Credit card charges

Rebekah

I'm currently trying to sort out my money, so have been making minimum payments on my 3 credit cards for a couple of months whilst I work out exactly what I can afford. I usually pay with my debit card online, and have a list of the payment dates for each card. I hadn't missed any payments until yesterday. I can't pay by direct debit because sometimes I pay the monthly payments and sometimes my partner pays, depending what other bills we have. We haven't got a joint account at the moment.

The problem is with the card with the biggest limit (£2,000) because I accidently went over the limit without realising at the end of December. At the time I could only affod to make the minimum payment, which wasn't enough to stop it going over the limit again the next two months (January & February) when the interest was added on, so I got another £25 fee each time, fair enough (if maybe a bit excessive), but my fault. My next payment was due 24th March, and I put enough onto the card to pay off the interest, overlimit charge, and overlimit amount. Next statement arrived and I was back within the limit - happy days. My BIG problem is that somehow (I should have realised) my payment date for this month was the 16th (Easter Sunday). I only realised when I checked my statement yesterday morning, I immediately paid online with my debit card. I checked the online balance this morning and I was charged £25 for a late payment, which put me back over my limit, which then resulted in a further £25 overlimit charge.

I've been charged £25 for going £15 over my limit, due to a charge they took out, for paying 24 hours late! (the debit card payment went out on the same day). Surely even if I had paid on or just before the 16th it wouldn't have been processed until yesterday because of the bank holiday.

I know that it was me in the wrong for being late, but I've been trying really hard to pay off these cards and I'm now back exactly where I was 4 months ago, having paid over £300 in charges and interest. I looked into getting an interest free balance transfer card but have been turned down twice as i already have 3 cards. The other two are under control, with smaller limits.

Sorry this is such a long post, but I'm feeling really discouraged and need some advice. I can't afford to pay more than minimum at the moment.