Was Excited - Now Deflatted

Peppa_Pig_5

Hi hope you can give me some advice on the following.

A couple of weeks ago I was over the moon as my default had gone off my credit report and I was accepted for a 0% credit card with Mint. Well since then the Mint card has gone through but the limit is only £400. I was so looking forward to moving a large chunk of my debt onto this 0% card. But this is just a crumb. So I am losing heart slightly.

The credit cards I have are as follows:

Halifax = £8528 (19.95% APR) Credit limit £12400 (payments of 2% per month)
Capital One = 1235 (15.9% APR) Credit limit £4000 (Payments of 3% per month)
Catalogue = 825 (0% APR) (Payments of £200 per month)
Also have another Capital one card at 14.84% which hasn't been used for a while, 0 balance, credit limit is £1800

Not sure what to do as the £400 with Mint will not go very far, the £200 a month on catalogue is a lot to pay each month. But the Halifax Credit card is getting me down, as I can pay about £300 a month off it, but the interest is about £130, so it hardly seems to go down. I really wanted to get my debts cleared this year, but can't see that it will be possible. I tried ringing Halifax to decrease the APR, but had a late payment in August so told me to try again in a couple of months. Also I am afraid to do balance transfers in case I cannot keep up with the amount of payments I have to juggle.

What should I do, should I leave it a couple of months and see what the Halifax have to say, should I transfer to the other cards? What should I do with the £400 from Mint at 0% APR.

Please help.

bank_of_slate

Hi Peppa!

It really knocks you back when you find out stuff like this doesn't it?

You have it all worked out in your head and are just coming to terms with the new situation when even a relatively small spanner in the works can totally screw up the whole thing.
Don't lose heart, when you applied for the mint card, did you declare on the application the balances that you wished to transfer to it?
can you phone them up to ask if it is possible?
Don't let this ruin your weekend!
...Linda xx

Peppa_Pig_5

Thanks Linda, I will try not to lose heart, it is so easy though isn't it! I did put on the application that I wanted to transfer the £8528 on the Halifax card, and rang them up and they said they could probably up it to £500. My husband says not to worry as they all start low and soon they may offer more. He has been accepted for an egg card also, so hopefully that card will be more.

tomstickland

Every bit counts though. On £500 and 16%APR you're saving just under £7 per month by moving it to 0%.

magentadreamer

Aww Peppa don't let it get you down.

Give Mint a ring and see if they can up the credit limit -you never know they might be able to. With your unused Cap One card I'd ring them and ask how much the APR on a balance transfer would be and see if you can shift some of the Halifax debt onto it. If it's lower than the Halifax -which it should be I really would consider transfering some to it. Also could you transfer some of the Halifax debt onto the Cap One card you already use. Then hit the Halifax card to try and reduce your balance with them.

Peppa_Pig_5

Thanks tomstickland, I didn't think of it like that.

Glittermonkey

When i got my Marbles card a few years ago, my credit limit was about £500. I wanted it for a £3000 BT so i called them and said i wasn't really interested in having the card as i couldn't transfer as much as i wanted to, and they upped the limit there and then for me.

Also when i transfered some to my Capital One card the APR was much lower so it'll be worth calling them to see how much yours would be.

GM

southernscouser

Don't feel too delfated! When I got accepted for a mint card I got a £350 limit!

Then applied for a Capital One card and got a £10,300 limit! Work that one out! :rotfl:

tattooed_lady

Could it be something to do with the total amount of 'available credit' you have? For instance, if you reduce some of your credit limits ie Halifax and Capital One and then contact Mint explaining you have done this, they may consider giving you an increase

mountainofdebt

right out of my mouth, ruyareece.

Companies these days tend to look at the whole picture so whilst you only have a %age of debt on your cards, they lok to see what available credit you have.

Personally I would use the £400 mint limt to reduce the Halifax balance and once this has gone through, reduce your limit on this card to £8,500. I would also reduce your capital one limit to £1500.

What I have found useful is to take the first payment to our 0% cards as a bench mark and then in subsequent months pay the difference to our highest APR cards.

So say for example the first minimum payment to Mint is £20 and then the following month it reduces to £15 (figueres off the top of my head here, lol!) pay the difference of £5 to the Halifax card in addition to the regular Halifax payment.

Another method would be to stick with a level of month repayment that I was sort of comfortable with. So for one of our cards I've been paying £100 per month when the required payment is £75. Not alot of difference but it chips an additional amount off the capital.

mintymoneysaver

Peppa_Pig wrote:

Hi hope you can give me some advice on the following.
The credit cards I have are as follows:
Halifax = £8528 (19.95% APR) Credit limit £12400 (payments of 2% per month)
Capital One = 1235 (15.9% APR) Credit limit £4000 (Payments of 3% per month)
Catalogue = 825 (0% APR) (Payments of £200 per month)
Also have another Capital one card at 14.84% which hasn't been used for a while, 0 balance, credit limit is £1800
Please help.

Your lowest capital one card is 14.84% and you can put £1800 on it.I would transfer that from your halifax card, reducing your interest.
Iwould transfer as much as you can from halifax to the £400 mint car.
That puts £2200 on a lower interset rate than it was,leaving you with 6328 owing on halifax.
You could then transfer a further £2765 to the other capital one card meaning you now only have 3600 approx on the highest halifax interest rate.

I would then throw as much money as you can at the halifax card and pay minimum repayments on the others,until that's paid off and then do the same with the next one.

I hope that makes sense and I'm sure someone with more knowledge than me will be able to confirm/disagree with this...(I'm assuming that's what is meant by snowballing even though I've never read the article!)