Fed up with my credit card

Luna69

Hi
First time I've posted on here, although I read regularly. I thought I might get some advice on a credit card that I'm a bit peeved with.

Firstly we do have a fair bit of debt we are working through. We have our own business, although mostly my partners and we've only been running nearly 2 years and last year we ran at a loss, so although work is good, we struggle a lot. If we didn't have the debt we have, we'd probably be ok. We just manage to pay our bills at the moment, but have no spare money really.

Anyway, back to the card, I have a Virgin card which I owe just under £7,000 on from transferring other cards. I am paying the interest now which is hefty.
For example I paid £100 off last month, about as much as I can manage at the moment and it is just above my minimum repayment, but from that I paid £76 interest!! It's very deflating.

I don't seem to be able to get any 0% cards right now, probably because of self employment and I was late paying a couple of payments on another card a while ago. I have just attempted to apply for a natwest card as I am a customer, see if I have any luck there, but don't hold out much hope.
Plus my partner always seems to pay late on his cards too, which will probably have some part to play in our credit rating.
This card is my worst one my others are pretty small and manageable.

What I was wondering was if I still have no joy in getting another 0% or cheaper rate card, should I add it to an existing loan we have? We already still have about 3 years to pay on it, so means we'd have to spread it out longer, but I figured that the time it will take me to pay this card off will be considerably longer at the rate I'm paying. We're hoping that over time, hopefully soon we'll be able to pay off larger amounts or even the whole lot, but it's not likely right now.

Also I have 4 cards, one I keep to spend on, but I only use it occasionally if I need to purchase abroad and need a credit card, then pay it straight off next month. The other 3 I am just paying off, don't spend on them at all.
I have 2 halifax cards, one is a pay off other is the spend card, but the spend card is a higher interest rate to the pay off one. I was wondering if I'd have much luck in trying to get them to lower the rate on the spend card, when I've cleared it again, to transfer the large virgin card onto, if they will let me and just pay that one off? My pay off halifax card is 12.9% I think and the spend one is 18.9%. Not sure what virgin is, think around 15.9%, so 12 is marginally better, but could do with something even better again.
Our loan is a Northern Rock one so interest on that was around 6% when we took it out.

It's so confusing and thougth someone may be able to help or advise on the best thing to do.


Thanks
Yvonne

toontastic

I would start by posting your SOA on here so people can see if they can save you any cash to pay towards your CC. I would also stop applying leave it maybe 6 months as it goes against your credit history getting rejected so many times.

richgirl

You could try for a low % for life card such as Intelligent finance at 4.9%

CLAPTON

just a thought...why dont you set up minimum payments by Direct Debts so you never forget to meet a payment...you can still overpay if you wish

you may want to get a experian summary of your credit record ..it only costs about £2 so you can see whats on your record

its been suggested that you post a SoA, I would suggest the following foramt as it makes it easier to read

If you browse the bulletin board you will see examples but the general format is

: statement of income:

: statement of expenditure
this should be quite detailed but excluding debt repayment
: a subtotal to save us all having to add it up

: statement of all debts including
outstanding amount, monthly repayment , APR
a subtotal to save us having to add it up

also add a brief details of you situation, partner, any children, rent or own property, value of house and mortgage, any special circumstances that are relevant

Luna69

Thanks, have attempted an SOA before and never got very far, so know I need to do one again. HOwever being 7 months pregnant with child number 3 at the moment I'm not up to much thinking!!

I haven't applied for a 0% card in quite a while now, I did get one of them, but they'd only give me a credit limit of £400 which was no use.

I did tried a low life of balance card too and had no luck there either.

When I can I'll try to sort out an SOA then maybe someone can help see where we can go.

Income is difficult regarding actual work we don't know that yet. Last year we made a loss following the self assesment, so how would we work that one??
We do get other money in which I can account for.

Thanks
Yvonne

toontastic

I'm guessing you have some sort of spendable income though ? If you just put that and then all your payments then people should be able to sort something. In fact if you can just get a list of the amounts you pay out then I'm sure people will be able to make you some cut backs which could then go on your cards.

roswell

firstly any cards your "just paying off" cut up, secondly why pay off some debts on one card and raise new debt on another ... thats self deffeting so best starting point will be cut up ALL cards, second is get a copy of your credit reports off each agency, close any accounts that are settled or £0 balance, they look at moving debt to new cards, its most likely you either have to much debt or to much available credit that is stopping you from getting good credit limits. List a state of affairs and lets see the damage

toontastic

Also £400 at 0% is better than £400 at 18.9% isn't it.