Getting out of debt

John_Marsdon

Hi im new to the forums i just wanted some advice on how best to get out of my current situation.

I have a debt of £10,000 on my credit card and they have recently raised it to 25% thanks to the government "helping" us out by making them change their payment system. They are now really screwing me over (it was 12%)

The problem is now im only paying off the interest. I applied for a loan at my bank and they refused on account of my visa debt...

The annoying thing is the visa payments are about £270 and a loan for the same amount would be less per month and i would pay the debt off (instead of just the interest)

I know its better for the bank to keep me on this bad rate but what should i do? If you need any more information please let me know.

Ps i just applied for an mbna and a barclaycard. MBNA gave me a card with £1000 limit and barclays refused me (could this be due to me putting on the application i wanted to transfer £10,000)

Well any advice on what to do or where to go next would be great.

PPS i can easily pay the monthly amount, if not a little more, but it will take me forever to pay it off, a loan on the other hand i could have paid off in 3-5 years.

Thanks

chevalier

Hi there
there are several things you could do at this point. here's a few pointers

1) join quidco.com and then apply for a free credit check from experien (just remember to cancel the trial before the 30 days are up).This will let you know what your credit score is and also if there are any debts on there that are either not yours or are showing as outstanding incorrectly.

2) You could write to your card provider and appeal the interest rise. You could point out that currently you would only paying off interest not the capital... If you don't ask you don't get. If they dropped your rate by say 5% that would be worth the cost of a stamp

3) Get yourself a list of your income an outgoings. There is a website I think it is called https://www.makesenseofcards.com and this has a programe on there which you can input all your income and outgoings. In this way you get a TRUE picture of your spending. It may throw up some glaringly obvious areas for cutting back. Eg if you were spending £500 a month on food for one person this would be an area to cut back on..!:D Or if you have a 1 bedroom shoebox flat but your heating bill is £400 a month, then maybe you need more jumpers and to turn the thermostat down alot.

Once you have a statement of affairs (SOA) you can put it up on here and we will help you work out where you can make cuts, or make your money work harder for you so that you are able to pay the cards back more quickly.
good luck
chev