Advice needed please

nomorecreditcards

Hi guys,

I've read posts on this forum a few times but this is my first time posting. I hope my question hasn't already been covered. It may have been in part, but I would appreciate any advice for my current situation.

I have just graduated, and owe £3000 in an interest free student overdraft and have roughly £3000 thats on a virgin credit card which is at 6.9% for the life of the balance. I have got a job where I am receiving between £250 and £320 a week depending on hours and when the money comes into my interest free overdraft, I have to work out what I have left to spend as each wage just lifts me off my overdraft limit, and then I have to leave enough money for my bills, rent, food and petrol etc. (It doesn't help that I am working on the agency and getting paid every week at the minute, I would prefer to be paid every month....)

I was considering getting a balance transfer for the £3000 overdraft to my virgin card so I would have £6000 altogether and then I could start trying to chip away at it, even though I would be paying more interest. However they will not extend my overdraft limit. I have a £7000 limit on my barclaycard, and was going to cancel it when they suggested that I transfer all of the debt to their card, but this would mean paying the balance transfer fees twice, and I will still be paying 6.9%.

I realise that this is a personal decision, but if there are people out there that have managed to get debt free, I would be grateful for any tips and ideas on how to deal with this situation, as it is starting to cause me stress.

Thanks

bottleofred

Hi nomorecreditcards & welcome to the forum,

If I was in your position, I'd try to chip away at the overdraft and would not move it to an interest charging credit card until the bank started charging interest for the overdraft. You should post your statement of affairs to see if there any way you can save money that can then go towards the debts. I've put the link for it below.

http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

Good luck with whatever you decide to do, but if you post your soa you'll get advice on how to save cash

podperson

Hi and welcome

As mentioned above is a good idea to post up a soa then you can see exactly what you have left at the end of the month and people can often offer suggestions on how to save money on your outgoings.
Regarding the overdraft I would suggest moving to a new basic account and then you can treat it like any other debt and pay xx amount to it per month. If you are using the account there is always the temptation that if you do clear a bit to just end up spending it again. If you split your spare money between that and the cc then will still be able to chip away at it but won't be stuck with the extra interest.

nomorecreditcards

Hi, thanks for the replies. Yeah I have just done the soa, and it helps me put things in perspective. I've also got a holiday coming up in January and need to save some money up for this so I think I'm going to put the money I save in my ISA even though I will still have debts. My £3000 student overdraft is in 2 different accounts so I wasn't sure whether to get another current account but I think that could be a good idea. I think what I'm going to do is get a nationwide current account which I can have my wage paid into, and my direct debits out of, and clear my £500 overdraft first, and then start on the credit card. I'm only paying the minimum payment on my credit card each month of £25, and about £20 of this is just interest. Its awful!!