should i cancel some of my credit cards??

overdrawn

hi hope someone can help me here.
i have 4 credit cards,and am due to have cleared them all by 12th jan 2006, then start on my £2900 overdraft after that,which should take about a year to clear .
what i need to know is should i cancel all but one of my cards and just keep it for emergencies, (and lower the limit to £500 or so) or should i keep them all just in case?
i intend to pay for car insurance and school uniform on it etc and repay in full the following month.
please help???
louise

southernscouser

overdrawn wrote:

hi hope someone can help me here.
i have 4 credit cards,and am due to have cleared them all by 12th jan 2006, then start on my £2900 overdraft after that,which should take about a year to clear .
what i need to know is should i cancel all but one of my cards and just keep it for emergencies, (and lower the limit to £500 or so) or should i keep them all just in case?
i intend to pay for car insurance and school uniform on it etc and repay in full the following month.
please help???
louise

Hi overdrawn.

Should you keep them in case of what?

Personally I would cancel all but one and keep a limit of maybe £2,000! The reason I would keep it this high is in case of "real" emergencies! However if you think you would be tempted to spend on it lower it to £500 like you say!

If you are financilly in a position (and have the discipline) to pay for things on your card but pay it off in full each month get over to the Credit Cards board and they will be able to advise you to the best cashback card!

overdrawn

hi i mean just in case say the fridge or washing machine etc broke down or kids needed something unexpectedly.
i used to pay in full every month but hub and i are seperating,and he has all the money and i got the debt and my kids !!!!
i think £2000 would be toooooo tempting for me !!!!

southernscouser

overdrawn wrote:

hi i mean just in case say the fridge or washing machine etc broke down or kids needed something unexpectedly.
i used to pay in full every month but hub and i are seperating,and he has all the money and i got the debt and my kids !!!!
i think £2000 would be toooooo tempting for me !!!!

Even so I would only keep the 1 card!

:T for paying them all off though! I bet it feels great!

The only thing I would say is see if you can get your overdraft on to a 0% credit card or something. I know Egg allow you to transfer overdrafts on their card (I stupidly did it many a time ) I'm not sure about any other companies though. The credit cards board will be able to advise you better than me!

I imagine the interest is quite high on it so if you cancelled 3 of the cleared cards and waited a month you would look a lot better a prospect to potential lenders.

Good luck.

SS

ffs

overdrawn wrote:

i used to pay in full every month but hub and i are seperating,and he has all the money and i got the debt and my kids !!!!

Would you have preferred neither the debt nor the kids?

I think our parents would say that savings are for emergencies, not credit cards. Sadly I've have to learn the hard way.

weedav

Hello! As you can see from my signature at the bottom, we are both in a similar situation! I was tempted to keep my barclaycard when I paid it off last pay day - but just this week I was tempted to put a few christmas presents on it, getting really impressive and expensiive gifts.

Thankfully I resisted - otherwise that great feeling I had when I paid it off, and all the hard work I put in would be worthless.

Just this morning I called Barclaycard and cancelled! Now I know I can't use it so I wont!

roversbabe

I agree with SouthernScouser,

Once the cards are clear, keep one for emergencies until you can build up a savings amount, then cancel it once you have some savings.

Good luck

[Deleted User]

Don't forget that any debt HE is jointly linked to with you makes HIM jointly and severally liable. So unless all the debt is in your sole name you need to start getting him to pay.

Also - if the credit cards have him on the account be careful to close the accounts immediately to stop him running up further debt.

This applies to ALL your finances that have his name on or where he is authorised to draw money etc..

overdrawn

hi and thankyou to all who replied.


!!!!!!;;
no of course i would not rather not have my kids.you misunderstood my comment.
what i meant was that i got the 2 expensive elements of the marriage.
after 6 yrs of violent abuse,my kids are all i have.
louise