phone and credit card debt

travelling_light

19 year old daughter has got into a mess and buried head in sand. now has £525 orange bill - for massive tel calls to boyfriend!!!! and she had a £35 month deal... lost the phone months ago and did nothing....
so now passed to credit co. who want £750 as they say she now owes a termination fee or she could be re-connected ... no thanks...or just pay £580 all in one go.
In addition has £300 owing on halifax credit card at 25%
also @£100 overdrawn - unauthorised. Has p/t job earns @ £300 per month.
should she
1. get new ccard and transfer £300 to it and get 0% on spending deal and pay off the £580... then pay this card off regularly.
or...any ideas
at present I have all her cards....grrrr:mad:

chattychappy

travelling_light wrote: »

19 year old daughter has got into a mess and buried head in sand. now has £525 orange bill - for massive tel calls to boyfriend!!!! and she had a £35 month deal... lost the phone months ago and did nothing....
so now passed to credit co. who want £750 as they say she now owes a termination fee or she could be re-connected ... no thanks...or just pay £580 all in one go.
In addition has £300 owing on halifax credit card at 25%
also @£100 overdrawn - unauthorised. Has p/t job earns @ £300 per month.
should she
1. get new ccard and transfer £300 to it and get 0% on spending deal and pay off the £580... then pay this card off regularly.
or...any ideas
at present I have all her cards....grrrr:mad:

Don't blame you for not wanting the phone reconnected. But will she live without the phone? (I can hear people saying she'll have to.) Continuing the contract could be a cost effective way of continuing to make calls rather than have to pay orange anyway (albeit a reduced amount) and buy endless PAYG top ups. What about the boyfriend? Maybe he'll help out??? Time to find out how serious he is... For the future maybe look at landline calls, or skype if they are both at home alot.

Yep I think you have the right idea I think. If she can still get credit, get a card that does 0% on spending and balance transfers as you say. Perhaps apply for two cards - one with a long purchase deal for the Orange debt, and one for a long BT deal for the Halifax debt. If they do cheques on the same basis, then you could cover the (small) overdraft as well.

If she can't get credit, can you help? If you can, I suggest you charge interest. It's crazy if you are getting miniscule savings interest whilst someone in your family is paying high APRs. I used to do this with my parents when I was a kid. Keep it in the family. When I was at university I got a sponsorship whilst my parents got divorced. A tidy profit for me.... I think I was the only student who finished the course being owed money rather than being in debt. Over the years it's swung back and forth. We've carried on this way ever since. Our "family LIBOR rate" is about 2% above base. No forms, no fuss. Just a cash book...

Seriously, a good way to keep an eye on her financial affairs - if she's paying you interest there's no bad feeling on either side as you're both better off than using commercial banks. And when you get old and decrepid...

CannyJock

travelling_light wrote: »

19 year old daughter has got into a mess and buried head in sand. now has £525 orange bill - for massive tel calls to boyfriend!!!! and she had a £35 month deal... lost the phone months ago and did nothing....
so now passed to credit co. who want £750 as they say she now owes a termination fee or she could be re-connected ... no thanks...or just pay £580 all in one go.
In addition has £300 owing on halifax credit card at 25%
also @£100 overdrawn - unauthorised. Has p/t job earns @ £300 per month.
should she
1. get new ccard and transfer £300 to it and get 0% on spending deal and pay off the £580... then pay this card off regularly.
or...any ideas
at present I have all her cards....grrrr:mad:

If she's done without the phone for a few months then no need to reconnect. They will still have sent her statements I'm guessing confirming the £££'s she owed them?

Unlikely she'll get a decent 0% card deal, and she's now probably put a black mark on her credit report if the phone's been passed to collections. If she's exceeded her overdraft limit that'll also be on her credit report.

You could take the debt on to help her out, but that's totally a personal call. If I were doing it, I'd be taking her £300 per month and paying her back a frugal allowance from it, and trying to get her to increase the hours she's working or take on a second part-time job. But that's just me I'd also be extorting money from the boyfriend for the phone calls

She needs (with your help by the sounds of it) to clear the current debts then basically try and start again to paint a better credit picture, accepting she's put herself in a negative position. If you look at the Virgin Money card, you can transfer the £300 Halifax balance directly to it for a 2.98% fee, transfer the £100 overdraft to it for a 4% fee and transfer £580 to your bank account to settle the mobile phone contract, again with a 4% fee. You'll then have 16 months for her to repay the money.