Advice on my HSBC interest per month.

tomfun

Hi
I`ve had a credit card with HSBC for about 4 years now ,i also bank with them .
I`ve always payed the minimum payment by direct debit but after reading my last printed statement i couldn`t believe the amount of interest i had been paying.

My balance last month was £2596.64 after paying the minimum payment of £64.92
i then saw i had payed £56.38 interest :eek:

My new balance is now £2588.10 ,so i had only payed £8.54 off the balance.

I can`t get another credit card because my credit rating is not as good as it was.

Do i have any other options to help reduce this interest or is the only way to pay off a bit more?

cheers

heloid

Even if you manage to transfer it to a 0% balance transfer card and pay no interest besides the transfer fee you will still take almost 4 years to pay this off at your current rate (and not spend on it either).

I would seriously consider paying more. If you need help and advise hop over to the Debt Free wannabe forum and post a thread there.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=76

Moggles_2

I can`t get another credit card because my credit rating is not as good as it was.

Is it possible to move some/all of the balance to a new card in your partner's name, if there is one? This would buy you some time to pay down the debt.

Admittedly, the best balance transfer deals are usually reserved for new customers, but you don't have to apply for a new card to get new credit. If you play your cards right, you can cut your costs using the credit card(s) you already hold. For details, please read Martin's *Credit Card Shuffle* article

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/car...-card-interest

Meanwhile, I would stop spending on this card, if you haven't already, and concentrate on paying off as much as possible each month. Clearing this debt ASAP will reduce the interest you pay and you'll be building a better credit history in the process. This, in turn, reduces the risk that HSBC will raise your interest rate(s)/cut your credit limit.

tomfun

Thanks for the advice, i haven`t used the card for about a year now, i can pay more than the minimum payment, but i was more concerned about the amount of interest i will still be paying.

Moggles_2

tomfun wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. I haven`t used the card for about a year now. I can pay more than the minimum payment, but i was more concerned about the amount of interest i will still be paying.

Yes, it can get scary.

If you plug some numbers into this credit card calculator, you can estimate the time it would take to clear the balance at different rates of interest. You can also see the effect of increasing your payments by a few pounds

http://www.whatsthecost.com/creditcard.aspx

sharpy2010

tomfun wrote: »

Thanks for the advice, i haven`t used the card for about a year now, i can pay more than the minimum payment, but i was more concerned about the amount of interest i will still be paying.

The best and fastest way to clear that debt quickly, is to pay more off than you currently do. You'll still pay interest, but the actual debt will decrease a lot more quickly. You'll be surprised how quickly it goes down

exel1966

tomfun wrote: »

Thanks for the advice, i haven`t used the card for about a year now, i can pay more than the minimum payment, but i was more concerned about the amount of interest i will still be paying.

You could always ring the card company and ask them to reduce the APR on the card. It does happen !
If you don't ask, you don't get so for the sake of the cost of a phonecall ?

Gorgeous_George

tomfun wrote: »

Hi
I`ve had a credit card with HSBC for about 4 years now ,i also bank with them .
I`ve always payed the minimum payment by direct debit but after reading my last printed statement i couldn`t believe the amount of interest i had been paying.

My balance last month was £2596.64 after paying the minimum payment of £64.92
i then saw i had payed £56.38 interest :eek:

My new balance is now £2588.10 ,so i had only payed £8.54 off the balance.

I can`t get another credit card because my credit rating is not as good as it was.

Do i have any other options to help reduce this interest or is the only way to pay off a bit more?

cheers

FWIW, I have £47K outstanding on a mortgage that costs less than that per month!

Could you borrow from somewhere - an overdraft would probably be cheaper? The balance transfer sounds like good advice if it's possible. How about a second job, maybe just a few hours per week and throw all the earnings at the card.

Have you got something that you could sell? Ebay and car boot sales might bring in some money.

GG

CLAPTON

you are paying an APR of about 26%
and monthly repayments of about 2.5% of the balance
so you will probably be dead by the time it takes to pay this off (i.e. 77 years)
and you will have spent over 17,000 in interest


if you pay any extra 50 per month then it will all be paid off in 4 years and you only pay 1,300 in interest

tomfun

Thanks for the help , i didn`t think that paying off even £10 extra per month would make such a big difference ..it would save thousands on the interest.

I can afford another £50 per month ,after i`ve made a few savings lately (phoned sky to reduce our package from £57 ,by taking off sports and movies they told me there was an offer on my account and reduced it to £41 with no changes made

Gorgeous_George

£41 per month for Sky TV is far too much. It's £492 per year for goodness sake!.

I suggest you record loads of films and can Sky movies and SkySports for a month or two. I can't believe that any sane person gets £41 worth of value from Sky.

GG