“It just got to the point where it was just like – what are we doing? We both work 5 days a week – we work hard.
“It just got to the point where it was just like – what are we doing? We both work 5 days a week – we work hard. But we’re not living at all!” Bridgette wasn’t sure what the answer was. She and her partner earned good salaries, and some money came in through other sources. There had to be a way, and she was determined to find it.
Over the years, the debt had started to accumulate. Growing up in a sporting family, Bridgette wanted to do everything she could to support her own children’s passion and talent for sport, especially when that led to representative-level duties. Competing for NZ internationally at age-grade football isn’t cheap. Neither is national level netball. Throw in a few lean periods in the family business and what had once been manageable had become a problem. Making considered decisions under financial stress can be hard. “It was kinda like – we’ll get another loan. From here, there and everywhere. It was just stupid.” Something had to change: “instead of taking on more debt, we decided to try to get it all together”.
Bridgette, who was already a Harmoney customer, went to the Harmoney website to find out how we could help, and decided to get a quote to consolidate debt. “I put in the amounts from all those loans, and then [when I saw the quote] I thought – oh, okay – this is not bad. Let’s give it a go.”
With the money from the debt consolidation loan, Bridgette would repay a bunch of high interest credit cards, where the lower fixed rate of the debt consolidation loan made a big impact. She was able to repay a personal loan – even though the rate on that loan was about the same as the Harmoney loan, she decided fewer loans would make things easier to manage. She also decided to spread the repayments of the debt consolidation loan over 5 years.
The result was a reduction in monthly repayments of over $900! It was the debt circuit-breaker they had been looking for, so they could de-escalate the stress they were feeling and start to plan for a future with much less debt.
While it didn’t mean they were debt free, if they stuck to the plan they knew the date they would have the loan fully repaid. And they had some much needed financial flexibility. They could use the additional cash to do some things with the family, to have on-hand for unexpected expenses, or even make an additional repayment so they pay off their debt consolidation loan sooner.
Like Bridgette, we’re big fans of debt consolidation at Harmoney. It’s a simple idea with funny name. But it can be a powerful tool for people wanting to work on reducing debt, or becoming debt free.
She’s also a fan of Harmoney’s customer service team, and of one, Lepani, in particular. “He was just amazing. I’ve been in customer services most of my life, at top levels, and I was so impressed… he did everything he said he’d do.”
At Harmoney, our purpose is to help people achieve their goals through financial products that are friendly, fair and simple to use. Find out more about Harmoney debt consolidation loans – it could be the debt circuit-breaker you’ve been looking for.
