Is it consolidation?

payingfornowt

I have a quick question for your beautiful minds on here!

I have a credit card debt with £3100 left to pay, I can afford and pay £100 a month onto the card of which about £50 gets eaten up by interest of around 20%.

Now seen as this interest is not “front loaded” it would be cheaper if I could find a loan to cover it with an interest rate below 20%.

Now the only problem I can see with this is that its too much like consolidation which I have a bad track record with! That said I could/should cut my interest payments in half if I can find a decent provider.

Does this stack up or is it just consolidation and I should just keep plugging away with my £100 pcm?

embarrassed_about_my_debt

Can you try and get a 0% balance transfer cc? as this would mean there would only be the transfer fee (normally 3% so £93 for your debt = 2 months interest) then after that ALL the money is going on reducing the debt rather than paying interest.

Other alternative could be to try and get a low Life of balance transfer, although i found when i applied for one of these the limit was no where near what i could get on 0% deals.

payingfornowt

embarrassed_about_my_debt wrote: »

Can you try and get a 0% balance transfer cc? as this would mean there would only be the transfer fee (normally 3% so £93 for your debt = 2 months interest) then after that ALL the money is going on reducing the debt rather than paying interest.

Other alternative could be to try and get a low Life of balance transfer, although i found when i applied for one of these the limit was no where near what i could get on 0% deals.

I dont think so, I applied for the Virgin 0% card and was declined. I dont think my credit rating is very good (not prepared to pay for a report).

angelflower_2

paying £2 for a report is the best thing you could do as a starting point for sorting out your finances. 3 main companies to get them from will tell you exactly what you need to know. I get one once every 12 months just to keep track.

LilacPixie

If you can't get a 0% balance transfer then personally i would just plug away with the £100. You have already said you are not the best with consolodation and truthfully I think the loan idea is consolodation. Added to that not good credit history means you may struggle to get an apr under 20% anyway.

I would plus away with the £100 payment and maybe look at slicing expenditure/uppin imcone to add some extra payments.

LilacPixie

oops double post

payingfornowt

LilacPixie wrote: »

If you can't get a 0% balance transfer then personally i would just plug away with the £100. You have already said you are not the best with consolodation and truthfully I think the loan idea is consolodation. Added to that not good credit history means you may struggle to get an apr under 20% anyway.

I would plus away with the £100 payment and maybe look at slicing expenditure/uppin imcone to add some extra payments.

Yeah I think you are right, just had a look at one of the comparison sites and I would do well to get an unsecured loan with a lower interest rate.

Like you say if I can pay a bit more it will save me lots of interest, its like a geared investment in reverse!

Thanks for the help!