My SoA

miss_missy

Hi
if you make a list of what your credit limits are on all the cards and when 0% finish on the cards and what the aprs will be people may be able to advise you on shuffling around the debt and then make a plan for which to pay off first in the future.
this is how i started and then i managed to get deals with my cards as i cleared balances

well done with asking for help and good luck

miss_missy

forgot to add i agree with bloodofareptile get rid of the the capital one card but i think you could actually do it in 1 month you already pay £10 min add the £244 extra you have each month and if you use your £50 clothing budget for the month thats £304 which should pay off that debt
just a thought

mrsspendalot

I'll suss out when the other 0% deals end - I'm sure it's July for Santander and September for Debenhams. Think both APRs will be 18.9% when they finish - will dig out last statements shortly and double check. Tesco APR will be 15.9% and finishes in the summer also, as that was a 9 month deal.


The credit limits are as follows:
Natwest OD £5500
Natwest Student OD £500
Debenhams £3000
Santander £3000
Capital One £6000
Sainsburys £1900
Tesco £400

We also currently have an empty Halifax card £3000 limit at 15.9% APR (we have just paid that one off but are wondering whether to use it for balance transfers?) The other cards on 0% were all balance transfer deals, shifting it all around to get as much on 0% as possible. There is no new spending on them.

Just to add, we are ebaying like mad and sending all the extra to the overdraft at the moment - should be switch and send it to cards instead?

miss_missy

hi
just to let you know halifax often offer LOB deals if you call them
you pay 1% min payment to halifax which frees up extra to pay higher rate cards we go a LOB offer from them at 3.9% that was back at the end of 2008 im not sure what they offer at the minute but someone on the credit card forum may have idea
then once your sure of 0% end date i would call and ask halifax about what they can offer you closer to the date

i would personal do what i said about paying the cap one card next month then from april pay as much as you can to the sainsbury card you could possible pay around 340 to this a month if you pay the 37 min the 244 extra 10 that wont be going to cap on anymore and your 50 clothing budget and that card could be clear in approx 5 months paying like this just as some of your other 0% start to end

this way also lets you see balances start clear which is always good to see and helps you to feel your achieving

not sure if cap one offer any LOB deals if they do once you clear it a good amount of you debt could be put on this

hope that makes sense

miss_missy

the tescos card if you finish paying sainsburys one like i suggest by aug/sep then you could pay tescos off in full in one month
i think that by my suggest and paying as i said by around oct you could have clear cap one, sainsburys and tesco card which would be great

mrsspendalot

Makes sense, thank you. Our scary debt is the overdraft, hence concentrating our efforts on that so far. But if you think it is best to sort the cards first then we can change strategy.

mrsspendalot

I also have access to a 12.9% £1100 overdraft - not currently overdrawn. Would it be worth using any of this at the moment to swallow some higher interest debt? This is my 'safety net' at the moment in case anything unexpected crops up.

miss_missy

personally i would work at the cards there higher interest rate and you could see them at 0 much quicker than the overdraft and i always get a buzz seeing ive paid something of and makes me work harder to pay more off

i would do the work on the credit cards until about october that i have suggested then shift the debt around on to life of balance transfer and then all the extra put at the overdraft

its up to you at the end of the day which way will work best im sure some other people will have suggestions on what to get rid of first

also another thing you could do if you want to do my plan of the credit cards option is try and reduce your groceries even just by £30 a month and put that £30 towards the overdraft so it is reducing a little faster

miss_missy

i would leave the other overdraft alone at present because you can manage to reduce the higher aprs fairly quickly and its always good to have a back up incase of an emergency

mrsspendalot

miss_missy wrote: »

personally i would work at the cards there higher interest rate and you could see them at 0 much quicker than the overdraft and i always get a buzz seeing ive paid something of and makes me work harder to pay more off

i would do the work on the credit cards until about october that i have suggested then shift the debt around on to life of balance transfer and then all the extra put at the overdraft

its up to you at the end of the day which way will work best im sure some other people will have suggestions on what to get rid of first

also another thing you could do if you want to do my plan of the credit cards option is try and reduce your groceries even just by £30 a month and put that £30 towards the overdraft so it is reducing a little faster

Yep the groceries is the top of my hit list - getting really 'tight' going round the supermarket. Been doing really well with that so far, and I know from experience I can do better. Natwest have said they are ok with the OD as long as enough money goes in each month to cover the interest and charges so we try and cover those plus a little more so the debt is decreasing. I'll have a chat with DH and see how he feels about leaving the OD alone for now (like I said previously, it's all his debt apart from the Tesco CC which is mine, so I should run this past him first)