redundant over 2 years ago, she is now 7 months pregnant (which is great!). So things got difficult financially, however I managed to get a better job and we are doing our best to get things under control.

Have seriously cut back, sold a car (now one car family) our only extravagance is the sports package with UPC. We don't go out to pubs,restaurants,cinema and grocery/clothes shopping is kept to a bare minimum. We've managed to get rid of the two credit cards but have a loan with the credit union as well.

Now for the figures, basically I'm trying to get my debt repayments to be lower than 50% of my net income.

Net Income is 3400 (up until the budget)

Mortgage repayment is 1575 (after TRS)
32 years left on mortgage, fixed at 5.25% with the fixed term finishing this December. Approx balance is 365,000 on property worth probably 250000.

Loan with bank balance is 22,800, 5 years left, 450 per month

Loan with Credit union is 15,000, have 5000 in shares, pay 70 a week.

So that's a total of 2300 repaying debt, leaving only 1100 to get by on a month.. which isn't a lot with management fees, food, clothes, utilities and a baby on the way.

The loan and the mortgage are with the same bank. Ideally I'd love it if they were to put the loan on top of the mortgage... it'd make life on a day to day basis so much easier.

I'm not trying to run away from my debt at all, have made all my payments so far and have an unblemished credit record. I am doing my best to tackle the debt. I know there are a lot of people in the same situation.

I've read about the waterfall approach to tackling debt and to an extent I've already done this with the credit cards that we had. Part of me would like to just say put the mortgage on hold. I'm going to put all my money to the CU to get rid of the debt, then all of the money to the personal loan to clear it and then start up the mortgage again. Even if they said no to this I'd be tempted to go a few months, I don't care about my credit rating as from now on I plan on saving for anything I need!

So if anyone has any suggestions or experience I'd love to hear it.

 

[Greta]

Don't just go for several months without paying your mortgage, without the bank's agreement, as they will add penalties, surcharges etc to it. Also you will probably have a better chance to get a better rate from them when your fixed rate expires in December if you are up to date with your payments.

However, do ask for a moratorium or at least an interest-only period. Interest-only should still allow you to pay a bit more off your other debts.

It is useful to keep your credit record unblemished if you can, as it gives you more opportunities to refinance your unsecured debts at cheaper rates - is there any chance of that?

 

[krattapopov]

Thanks for the reply Greta and yes I will contact the bank about going interest only, however that's only going to be a temporary solution! As the loan is with UB and so is the mortgage I'd love them to just couple it but as we are in negative equity (I thought that was only if you wanted to sell!) I don't think they'll do it.
It would make day to day life so much more bearable!

I don't think there is an option to refinance anywhere else to be honest, I've looked around at the rates and am availing of competitive ones (bar the credit union but there is a level of flexibility there).

Sometimes I think it's better to owe 100 million here instead of 100,000.

 

[berlin1968]

can i get a loan against budapest property

I have over 1million worth of commercial property in budapest with no loans attached and all rented long term with good rents, I need 100k for my irish buisness is there and company in ireland that would give me this as the hungarian banks are not too helpful,
I would try selling them but I need the cash now and this would take too long can anyone help