Credit Card Debt Advice

paddy1985

Hi guys,

I'm after a little advice from your experience if possible.

I currently have some debts which I need to overcome, they are as follows -

Egg Card - £2700
Virgin Card - £2800
TSB Card - £1100

The Egg Card is interest free but that expires in April this year whilst the Virgin one expires in September this year.

I've applied for a Post Office interest free card but got turned down, as far as I know my credit rating is ok so not sure why that happened. But I'm a little unsure now if I'm going to be successful applying for others on the basis of being turned down for this one.

My other option is to go for a loan and consolidate the debts together and pay them off over a few years.

What would you guys do? Anyone have any experience at all? I'm happy to be a card tart as Martin calls it but bit unsure after being turned down if this is an option.

Cheers.

Pad

DarkConvict

You can get turned down for a host of reasons, each creditor scores you differently, so you never known. Limit applications to 3 per 3 months, or 1 a month if that's easier to remember. Too many searches damage your score on most systems.

Always repay the one with highest interest first, so i assume make as high payments as possible to Lloyds TSB first, then Egg then Virgin. Based on current rates.

Post up an SOA, see if you can reduce your outgoings - http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

Avoid consolidation, you nearly always pay more that way just over a longer time. The only good consolidation is on Payday loans as they charge over 1000% APR. The other issue is mentally with lower repayments you spend more money, meaning you can actually get further into debt because you think you are better of when actually you are worse off in the long run. Its the optical illusion of the finance world. In actual fact the best thing is higher repayments over a lower APR in 99% of cases.

paddy1985

Thanks for the replies guys!

Yep Leanne you'd think a spammer would be more creative!

Cheers for the advice DarkConvict, much appreciated. I'm just going to apply for the Santander credit card and see what they say.