newbie - help

RAS

BeautyandtheBeast wrote: »

now out the £820 i hav put down for mortgage - that is actually into a joint account from which all the other bills (gas, electric, council tax groceries etc)come from - im just focusing on my sole debt.

i will have my payrisein september - it cant come quick enough!!!!

Actually that does matter. This is where you may be able to find some savings, by comparing providers, useing www.quidco.com to swap etc.


have you done the basics, like check if the electriicty and gas are in credit or not, checked providers for insurance etc?

BeautyandtheBeast_3

THE virgin has a promotional rate for a further 8 months and im not paying any interest just a flat fee per month of £25 (but i pay £50). it will revert to 16.6 after the 8 months. The egg card im paying 2.5% interest per month with 16.9%

gold card - 20.9%
tesco card - £16.9%
virgin card - 0.0% or 16.6% after 8 months
next account - 26.9%
m&s - 20.9%
egg - 16.9%

mine old fella is still the boss !!!

BeautyandtheBeast_3

RAS - yes we have checked all the suppliers and we have got the best deals possible on that score.

RAS

You used sense of cards/ if so, it will snowball your debts - tell youhow to pay them off fastest with the least interest payments.

That flat fee make the rate on the Virgin card about 6.5% now.

You need to clear the next card as a priority as that has the highest APR - much higher than the Virgin when the 0% deal finishes.

Katy_M_2

I would defo concentrate on getting your Next Card, M&S and Gold Cards paid off with as much as possible every month as these are the ones with the highest interest rates. You can focus less on the ones that you have the O% interest on for now.

Also think about what I said about grouping some of the smaller ones together.

I started off with a couple of credit cards, a loan and 2 store cards.

I paid off the store cards first (highest interest rates but low balances so easy to pay off) then cancelled them. (Then next time you get asked if you want a store card when you're shopping....just say NO)

Then I looked at some of my smaller debts and applied for a credit card which I could transfer them to without paying interest on the transfer. Although there is usually a small fee for balance transfers...and the o% only stays on offer on balances transferred in a certain time after opening the account.

It's important that you read all the terms and conditions so you dont get caught out paying interest.

Also....my AMAZING spreadsheet helps as you can see your exact budgets and plan ahead!

Katy_M_2

What I'm aiming for at the moment is to wait 6 months whilst my credit rating improves (I've just moved house and needed some extra cash so applied for a few cards in a short space of time) and also whilst my debts reduce a bit.

Then when the main bulk of my credit card is paid off I am going to apply for a credit card which I can hopefully transfer the balance of my loan onto.

I hate my loan. Pay wayyy too much interest on it and am stuck paying the same amout each month.

When my loan is transferred onto a credit card I can make as many payments on it as I want so can get it down faster.

You've just got to break it down and look at it all one step at a time

RAS

How much spare capacity have you got on the lower rate cards like the tesco card?

Would you be able to use the tesco card to pay for things instead of paying into the joint account and then pay that same amount off the next card, so you effectively transfer the debt to a lower rate card?

BeautyandtheBeast_3

Thanks guys! Next will get hammered then! so if i stick to just paying the £25 as requested to virgin (rather than the £50) and put that extra £25 towards the £13.00 already pay therefore a total of £38.00 per month goes the next account - when that is cleared cancel my account.

i have a credit limit of £1500 with tesco, £4500 with gold, £5200 with Virgin and £5500 with egg and £7600 with M&S.
RAS- not sure i understand about using Tesco to pay for stuff??

Katy - why cant they just ive it us and not have to pay it back???

Katy_M_2

BeautyandtheBeast wrote: »

Katy - why cant they just give it us and not have to pay it back???

This is a BRILLIANT idea :cool:

Although.....i think it falls into the category of Why can't all rivers be made of chocolate and all wallpaper lickable.

RAS

loan...........................13717.2...298.2.... .14.9
gold card......................493.33....12........20.9 - limit £4000
tesco..........................330.78....9........ .16.9 - limit £1500
egg............................4843.82...100...... .16.9 limit £5500
m&s............................2323.61...45....... .20.9 £7600
next...........................132.79....13....... .26.9
virgin.........................4652.51...50....... .16.6 limit £5200
.
At the moment you are paying over 16.9% on just shy of £2950 and yet you have about £2170 spare credit on cards that cost 16.9%.

If you transfer the £2150 debt from the next and gold cards and much of the M&s card to the tesco, egg and virgin cards you will pay a less interest every month and a lot less over time.

Feed both options into the snowball and see what we mean.

If you then close the next card and ring gold to close the gold card, there is a decent chance you will get a low LOB transfer balance offer from gold. At which point you transfer the rest of the M&S debt and as much as possible off one of the 16.9% cards.