If you’re a first home buyer here are some helpful tips for paying off debt before buying a house.
1. Prioritise your highest interest rate debt
You can prioritise the debt with the highest interest rate and pay that one off first. This tends to be a good starting point because the longer your debt sits unpaid, the more interest you’re going to accrue.
or Prioritise your smallest debt
If this seems too daunting and you feel like you’re getting nowhere, you can try paying off your smaller debts first to really get the ball rolling before tackling the bigger ones.
2. Consider debt consolidation
If you have quite a few different debts, debt consolidation could be an option for you. This is where all of your debts are rolled into one loan, and it generally offers you a lower interest rate. Debt consolidation does have its drawbacks though, so it’s important to be aware all of the terms and conditions involved before going ahead.
3. Get the professionals involved
Even if you’re not quite ready to put forward your application for a mortgage, our expert mortgage team can give you some great advice on how to make yourself more appealing to a lender and get your finances under control.
4. Reduce your credit card limits
Banks typically look at your actual credit limit, not just what you have been spending – if you have a $10,000 limit but only typically use $5,000, the bank will still treat your credit card as though it’s a $10,000 liability, so it’s a good idea to reduce your limits or get rid of credit cards altogether.
5. Use calculators
There are so many fantastic tools out there now that will help you work out exactly how much you’re paying on your loan, as well as how much you can expect to pay in mortgage repayments.
Try Sorted’s Debt Calculator to see how much your debt is really costing you. We also have a great mortgage calculator so you can get an idea of your potential repayments.
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Only the person who originally entered the Promotion can be awarded the prize.
The Winner will be determined by Haven Financial Advisers and will be final and no correspondence will be entered into.
The Winner will be notified by email, phone (voice or text), mail or in person. Where attempts to contact the Winner fail (e.g. when the Winner cannot be contacted by phone after three attempts or mail sent is returned) Haven Financial Advisers will select another winner. If, after successful notification, the prize is not collected within two months of being announced, it will be regarded as forfeit. (Note: 3 attempts to contact the Winner will include individual calls to any numbers provided at the time of entry.
Where the Winner is required to claim the prize in person, they must provide proper identification (eg driver’s licence, passport, birth certificate).
The Winner takes the Prize entirely at his/her own risk and indemnifies Haven Financial Advisers in respect of any claim for any accident, injury, property damage or loss of life that may occur in connection with the prize. The Winner is responsible for all insurance, tax or other costs that may be associated with the Prize. Where the Prize has associated terms and conditions the Winner accepts the Prize subject to those terms and conditions and restrictions.
The Prize must be taken as stated and no compensation will be payable if the Winner is unable to use the Prize as stated.
The Promoter (Haven Financial Advisers) will not be liable for any prize(s) that do not reach the winners for reasons beyond the Promoter’s reasonable control. Where a prize is being supplied by a third party, the Promoter accepts no responsibility in connection with the provision of the prize, including without limitation, the failure of the winner to receive ownership of, or use of, the prize or any performance issues associated with the prize.
The Promoter will not be liable for failure to provide (or delay in providing) the Prize resulting from any events, circumstances or causes beyond its reasonable control, including but not limited to acts of god (natural disasters), acts of war or terrorism, national emergencies, issues of public health and safety, pandemic, mechanical breakdown, industry disputes, riots or failure of communication or power supply or voluntary or involuntary compliance with any regulation, law or order of any government.
Prizes may be subject to additional terms and conditions imposed by a third party (for example, vouchers may have additional terms and conditions and/or an expiry date or in the case of travel, additional terms and conditions may be imposed by airlines, service providers and venues).
The Promoter will not be responsible for any loss or damage suffered by entrants or anyone else as a result of, arising out of, or in any way connected with the Promotion or its prizes.
By entering this Promotion, entrants agree to the use of their names, photographs and likeness for promotional/advertising purposes, and agree to make themselves reasonably available for this purpose. Any copyright associated with an entry will be owned by the Promoter.
The Promoter collects and holds personal information provided by entrants for the purposes of administering this Promotion and for future Promoter promotional purposes. All personal information provided by entrants will be held by the Promoter and will not be provided to third parties unless otherwise specifically set out. Under the Privacy Act 2020, entrants have the right to access and correct their personal information.
Disqualified Participants’ are: (a) all Haven Financial Advisers employees (b) all people under the age of 18 years (c) all people without a qualifying delivery address.
Or,
Refer someone else to complete a financial review with any of Haven’s advisers for any service during the entry period and if they complete the review you will receive one entry each into the Competition.
The Winners will be determined by Haven Financial Advisers and will be final and no correspondence will be entered into.
The Winners will be notified by email, phone (voice or text), mail or in person. Where attempts to contact a Winner fail (e.g. when the Winner cannot be contacted by phone after three attempts or mail sent is returned) Haven Financial Advisers will select another winner. If, after successful notification, the prize is not collected within two months of being announced, it will be regarded as forfeit. (Note: 3 attempts to contact the Winner will include individual calls to any numbers provided at the time of entry.
Where the Winner is required to claim the prize in person, they must provide proper identification (eg driver’s licence, passport, birth certificate).
The Winner takes the Prize entirely at his/her own risk and indemnifies Haven Financial Advisers in respect of any claim for any accident, injury, property damage or loss of life that may occur in connection with the prize. The Winner is responsible for all insurance, tax or other costs that may be associated with the Prize. Where the Prize has associated terms and conditions the Winner accepts the Prize subject to those terms and conditions and restrictions.
The Prize must be taken as stated and no compensation will be payable if the Winner is unable to use the Prize as stated.
The Promoter (Haven Financial Advisers Limited) will not be liable for any prize(s) that do not reach the winners for reasons beyond the Promoter’s reasonable control. Where a prize is being supplied by a third party, the Promoter accepts no responsibility in connection with the provision of the prize, including without limitation, the failure of the winner to receive ownership of, or use of, the prize or any performance issues associated with the prize.
The Promoter will not be liable for failure to provide (or delay in providing) the Prize resulting from any events, circumstances or causes beyond its reasonable control, including but not limited to acts of god (natural disasters), acts of war or terrorism, national emergencies, issues of public health and safety, pandemic, mechanical breakdown, industry disputes, riots or failure of communication or power supply or voluntary or involuntary compliance with any regulation, law or order of any government.
Prizes may be subject to additional terms and conditions imposed by a third party.
The Promoter will not be responsible for any loss or damage suffered by entrants or anyone else as a result of, arising out of, or in any way connected with the Promotion or its prizes.
The Promoter collects and holds personal information provided by entrants for the purposes of administering this Promotion and for future Promoter promotional purposes. All personal information provided by entrants will be held by the Promoter and will not be provided to third parties unless otherwise specifically set out. Under the Privacy Act 2020, entrants have the right to access and correct their personal information.
The Haven Travel Promotion is only open to legal residents of New Zealand who are eighteen (18) years of age or older.
Disqualified Participants’ are: (a) all Haven Financial Advisers employees (b) all people under the age of 18 years.
The Competition begins on Monday 13th March 2023 to Wednesday 31st May 2023.
Complete a financial review with any of Haven’s advisers for any service during the entry period and you will receive one entry into the Competition.
The final winner will be drawn on Monday 5th June via random selection by Haven Financial Advisers.