Where Do I Go From Here? (Advice needed for next CC)

mrpotatohead

Ok this is my current situation...

Going in to final year of Uni, excluding student debts, I have the following debt:

- £1400 on Halifax One credit card. 0% intro offer ends in October.
- £400 in to overdraft with First Direct current account. 0% for first £250, 15.9 thereafter.
- £1,300 in to student overdraft with Natwest current account. 0%.

I still have another year left at Uni, in September I will get my next installment of student loan, which along with money from my part-time job should help bring my Natwest account back in to the black (for now).

My query is what do with the £1400 on my Halifax One credit card. What is the best card to switch to - I want to avoid any risky ones that could affect my credit score badly, although my credit rating is 'Good' and I have never missed any payments, I know refused applications would go against me - and so don't know what the best card to do a balance transfer would be, with the current 'credit crunch'?

Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks MSers!


- Joe

emma396

can't help u regarding transfers etc, but i'd recommend working full time over the summer, u should pay off as much as possible off the cards, if u're overdrafts r interest free, i'd pay off cards before overdraft

normanmark

Getting yourself some part time employment will help your case for transferring to a new card much better.

GeorgeUK

Have a look at the virgin money card. 0% for 15 months and £25 min payment for 2nd to 15th months.

CLAPTON

your credit file only records applications and not whether or not they are successful; so it's important not to make too many but to whom you apply to makes little difference.

mrpotatohead

CLAPTON wrote: »

your credit file only records applications and not whether or not they are successful; so it's important not to make too many but to whom you apply to makes little difference.

Ahh right, thanks Clapton - I didn't know that.

Also @ emma396 and normanmark, I'm in employment for summer already - work at M&S every time I'm not at uni... sadly though, as I'm sure other students will agree with me, student living isn't cheap anymore - and I'm a big penny pincher - so these debts can't be avoided...

But the work does help, but have had to come to face that I will be living in debt for a while... just trying to find out the next best step for transferring the balance of CC to next good deal.

Thanks for the suggestion GeorgeUK, I'll look in to that!


- Joe

mrpotatohead

Hi guys,

Just need some more help on this - CC offer runs out in October, I know I'm cutting it very close to the wire... but affecting my credit rating is what scares me and puts me off making any applications yet.

Just something I'm wondering, I have an M&S Credit Card that I have cleared the balance of but keep 'just in case of emergencies', is it better if I cancel this before applying for another card - and if I do so, how long does it take before it appears on my credit profile and would the new CC company take notice of this?


Thanks!

- Joe