Where to start to get debt free?

Multidebter

Good Evening MSE peeps!

I am a new member, and have kinda found all the information on the site a bit overwhelming.. I was hoping to get some clear help about the best way to get myself debt free.

Lets start at the top. Currently I owe just over £11200 quid.

HSBC bank loan: £3600

Halifax One Credit Card: £4694 (Limit £8800)
MBNA Credit Card: £2235 (Limit £9500)
Egg Credit Card: £559 (Limit £700)
Capital One Credit Card £118 (Limit £2500
Now, I take home £1810 a month (£700 covers household bills, mobile, mortage payment, fuel and car insurance)

The bank loan will be gone in 18 months. Paying 220ish a month on that.

Now, what is the best method for someone like me to get paying these cards off effictively? Presumably I need to get all these credit cards on the same card at a 0% level?

The MBNA and Halifax are changing me £25 and £65 a month respectively in interest, i would like this to be coming off the totals rather than hindering my re-payments. I very rarely use these cards ever, most of the people I spoke to at the card companies stuggled to find my last outgoing on them!

I appreciate that I might not have such large troubles as others on here, but this is really getting me down, and I am struggling to work out the best way to start taking the biggest dent out of this debt each month.

Any advice would be gladly appreciated.

Thanks everyone

Merlinexcalibur

http://www.cccs.co.uk/

urg123

Hi Multidebtor

It may be best to get a 0% card however, until you deal with the reason why your debts are so high it actually might be dangerous.

It would help us to know the APRs on each of the debts.

Two other tools that you will find useful

The Statement Affairs Calculator http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html and the Snowball Calculators http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

The first one will help you to budget and if you post it - we can have a look and help you to shave more off your day to day expenditure to help you to get debt free quicker.

The second one helps you to prioritise your payments to pay the least interest and get debt free quicker.

urg x x

Multidebter

Thanks chaps.
I have taken the cccs survey thingy, and I am reading my debt remedy plan.

My debts are from when I was younger, earning less, and spending too much. Its that simple. I was actually nearer 15k debt this time last year.

However, i don't think I am a making best use of my monthly funds. Yes, i have been spending a bit too much, and as a result i got rid of my expensive car, and decided to get a much cheaper to run and insure car very recently too.

I am paying off my debts, i just want to do it a quickly, as possible, without losing too much to Interest!!

My bank loan was £6000 and i got it down to the current level, then as i took HSBC plus on my bank account, i re-negotiated it to take advantage of the 10% interest back at the end. I added in a little bit to it to cover a large gas bill (£450) as they had messed up my meter readings!

I am trying to find the APRs on the creditcards at the moment, but its not easy to see on the statements!

I worked out that i was paying 1.12% interest a month on the MBNA and 1.4% a month on the Halifax. Do i just multiplay this % by 12?

Silaqui

Hello there :-)

As adviced, post a SOA from the link above. This will help people to take a look at your situation and see how best to go about things.

Make sure you put the apr's on the credit cards when you fill in the SOA as you are not up to the limits on them it may be worth transferring them around to get them onto the lowest rate cards and then closing the other accounts. For example (depending on interest rates) you could pay off Egg and Cap One with one of the other cards, leaving you with fewer debts to keep track of and less available credit to affect your rating.

Once you have shuffled things about you will be able to use the snowball calculator (also linked above) to figure out the best way to pay them off :cool:

Good luck xx

Multidebter

Why am i struggling to work out the APRs and how do i work out the minimum monthly payment %?

The snowball thingy says it will take me 199 months?!


*EDIT*
Ahhh, I get it.

Wow, if i get 0% interest on the two largest for 12 monthsand pay back 250 a month, i am debt free in 34 months?!

Wow, that snowball thingy is a great motivator!!!