money needed quickly

anniebeetham

My very elderly car failed its MOT; no good throwing any more money at it; have decided on scrappage scheme.
I signed the paperwork on Wednesday and this is my position:
1 I have £7000 to pay
2 I have an egg credit card with a credit limit of £3,800 & they won't increase limit
3 I have a cooperative member's credit card with a limit of £2000
4 I have just applied for & been accepted for a Virgin 0% balance transfer card
5 I have some savings so could pay up to £2000 of the cost of the car
6 The car dealership offers 5.9% loan
7 The car is ready to pick up on Tuesday - decision to use scrappage scheme had to be made quickly as tax & MOT run out today!
THE QUESTIONS:
How best to pay?
Could I take dealership loan then do a 0% transfer or are transfers only for credit card debt?
Could I use both credit cards - almost all available & make up rest with cash?
Could I organise a personal loan then transfer to 0% card?
Any other ideas?

Hope someone can help.

CLAPTON

how much can you repay each month?

is the dealers interest rate of 5.9% the APR or the 'flat rate' (a flat rate of 5.9 would be about 12-13% APR)?

does their loan allow overpayments?
has the dealer credit checked you so you know this rate is real and not a 'typical' rate?

the virgin deal is attractice but you don't yet know what the credit limit will be
what are the APRs of your credit cards
does the dealer accept credit cards?

anniebeetham

Many thanks for this, Clapton.

I could pay about £150 or up to £200 at a stretch

Dealers rate, I've just been told, is a 5% flat rate

They do allow overpayments

Dealer hasn't credit checked me

Egg APR 16.9%
Coop 15.9%

Dealer does accept credit card with 3% charge

Hope this info helps.

CLAPTON

all a bit complicated

but just my view

the dealer is offering about 10-11 APR
your credit cards will cost you 3% fee plus 15.9 / 16.9% which seems a lot worse than the dealer's loan

If you can get a MBNA card then you can BT to your currrent a/c and so have cash although you pay a 3-4% fee.


So I would suggest you consider the following

- use your savings of 2k
- get a loan for 5,000
- if the MBNA goes through then BT up to about 2k (i.e. or the amount you can pay back in a year before the 0% deal runs out) and pay that back on the loan

anniebeetham

Thanks again. If I understand your advice correctly I could use the 2K cash + dealer's loan, then need to find a suitable MBNA card for which there is less urgency - ie I don't have to have it sorted within the next 2/3 days! Then transfer outstanding loan amount on to MBNA card.

Any guidance about which MBNA card would be most appropriate or where to find clear information?

CLAPTON

MBNA do CC themselves directly and also there are lots of badged cards like Virgin.
They allow BTs direct to bank account unlike most other CC.
So with most CCs its difficult to get actual cash and you can't BT from a loan to a CC and you haven't got enough time to get a new CC and do a BT in any event.
Now you have a Virgin card you may find it more difficult toget another MBNA card.

Look at the CC section of the main website for ideas about current good deals and also MBNA website http://www.mbna.co.uk/creditcards/mbnacards.html

I'm only suggesting you use you the Virgin card to BT whatever you can repay during the 0% BT deal otherwise you will be trapped into a high APR deal once it ends.

invisiblecabbage

what about a tesco credit card ...you will earn clubcard points as well?

anniebeetham

Thanks for this suggestion - I did think about it, but fear it's just too late to apply for & activate a Tesco CC.
I didn't forsee this being the end of my trusty VW otherwise I would have planned ahead a bit more & been prepared. As it was, decisions had to be made very quickly - isn't life complicated? :undecided

erickmiller

Wow.. Reading your post makes me think! It's a bit complicated but I believe there are indeed ways to get it over and solve your problem. I wish you luck!