Credit card vs loan advice please!

jon0

Hi, just need a quick bit of advice please as I can't make up my mind which is the best idea.

Basically I have £5100 on an egg card (limit £6000, 0% offer just run out) and £4000 on a Virgin card (limit £5000, 0% offer soon to expire). I always pay the minimum amount untill the 0% runs out and usually transfer to another card, but with quite large balances and no other cards to transfer to at the moment, I might get a bit stuck and end up paying more interest!

I am debating whether or not it's worth just getting a loan and getting rid of the cards as I don't plan on getting any further into debt, or trying to apply for other cards, but guessing with large balances I'll struggle to get some with a large enough limit!!

So basically do I get a loan over about 4 years and hope to be debt free at the end, or keep trying to do the credit card shuffle???

Don't know whether to commit to a loan or not :huh:

Thank you

JMW77

Its hard to get a loan with a good rate at the moment ,and if you get another credit card it would not give you a huge limit.

What is your credit rating like?

I would of paid much more off than the minimum amount as now you have a problem!

If it was me i would work out how much i could afford to pay a month but whatever you do dont go and get a loan over many years make it as short as possible and maybe get one more credit card cut all the old ones up ever use them again find a card with a decent limit if you can and start using your debit card for purchasing and when you have cleared your balance only have one credit card for emergencies only!

good luck!

JMW77

I have read some horror stories on here about rates so beware make sure its a fixed rate if you go down that route.

Do you have a any savings?

This week i thought enough was enough when the virgin credit card caught me out ,i paid off two credit cards with savings, and will close them as soon as i have a bill with £0 on them leaving me with 1 card soon to be clearedand then no more credit cards just an emergency one cleared every month no matter what .

jon0

Hi, thanks for replying, haven't a clue what my credit rating is like!!
No, I don't have any savings, just surviving as it is! Just thought if I was to get a loan for about £9500, and it would be over 3 and a half to 4 years on I think 8.2% then I could be debt free in the end!

Whereas if I was to keep getting new cards then I can see myself never paying it off.....???

JMW77

If you can get that rate that is really good especially if its fixed rate ,i have a direct line loan which i opened 2 years ago at 7.4% thank god thats fixed,but as for credit cards i've cashed in my savings and cleared them virtually, just have that loan now but no way am i going down the credit card route again ,i will have one ,paid of monthly but i'm never running debts up again.

Just get the shortest loan period you can afford ,and if possible one where you can make extra payments although most don't let you, but some do.

My last loan with lloyds tsb allowed to to make overpayments so i cut it down a lot but the loan i have now does not, so now my credit cards are cleared i want to save hard and see how quick i have the funds to clear it maybe knock a year off if i'm lucky but if not the rates ok i suppose!
Good luck see how you get on and keep us posted!