£12000 on 2 credit cards, help please !!

jamesplayskeys

Hi guys, I have 2 credit cards which a one time or a another had 0% deals
Ive got £9750 on a lloyds tsb and 3500 on virgin, minimum paymets total are crippling at £300 and are not even making a dent in the balance. Ive tried applying for a couple of cards to cover the balance on 0%, latest was barcalycard and been turned down, Ive written to both L/tsb and virgin to see if they can help. Can u suggest anything else I could do.
Tried the sympathy vote with lloyds as been with them over 20 years and it was at one of their account reviews that they suggested taking such a big credit limit to pay off other cards I had at the time, which I have since cancelled
Regards
James

izools

What is your credit history like? Have you been in your job / home / bank for a long time?

What is your income to debt ratio like? more and more creditors like to see your total owed on credit cards / loans to be under about 1/3 of your annual income.

Have you applied for a lot of credit recently? How many credit searches have been performed on you in the last six months?

jamesplayskeys

tbh dnt know about credit history, did have a lot of debt from wen was about 18, being very stupid with loads etc, but thats paid off, and always meet the payments on cards etc. been in this job 8 years and one before 121/2 years. I rent with wife, rent is £500 a month, Net income for me is £1100 a month, £360 for her. Havnt done any credit searches are they easy/ cheap to do? and only applied for the 2 cards
tbh honest been burying head in sand too long

izools

jamesplayskeys wrote: »

tbh dnt know about credit history, did have a lot of debt from wen was about 18, being very stupid with loads etc, but thats paid off, and always meet the payments on cards etc. been in this job 8 years and one before 121/2 years. I rent with wife, rent is £500 a month, Net income for me is £1100 a month, £360 for her. Havnt done any credit searches are they easy/ cheap to do? and only applied for the 2 cards
tbh honest been burying head in sand too long

OK just some little pointers:

When I say "Credit Searches" I mean you applying for anything that is credit scored - like a mobile phone, landline, credit card, loan, mortgage, insurance, etc.

All of these things are "Credit Scored" when you apply and leave a footprint on your credit files.The more footprints in a short space of time, the more it hurts your credit score.

So if you apply for say three credit cards and a loan, a record of the fact you applied will be visible to other creditors who search your credit file for 12 months.

Any more than two applications in the last six months, comes accross as desperation or debt stress to potential creditors so you get stuck in a spiral of declines if you apply too much.


Also it would be a good idea to get a copy of your credit report, via something like CreditExpert.co.uk (Experian) so that you can see if there is any adverse information on there. Like missed or late payments in the last six years, any defaults (where you've failed to repay on time for a prolonged period resulting in the creditor ending the agreement), etc etc. All of this is recorded for six years for creditors to see when you apply for something.

Finally it sounds like your income to debt ratio is rather unappealing to a potential creditor, in so much as you owe about two thirds of what your gross annual income is. That's assuming the two credit cards you mentioned is the only debt you have.


I would reccomend you pop back here once you've got your credit report. You can do it online, and you'll want to look for the following:

1. Under "Electoral Roll" information make sure your registration is showing
2. Under "Previous searches" check how many credit applications there have been in the last six months. "Unrecorded enquiries" and "Quotation searches" aren't counted.
3. Under "Account Information" check to see if there are any "Default" accounts, and check the active accounts to see if any have missed payments. They should all show green zeroes.

Good luck, and keep us posted!!