A Chronic Case of Overspending......

loobyloo1980

Welcome to the board and well done on your lightbulb moment. It's great to know that no matter how much you owe, we are all in the same boat on here. You seem pretty well determined to get this sorted, although I agree that if possible you should tackle this as a couple as it might work out easier and possibly cheaper in the long run to pool resources. Good luck on your debt free journey.

nelly_2

^ Agreed with that, had'nt spotted it. You could both be paying higher interest card/loans instead of getting it together and swapping the balances to the lowest ones.

Shelton_2

Ive just rang MBNA and told them to cancel my credit cards and they tried to convince me to keep just one open with a £15k available credit limit on it "in case of emergencies" ..... I resisted their sales patter but its unbelievable the pressure that they try to put you under to keep those accounts open. Thanks to everyone thats chipped in so far with words of support & encouragement. I'll get there in the end!

Shelton_2

Hope someone can help me with a quick question. Since I paid off and cancelled my 3 mbna credit cards and my goldfish card (Ive been very busy since I joined!) I am now left with debts on 4 credit cards and 4 loans as follows:

Amex CC 5.1%
Debenhams CC 5.9%
Barclaycard 6.9%
HSBC CC 0% for 6 mo's then 9.9%

HSBC loan 7.9% (due to be paid off Aug 2013)
M&S loan 11.9% (due to be paid off Oct 2009)
Egg Loan 6.7% (due to be paid off June 2010)
Northern Rock 5.7% (due to be paid off Aug 2012)

All of the APRs for the credit cards are fixed for the life of the balance apart from the HSBC one which is a 6 month rate (back to 9.9% in Jan 07).

Would I be better to focus on paying off the credit cards (starting with the one with the highest APR) or would I be better focusing on paying off my M&S Loan with overpayments as this has the highest APR of all my debt.

Hope this makes sense! Hope you can help!

msArcher

Depends...

Do the loans allow overpayments? Check the small print to see if they charge for overpaying - if they do, you'll have to factor that into your calculations. If not, snowballling suggests always tackling the debts with highest interest rates first...

Edited for mind failure...