Paying off a credit card.

slideshowbob

davetrousers wrote: »

If you're in debt, seldom is it a good idea to get another loan.

Have to agree entirely with you, the loan I have now was supposed to consolidate a couple of CCs and a loan, and that loan was supposed to do the same and I was stupid at every stage managing to increase the debt, not work to decrease it.

CannyJock

slideshowbob wrote: »

Have to agree entirely with you, the loan I have now was supposed to consolidate a couple of CCs and a loan, and that loan was supposed to do the same and I was stupid at every stage managing to increase the debt, not work to decrease it.

A consolidation loan at 19.9% APR. Ouch.

Presumably it's for a fixed term so the interest is front-loaded and the gross amount is what's reported to the CRA's? Or is the interest added monthly and you've got the ability to pay more than a minimum amount?

Know someone who borrowed £25k from the Abbey only to find it appeared immediately as £38k on their credit report. Left them in a trap where the level of "debt" reported meant that nobody else would touch them so they couldn't get any 0% offers to help them reduce the interest they were paying.

slideshowbob

25k into 38 instantly, that is painful! My ~20% loan started off at 10 or 12 but a couple of rate-jacks later and it's climbed to nearly 20%.

It's a 'flexible' loan, so I can borrow upto the limit, or pay off as much as I want as I go. Until now though I've more or less been paying the minimum and borrowing back up to the max almost every month. I feel so stupid about doing it now that I've stopped and thought about it all, but on the brighter side at least I'm now doing something about it.