Advice please?

brighthair

I am getting there, slowly with paying off my debt :j
Just need a quick bit of advice
My debts are:
overdraft £1900 - currently £1200 o/d and when I get paid I will be in credit (if only for 24hrs) for the first time in 10 years :eek:
I am working on the overdraft first because a) it charges interest and b) I will feel like I am getting somewhere when I am in credit

sanisburys card - 0% ends this month £1100
virgin card - 0% ends in Dec £1300

Just applied for RBS card (don't worry, not for spending!) and it's 0% for 16 months so I can transfer the sainsburys one over. Should I transfer the virgin one at the same time? Not sure whether it's better for my credit rating to have just 1 card
The RBS one has been approved with a 7k :eek: limit so I don't think my credit rating is too bad

I stress so much about these debts, and actually looking at it it's less than 4k which makes me feel a little better

Hannah_10

I think for the sake of convenience I'd transfer the both of them, but that's for you to decide. As long as you're getting 0% it doesn't much matter who you're getting it with. Well done with the overdraft too by the way.

When you get the balances off your current two cards close them. Having available credit but not using it actually looks bad on your credit rating, sounds weird to me too but it's true. It stops the temptation to use them too and as you said the limit with RBS is for about 3 times what you need- to tempt you no doubt. Are you strong enough to ask them to lower the limit to something more realistic like £3000 though? That'd see you using about 73% of the credit available to you and thus your limit and you are in harmony- hence a better credit report.

I wouldn't worry about any of it, you're clearly doing Ok now and seen as credit-worthy even in spite of that you are paying your way out of debts which you find scary. You really don't have a lot to worry about here (except perhaps exposing yourself to too much temptation).

brighthair

yeah I transferred before onto the Virgin card, off a Halifax card and made sure it was closed. I think I am probably best transferring both and I will be having the limit reduced a lot as well!! 3k would be fine
the overdraft would have been better had I not had to pay out £700 in unexpected bills, but then if I hadn't paid some of it off, I would still be sat here with no washing machine, so every cloud.....!

Hannah_10

Unexpected things always come up somewhere on a debt-free journey, it's the only predictable thing about them! If something scares you it's often because you don't know enough about it, so like when we get newbies terrified of baliffs it's often about debts that are never gonna see a court in a zillion years kinda thing. Knowledge is not only power but also very bloody reassuring! So next time it seems scary suss out what outcome it is you're scared of and you can always ring one of the charities or post here to find out if it's possible/probable/improbable/impossible. Usually it's the latter two as creditors actually have remarkably few rights but an equally remarkable amount of hot air.

HappyMJ

brighthair wrote: »

I am getting there, slowly with paying off my debt :j
Just need a quick bit of advice
My debts are:
overdraft £1900 - currently £1200 o/d and when I get paid I will be in credit (if only for 24hrs) for the first time in 10 years :eek:
I am working on the overdraft first because a) it charges interest and b) I will feel like I am getting somewhere when I am in credit

sanisburys card - 0% ends this month £1100
virgin card - 0% ends in Dec £1300

Just applied for RBS card (don't worry, not for spending!) and it's 0% for 16 months so I can transfer the sainsburys one over. Should I transfer the virgin one at the same time? Not sure whether it's better for my credit rating to have just 1 card
The RBS one has been approved with a 7k :eek: limit so I don't think my credit rating is too bad

I stress so much about these debts, and actually looking at it it's less than 4k which makes me feel a little better

Brighthair - I'm going to give you some advice and you've got to stick to it. Religiously. You've been granted a £7,000 CC with a 0% interest rate but RBS don't allow you to BT to a current account. That would be a cash advance. So when requesting the BT's to the CC's transfer at least an extra £600 onto each card so that you can use them in the first month or two to spend with (no cash advances!!) reducing the pressure on the overdraft. That should hopefully cover the £1200 overdraft and bring the current account back to normal within the next few months with the emergency buffer of an overdraft fully available to you.

Your credit rating will be better with fewer cards so only apply for a new 0% card in 15 months, 1 month before the offer expires. Do continue to use the cards you have for 1 or 2 small monthly purchases remembering to pay them off in full by direct debit.

DVardysShadow

HappyMJ wrote: »

Brighthair - I'm going to give you some advice and you've got to stick to it. Religiously. You've been granted a £7,000 CC with a 0% interest rate but RBS don't allow you to BT to a current account. That would be a cash advance. So when requesting the BT's to the CC's transfer at least an extra £600 onto each card so that you can use them in the first month or two to spend with (no cash advances!!) reducing the pressure on the overdraft. That should hopefully cover the £1200 overdraft and bring the current account back to normal within the next few months with the emergency buffer of an overdraft fully available to you.

Well spotted! Yes, the spends on those cards must only be spends you would make anyway. If you are used to monitoring you overdraft spend by spend, then just act as though those spends had added to the overdraft while you do this process.

brighthair

HappyMJ wrote: »

Brighthair - I'm going to give you some advice and you've got to stick to it. Religiously. You've been granted a £7,000 CC with a 0% interest rate but RBS don't allow you to BT to a current account. That would be a cash advance. So when requesting the BT's to the CC's transfer at least an extra £600 onto each card so that you can use them in the first month or two to spend with (no cash advances!!) reducing the pressure on the overdraft. That should hopefully cover the £1200 overdraft and bring the current account back to normal within the next few months with the emergency buffer of an overdraft fully available to you.

Your credit rating will be better with fewer cards so only apply for a new 0% card in 15 months, 1 month before the offer expires. Do continue to use the cards you have for 1 or 2 small monthly purchases remembering to pay them off in full by direct debit.

ok - I'm slightly confused so bear with me
I'm going to transfer the virgin, and sainsburys on to the RBS, and shut both the virgin and the sainsburys and just have the RBS which is NOT 0% on spending, but I haven't used my cars, I am just paying off the debts on them, same with the overdraft
The overdraft is interest free up to £500 and then at 1.168%