In Debt please help.

johnbarnes

Hi
I have been looking at this site now for 6 months or so and it has made me lots of extra cash to pay towards my debts, I now only have one loan left with hsbc which I took out 14 months ago and was for £6000 over 5 years,

I have just rung them to ask how much it would be to pay it off early and even after paying 14 instalments of £240 It would cost me £7833

I have £2500 saved up and I was thinking of getting a credit card to pay off £5000 and use my savings for the rest? I think the interest on the loan is 26% and if I could get a 0% credit card would this be better? or any other options? I will have about £800 to throw at it a month.

Many thanks :santa2:

Debt at highest £18000
Debt now £7833

Tondella

Hi John
Thanks for your post, really interested in what folk advise you here as I am in the process of tackling a loan too. I can't offer you much in the way of a definitive answer but I would say two things 1) find out exactly what the loan APR is as you need to know this to make an informed decision and 2) is there a penalty for paying it all off in a oner? or can you make overpayments with no penalty. If so then I recall one person (on the loans board) paying off all but the amount of their last payment on their loan, then when their direct debit payment went out the next month they had paid off all the loan and escaped a settlement penalty.

Fuffa

Personally I would use my savings (if I had any!) to pay off what I could just so at least I know I've helped pay something off.

26% is a LOT can you go anywhere else for a better rate? and if you do decide to put some on a 0% card are you honestly going to try and pay it off every month?

I always used to tell my oh I would pay it off every month but I never did until I figured out how much I really owed.

HTH