Advice appreciated

lexlar

Hi
Trying to get back on track after being really stupid with credit cards over the past couple of years. Have two credit cards. One an egg visa card, maxed out at £2000 with an interest rate of 14.9%. The other a morgan stanley mastercard, maxed out at £2400, interest also 14.9%. I would like to consolidate/balance transfer these debts into one monthly payment which is as low as possible for the next 3-4 years. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks and looking forward to your replies!

DJ1UK

You could either go for a long term life of balance rate / long term 0% offer or a loan to consolidate the two.

Really depends on a few things - credit history etc.

Have a look at the articles on the site and they should help you decided which option is best.

DJ

Rafter

lexlar,

Firstly get yourself a budget sorted so you are not resorting to using credit cards to make ends meet at the end of the month.

Work out when you want to repay the debt by too - if 3 years is realistic, you need to find an extra ~£150 per month to pay it off in that time scale. You should be able to get some of that by changing gas, electricity, phone suppliers, review your mobile phone, broadband, sky and other stuff. But £150 is quite a lot without changing your lifestyle etc too.

If you are earning £20k plus you should have options about were to take your existing debts.

It may be worth seeing if egg with give you a loan (without payment protection) at a lower rate as an existing customer. Their product is flexible, so if you do find a cheaper form of debt, you can always pay your egg loan early.

As for credit cards, look at the guides on here for the best life of balance transfer cards and 0% deals.

The key though is getting the cards and then cutting them up and not using them for purchases. Similarly with your existing cards, get them paid off and then cut them up leaving one for 'emergency use only'

Discipline is the key here - it is so easy to try to 'shuffle' but end up with more debt than you started with.

Good luck and get back to us with any ideas you have that you want comments on.

R

lexlar

Hi and thanks for your responses.

Just checked my credit rating and I've got a score of 960 and according to experian that's good. I've had a few late payments on the morgan stanley card but the egg has been fine. Considering cancelling payment protection and card protection on morgan and stanley card then just cutting the card up. Its costing me £40 a month for these protection plans, and quite often they are putting me over my credit limit, which in turn results in charges.
I'd be happy to be making payments of £100-£140 per month just to get these cards in order. Should I approach egg about a loan? BTW I'm earning about £21000 p/a but I've got a few outgoings in terms of mortgage and car loan etc.