Paying over £70 month to credit card but after interest only £10 coming off balance

keithsjulie

I need some help....... I have a credit card with Abbey that has £3200 on it, my minimum monthly repayment is around £70 which i am paying without fail every month, however once interest is charged i am actually only paying £10 a month off the outstanding balance which means i will be paying this credit card off for many years yet........ can anyone help??? I have heard that you can request for them to freeze the interest..... is this possible??? Any help and advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.:mad:

anotherpaul_2

Can you pay more than the minimum? Or get another card and transfer it to a 0% deal?

While you're not having trouble making the payments, I think it's unlike that they would stop the interest - what's in it for them? If you phone them, you might be able to persuade them to reduce the interest rate though, maybe.

udydudy

AFAIK, you could talk to them to reduce your APR which will go someway in reducing the interest cost. As per my calculations, you are paying around £60 per month in interest which is 1.875% per month around 22.5% annual. If you talk to them (and many CS guys do try n help) they could reduce it to something like 16-18%. This will reduce your outgoings on interest by 20% i.e. something like £12 per month. ofcourse provided you have never been naughty -- missed payments or gone over credit limit.

You wil have to really turn on your best charm and be nice. Beg if required saying Credit crunch, etc , etc.

try paying an additional £10 if possible every month. The idea of the high APRs is for customers to get dragged into debt. Lets face it lenders make money by lending and charging interest. They have defaults so the best they do is based on their assessment of risk they will raise interest rates. ofcourse they are greedy little things and will try as much as possible to get your money!!. And abbey does not have a great CS as per many on different forums!!.

Best of Luck. Trying never harmed anyone. if they do not oblige try paying a bit extra every month or you will be paying them for the next 40 years.

keithsjulie

what would they do, do you think if i am having trouble making payments and have to cancel my direct debit??

Robert_Sterling_3

If you were able to pay £100 off some months then in those months you would knock off £40 rather than £10.

bitterSTAR

If I was you I'd throw all your spare cash at it, the more you throw at it the less interest you have to pay, and the lower the minimum payments will get too. If you have any savings, use them to pay it off too.

anotherpaul_2

keithsjulie wrote: »

what would they do, do you think if i am having trouble making payments and have to cancel my direct debit??

If you start missing payments, they might or they might not reduce the interest. However, this will be SERIOUS damage to you credit rating and you'll probably end up with a DCA chasing you for the money. Really, you don't want to go there unless you have no other choice.

I think MBNA tend to take a hard line with this, so there probably isn't a lot of room for negotiating.

HH62

anotherpaul wrote: »

.

I think MBNA tend to take a hard line with this, so there probably isn't a lot of room for negotiating.

Yeah, IME they do. They're great for letting you have a couple of different MBNA cards and a high credit limit, but they don't mess about when you owe them money and pay late or not enough.

To the OP - you need to be sure you're making the minimum payment, at least, every month. You should really try to pay more, to see your balance reduce.

udydudy

keithsjulie wrote: »

what would they do, do you think if i am having trouble making payments and have to cancel my direct debit??

IMHO do not even venture into that territory. when things were good it was a different ball game. MBNA which underwrites Virgin Cards is very lenient in things until you start to default or miss payments. Cancelling the DD is not the issue as long as you pay them every month, but then you will have the burden to rememebr to pay on time every month.

I have all my cards on DD atleast for minimum payments so that I do not miss any payments at any cost. (ofcourse my debts are under strict control and am net positive if mortgage is excluded) And then pay (or save) against each debt.

In your case I would say keep your DD to pay the minimum payments every month and then like my signature says(its a buffet saying i think) - Save first and spend whats left - In your case it would be throw the maximum you can at the card keeping your monthly expenses in mind.
Cut out anything that you do not need - the friday nite out or the eatin out - remember every penny you spend is actually costing you 22.5% per annum.

intially it may be tough but once you get used to it and see your outstandings come down you wil be better off.

Ofcourse call them and beg to get the APR down, they normally are leneint and do knock off a few percent off the APR.