Clearing an £1,800 overdraft

mollymunchkin

Newbie to this thread, please be gentle!

My OH has an £1,800 overdraft with NatWest and I'm looking for the best way to clear it. Is it possible to switch the debt to a 0% CC? Or is a loan better?

Sorry if this has been covered elsewhere, please feel free to point me in the right direction. Thanks :j

MM

Emmzi

How much spare do you have to make repayments each month?

0% cc good if
- there is no balance transfer fee
- he can pay it off by end of 0% period

mollymunchkin

Thanks for your reply Emmzi. He could probably pay it off in a year or less. I'm reading Martin's articles on Super Balance Transfers so I'll probably go for one of those. Just got to do some more reading to decide which one.

Wonder_Girl

Is the overdraft free? If so, and he can clear itwithin a year, you may as well leave it where it is.

$17mma

Whatever card you decide to use to transfer to the overdraft make sure that the card is super balance transfer cards as not all of them will let you transfer to a bank account.

WPC

I am in a simular position but have £3,500 overdraft to pay off.

I have applied for a Virgin Credit card that is 0% for 9 months and 2% charge for super balance transfer. ( Sales assistant assures me that I am able to carry out a Super Balance transfer)

Was horrified when bank sent me a statement stating that they were going to charge me £52 for the month (LLoyds TSB)

mollymunchkin

Many thanks for your replies

Wonder_Girl - no the overdraft isn't free, that's the main reason we're trying to move it. I asked him what interest rate it was and he didn't know. "Something like 20%" he thinks.

WPC- thanks for the tip re the Virgin card. I was looking at the Mint card, 0% until March 2007, so the Virgin card is slightly better.

We had a long chat about everything this afternoon and did a budget. I'm a SAHM (have been at home for 19 months now) and I think we've been carrying on like I'm still working and taking home £1,500 a month. I receive barely £112 I hate being in debt and want to stay at home looking after DS but I may have to go back to the dreaded work if things don't improve. We only owe £3,200 in total but I want to get things sorted before they get out of control. I'm doing a car boot sale tomorrow to get rid of a load of old junk and make a few quid to add to the coffers.

Sorry, went on a bit there.

brranger

You could open a new Current Acc to use day to day and then add money to your old Acc each month to lower it. Alliance and Leicester is highly recommended and they have a 0% overdraft for the 1st year you can use some of that to pay off the old on and the rate is only 5.9% after that.

YorkshireBoy

mollymunchkin,

With the Mint card you'll have to use a credit card cheque to get the money in your current account. Some potential Mint issues...

1. Mint are known to give low limits, and

2. The cheques are not always sent out straight away, and

3. The BT fee is uncapped

Having said that, you will get an 'anniversary' offer next year (so you can BT the remaining debt elsewhere for a short while before bringing it back to Mint for another 0% period).

The Virgin card may be a better option because it's BT fee is capped at £50, although it doesn't have an anniversary offer.

However, the Virgin T&C's may catch out the unwary - unless you're very disciplined. As with all MBNA run cards, the minimum payment during the 0% introductory period is only £5. The danger here is that you don't overpay on top of your min payment DD so at the end of the introductory period you owe £40 less than when you started - an absolute disaster in any debt management plan!