How to stop my debt getting larger?

flamingice

I have recently become a full time university student a few years late having been working various temp jobs for the last few years and have a debt of £2500 on my mint credit card. I'm unemployed and right now, am finding it incredibly hard to find a job near me that fits in with my university schedule, and nowhere seems to be employing anyone! I've applied to all the jobs I could find that I could do and have been ignored by all of them.

My minimum payment each month is £57. My interest works out to not much less than that, and this interest is absolutely crippling me as each time I make a payment, it's really just paying off the previous month's interest. What I really need is to do a balance transfer, but I can't see any companies letting me have a card without having a job. Also - using my student loan to pay off my card is a no-no - it's already been allocated!

So I'm wondering if there's anything I can do about this? Does anyone know of any companies who may give me a new credit card that I could do an interest free for so many months balance transfer to? Or is there any possible way my current company might reduce my interest rate to a substantially lower one? Has anyone else had any experience of this? Thanks.

savingholmes

Hi

Have you tried bar jobs, shops, fast food restaurants, hotels, coffee shops all that kind of thing? The post office - sometimes take on xmas workers? Other than you could try the £10 a day challenge for ideas on how to make extra money. Most of the things take 2-4 months to pay out tho so more a longer term plan? Try selling stuff on e-bay, the new auction site, car boots etc....

flamingice

Hiya, thanks for the reply. My main problem is that the interest on my current card is so high! I don't really have much to sell as I live with my parents and everything is theirs! I've tried all the coffee shops, restauarants and shops in town and there are no hotels around here within walking distance or on a bus route - and I don't drive!
I'll have a look for the £10 a day challenge thing though, it may help somehow!

CLAPTON

for goodness sake

you've posted the same message on four boards already ... one is sufficicient

anyway your interest isn't crippling you... if you're being crippled its due to the repayment amount

students are suppose to have some analytic skills

get a bike

fatbelly

Hi Clapton - straight to the point as usual!:laugh:

OP - you will only reduce your minimum monthly repayment by investigating what these are for different cards. Try https://www.stoozing.com

Yours sounds like 2%, which is on the low side. However, on HBOS cards it is only 1%.

But can you get a decent card while unemployed? Probably not.

So if you cannot afford the contractual payment, you default and go on to a debt management plan - see 'problem debts' above.

crazyhazy

I think the best thing to do is to try and find a way of making some extra cash, got any uni books you no longer need that you could sell on amazon? Try joining quidco and doing the stuff to get free money, if you search there's a post somewhere, plus there's another post about making money from free clicks, finally what about signing up to do surveys? These are all small amounts but they soon add up.