Getting a CC for partner who has £7k debt

floppy26 · 9 February 2010 at 12:52PM

Hi All...

I am after some advice on credit cards please.

My partner has approx 7k debt which includes a £4k barclay loan (with astonomical interest rate) and a £2k credit card debt with Mint at avery high interest rate. (other odds and ends include a couple of store cards with couple of hundred on each) I'm trying to help her get her finances into shape and have already cancelled unused store cards to help clear up some of the straggles...

My question is this... I am guessing the most sensible thing to do is try to get a 0% balance transfer on new credit card to consolidate most of the current debt so that she can manage the repayments without incurring rediculous interest fees for @ 12 months.. the problem is actually getting a credit card company who will take this onboard! I have heard that if your declined a credit card this will go against a further application within a certain amount of time. is this correct? If that is the case, if she applies for a card and is declined, it will tarnish an application from a different lender!

What are her options and how can i help her sort out the finances...

Any help would be most appreciative.

Regards
Floppy

stephane_2 · 9 February 2010 at 12:57PM

floppy26 wrote: »

Hi All...

I am after some advice on credit cards please.

My partner has approx 7k debt which includes a £4k barclay loan (with astonomical interest rate) and a £2k credit card debt with Mint at avery high interest rate. (other odds and ends include a couple of store cards with couple of hundred on each) I'm trying to help her get her finances into shape and have already cancelled unused store cards to help clear up some of the straggles...

My question is this... I am guessing the most sensible thing to do is try to get a 0% balance transfer on new credit card to consolidate most of the current debt so that she can manage the repayments without incurring rediculous interest fees for @ 12 months.. the problem is actually getting a credit card company who will take this onboard! I have heard that if your declined a credit card this will go against a further application within a certain amount of time. is this correct? If that is the case, if she applies for a card and is declined, it will tarnish an application from a different lender!

What are her options and how can i help her sort out the finances...

Any help would be most appreciative.

Regards
Floppy

If I understand you would like to transfer the loan + credit debt onto one with a 0% APR. Well the only Credit Cards that will allow you to transfer cash at 0% onto your bank account is either Virgin/MBNA or egg Card. Having been declined on 1 application does not mean that she will get decline for another, each lender have different criteria, but beware not to do more than 2/3 application or it will damage her credit file, then in 6 months time she could re-apply. If she gets a Credit Card with a 0% offer for 12/16 months, then she need to get prepared for much higher interest rate once the offer has ended. MBNA has a bad reputation for increasing interest quite drastically

floppy26 · 9 February 2010 at 1:10PM

Thanks for a speedy reply.

If we can find her a card which gets her on the right tracks, when the 0% balance transfer period ends i'd be looking at swapping cards to a new 0%.

I can see how people get further and further into debt - the CC companys dont make it easy do they! I also couldnt beleive it when i looked into the the Barclays Masterloan she has... over the full period of the loan she'd end up paying back almost £4k more than she originally borrowed!!!

CannyJock · 9 February 2010 at 1:19PM

floppy26 wrote: »

What are her options and how can i help her sort out the finances...

Clearing existing debts is one side of the equation, understanding how they arose in the first place is the other.

She should apply for one new 0% BT card every 3 months until she's successfully moved her debts onto a 0% basis. Full list of them http://www.stoozing.com/0fees.php

While going through this process, she should look into snowballing and pay the minimum possible on the lowest APR debts and do everything possible to clear the higher APR debts.

If she's not already, she should ask Barclays for a settlement figure on the loan to get an indication of what sort of figure is needed to clear the loan. As stephane says, a loan can only be cleared by money in her bank account, so she'd need to look at one of the SBT cards that allow money to be transferred to her bank account http://www.stoozing.com/sbt.php

EDIT: Experience shows that it's almost impossible to make people look at their finances and improve their situation when they've no interest in doing so

You might find that by doing all of the work for her, she's got even less reason to take an interest in her finances

floppy26 · 9 February 2010 at 1:55PM

Thankfully we've established the reason why the debts accumulated... (it was a few years ago) and she's now on the 'road to recovery' ...:D

Never heard of stoozing before so off to do some reading...

Thanks for the replies...

Much appreciated

Getting a CC for partner who has £7k debt

Comments

Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

🚀 Getting Started

Categories

Is this how you want to be seen?

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free