retired with high interest cc

slamw123

Hi, looking for advice for my father. He is 72 does not work, no real income other than state pension. The problem I have is he is very independent, runs up debts on his credit card faster than he can pay it off. He's had the card since the year dot so the interest being charged at @ 21% apr. Trying to find a card with lower apr that will accept him (tried a couple but with no income! declined!).
Any help appreciated thanks steve.

Martinslovechild

Does your Father receive pension payments? If so, these can be stated under income received.

Try for an Egg Card.

Tim_L

Does he own his own home? If he does then there might be some possibility of a secured loan or equity release to pay off his debts (at which point the sensible thing to do would be to destroy the credit cards), though you need professional advice on this because equity release has very many pitfalls for the unwary.

If he doesn't own his home and has no significant assets, then I must say I probably wouldn't be too worried about the debts - the worse case option which would be bankruptcy won't significantly worsen his situation (and may actually improve things), and as I understand things no-one is obliged to pick up his debts if he were to die. But again, you would have to take advice on the details of the situation in case this caused a problem with security of tenure of rented accomodation.

If you can persuade your father to do it, a good tactic would be to write to the credit card company explaining that he is a 72 year old state pensioner, he wishes to meet his obligations for interest payments, but is likely to default on the loan unless he is moved to a card with a better interest rate. This may well concentrate their minds on providing a route to get the capital paid off, and I personally would have no scruples about doing this since a 22% interest rate in this day and age is nothing short of usury.