Some Advice Please

izoomzoom

Please can you give me some suggestions on how to deal with our cc debts:

*M&S £962, 18.9% till account closed.
PO, £1395 of £2600, 0% till 25 March, thereafter 16.9%
Barclaycard, £1440 of £3000, 0% till 31 May 2010, thereafter 14.9%
*HSBC, £1823 of £2500, 0% till 16 May 2010, thereafter 16.9%

At the moment we pay min balance on all except M&S, which is abt an extra £75.

Both DH and I (my cards are *) have had cc applications turned down recently. DH was not on voters roll, so have applied for that to be rectified. I have been self employed for the past 9 months.

I am aware that if we do a new BT to PO, it will be 0% for 5 months.
I am also aware that we can probably ask for HSBC and Barclaycard to increase our credit limits, OR would it be better to see if we can get them to give us a better rate when the 0%s end, or do BOTH ???????
I am aware that Barclaycard do life of balance at 6.9% (or something like that), but will that be for the balance that is currently on the card, or a new BT.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

miss_missy

izoomzoom wrote: »

Please can you give me some suggestions on how to deal with our cc debts:

*M&S £962, 18.9% till account closed.
PO, £1395 of £2600, 0% till 25 March, thereafter 16.9%
Barclaycard, £1440 of £2000, 0% till ?? April 2010, thereafter 14.9%
*HSBC, £1823 of £2500, 0% till 16 May 2010, thereafter 16.9%

At the moment we pay min balance on all except M&S, which is abt an extra £75.

Both DH and I (my cards are *) have had cc applications turned down recently. DH was not on voters roll, so have applied for that to be rectified. I have been self employed for the past 9 months.

I am aware that if we do a new BT to PO, it will be 0% for 5 months.
I am also aware that we can probably ask for HSBC and Barclaycard to increase our credit limits, OR would it be better to see if we can get them to give us a better rate when the 0%s end, or do BOTH ???????
I am aware that Barclaycard do life of balance at 6.9% (or something like that), but will that be for the balance that is currently on the card, or a new BT.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

hi not sure which moves would be best on this but just wanted to give you some pointers the bt to barclaycard of 6.9% would only be on the new transfer amount so you would still be paying 14.9% on the 1440 already on the card when the 0% runs out and also most cc may you pay off the lower interest amount first. i would try and get the barclaycard cleared before trying for a LOB to it

hth

izoomzoom

thanks.
Hoping to move the 1440 to another card and then back again, but I don't have enough credit limit, need to get them increased, have done another thread about that, but still need advice on the the logistic of it all, and whether it is worth double BT fees :think:

CannyJock

izoomzoom wrote: »

*M&S £962, 18.9% till account closed.
PO, £1395 of £2600, 0% till 25 March, thereafter 16.9% (1075 available - 95%)
Barclaycard, £1440 of £3000, 0% till ?? April 2010, thereafter 14.9% (1260 available - 90%)
*HSBC, £1823 of £2500, 0% till 16 May 2010, thereafter 16.9% (552 - 95%)

At the moment we pay min balance on all except M&S, which is abt an extra £75.

PO, it will be 0% for 5 months.

Not a lot of room to move on this - what you really need is to try for another 0% card in a few months time. Best I can come up with is:

Transfer £976 from M&S to PO (balance+residual interest) for 0% for 5 months to clear your most expensive debt and have that card closed. Double check 0% still available and ask them to waive the fee. Will give you a mixture of 0% and 16.9% for 5 months but will still save you some money. Pay the extra £75 to the HSBC card, that's your next highest APR card.

From what you've said, you'll be paying £212 next month. Keep on paying at least that till you've cleared all the debts - don't just pay an extra £75 per month. Increase it by £6 or £7 every month as the min payments come down on the other cards so you're always paying at least £212

Asking for a credit limit increase is fine so long as they don't do another search of your credit record. If they need to search, then don't bother, keep your searches for fresh applications.

Will do no harm to ask Barclaycard to increase your limit by £1600 without a search and a fee-free LOB balance transfer at 6.9% LOB so you can clear your HSBC card - you might need to wait till your current 0% with them expires though - phone and ask them what the chances are.

EDIT: Spent some time trying different shuffle options - nothing worth doing with those balances, limits and APR unless you could get it fee-free.

izoomzoom

Thank you.

Managed to get Barclaycard increase the limit to £3000 yesterday (we must have both been on thread at same time), with the view of moving a new balance there for the 6.9% offer, when the 0% package ends.

DH can phone PO on Sat (the day he leaves country for over a month) to up his limit (anniversary of card), and that is the day that 0% deal starts again, and also to transfer the M&S balance.

Thinking about asking HSBC to increase limit too (just so that I can move Barclaycard off first) and the balance transfer that and HSBC balance to Barc for the 6.9% offer.

Six months down the line aim to have 6.9% (for HSBC and Barc) and 16.9% for (PO and M&S) and shut the other cards down.

How does this sound ? I am inclined to try and get as much as we can onto the 6.9% and then sit tight for a few months (probably end of year) before we try for another 0% card.

How success are people in getting bank to wavier the BT fee ??

CannyJock

Having a leisurely Monday, so put some numbers together to show you how your plan would work:



You'll notice how the allocation of payments means that whil you'll still be making at least minimum payments, they're allocated to the lowest APR balance. Above makes assumptions on payment dates and statement dates so won't be 100% accurate, but good enough to illustrate.

Key thing is to reduce your balances as much as possible before taking up the special offers.

billy36

thank you very much

CannyJock

If you were able to clear the Barclaycard to HSBC then transfer it back, in the short term, you won't save money because of the BT fee, but over the longer term you will.