Please help....need to get out of this debt

woody9452

Hi , i'm new to this....

I currently have a £800 over draft with HSBC, i get charged £25 a month for having this, i get charged about £17 interest a month too. I only get paid £960 a month so by the time i have paid my rent, i am straight back in my over draft and get charged, i am always going over this £800 and thus always getting charged. I also have a house of fraser credit card (owe £780) which i pay off each month (min payment £40) but over half of this is interest so im not really getting anywhere.

ive heard about this 0% balance transfer....how do this work..?
can i get a credit card, pay off the overdraft (and then cancel it with hsbc) then pay off the credit card with house of fraser.... so i will have spend about £1600 ish then just as quickly as poss pay off this debt whilst it is 0% interest...


can someone please out cause the interest on everything is making it pointless.....thanks in advance!

dancingfairy

Hi Woody - are you getting all the benefits you are entitled to?
I'm not sure if you can get balance transfers to pay off overdrafts though - I think they just pay off another credit card?
Have you gone through your budget because if you're overspending on the basics - ie rent, council tax, water, gas/electric etc then even if you get your debts at 0% you will be getting in a worse mess each month.
df

nicnoo99

Hello Woody,

I'm no expert, but I transferred all my debts to a 0% card earlier this year, and can confirm that you can balance transfer to overdrafts. I paid off 2 x overdrafts and 1 x credit card when I got my 0% Virgin card. Had to pay a balance transfer fee for each of about 3% of the debt, but this amounted to about one month's interest on each, so worth it for me.

Now I'm not paying interest I pay about £80 a month extra on my debts instead, so I'd recommend it, especially as your debts sound quite low.

Be careful about who you go with - check Martin's advice - and be aware that you might not be able to get as high a limit on the new one as you'd expect - mine was low in comparison to my existing credit cards, but just enough to cover my debts.

Good luck getting it sorted - you've taken the first step coming here and asking for advice!

woody9452

Hi thanks for your reply....

Im not entiled to any benifits, im 22 and have had to move back home with my parents.

I'm just forever in this overdraft and will never get out of it.

Is it possible to get this 0% balance transfer pay off my house of fraser card, then can i do anything with the overdraft i.e put £800 in my mums account for her to put back to get me out of my overdraft?! i know it all sounds stupid....but its just so daunting that i get paid then pay my rent and im back straight in my overdraft thus getting charged straight away...then again on any purchases...

HappyMJ

Rent??? You live with your parents. Do they know you are struggling? How much do they expect? Could you rent a room cheaper elsewhere?

podperson

Have to agree, if you are living with your parents then surely your outgoings should be pretty low at the moment? Can you tell them you are struggling to get out of the overdraft and can you not pay them rent for say 2 months and then pay them extra when you are straight.

nicnoo99

I've pm'd you about the 0% thing you asked about, but have to echo that you should ask your parents for a couple of months off.
If that's not possible, how about a temporary Christmas job? Or just spend literally nothing for a few months? Ask for cash instead of Christmas pressies?
Have you done a Statement of Affairs to identify how to make sure you're spending less than you're earning?
Overall, your debt is quite low, so should be easy to get out of, but you might have to sacrifice a few luxuries.
Nic

themull1

why don't you put a soa on here and people can tell you where you're overspending.