Help! £15000 credit card debt

RAS

debrag wrote: »

£80 a month on food for one person is not too low

If you are really good at budgeting and cooking, agreed.

If you do not know where £196 is going, then the chances are some of it is being used to buy food that is not recorded as such.

debrag

then a spending diary is needed

guinness9

Thank you all so much. The additional £500 is the rent for two lodgers. I have a bit I can sell on eBay, however the debt mountain seems so steep I thought a loan over 10 years would be the best idea. Sarahs999 - if I have been declined a loan, I would imagine another card would also be declined (I am unsure of this, however).

My MBNA and Virgin interest is 2.5292% according to my statements, I will find out the exact figure for FD and FlyBe later.

Thank you!

debrag

currently paying around £30 off balance

RAS

guinness9 wrote: »

My MBNA and Virgin interest is 2.5292% according to my statements

That is probably monthly. The annual Apr is 34.95%

If your repayment is less than 3%, you debt will increase over then year.

RAS

guinness9 wrote: »

The additional £500 is the rent for two lodgers.

Do they contribute to CT, and utilities as well?

debrag

guinness9 wrote: »

Thank you all so much. The additional £500 is the rent for two lodgers. I have a bit I can sell on eBay, however the debt mountain seems so steep I thought a loan over 10 years would be the best idea. Sarahs999 - if I have been declined a loan, I would imagine another card would also be declined (I am unsure of this, however).

My MBNA and Virgin interest is 2.5292% according to my statements, I will find out the exact figure for FD and FlyBe later.

Thank you!

£250 each is low if bills are included

Nargleblast

Agree - spending diary essential to identify where your money goes. Also agree good idea to ring debt counselling charity for advice - or check out websites. You might not need to go down IVA route, debt management plan might be more feasible if you cannot handle the problem by cutting down expenditure and increasing income. Certainly those cards need cutting up - it is so easy to get hooked on using them. Also when you pay money to credit card companies they apply it to 0% and low rate balances first, so your high rate balances still sit there attracting high rate interest.

guinness9

Right then - I will keep a spending diary! To be honest, the £196 does seem to vanish.

The First Direct card is 2.005% per month = 24% per annum.

Does anyone know of a good lender that would consolodate the cards into one fixed payment? If I were to go to a bad credit lender, I'd be looking at 50% interest or something stupid though...

guinness9

PS The £500 a month rent is for two students who are only staying a couple of nights a week, the price is all inclusive.