Hello, it's time for me to face reality, I hope you'll help me.

MRSM1983

Hello Everyone,

I am really hoping that today in the start of a new way of life for me. I have spent the last couple of weeks really looking into my debts (and my husband’s too) and I now feel ready to deal with them head on. Our total debt currently stands at £55,000, I could have cried when I first saw that. It was originally at £60,000 but we have managed to pay £5000 off in the last few months. At the moment we are managing, we can pay the bills and manage to pay minimum repayments on our debts. Not ideal I know.
I would really like to join this forum and take part in some of the challenges. I am hoping to be debt free by August 2014.
From looking at the board over the past few weeks, everyone seems so helpful and you give great advice, I hope you may be able to help me to. So here goes, my first questions...... I have two C.C one with virgin and one with Halifax both near their max. Is there a way of me reducing the amount of interest I pay on them (moving to another card is not an option as I am at the top of my credit limit)? If I could do this I could pay them off so much quicker.

I am really looking forward to getting to know you all

mandz1

hey welcome aboard the ship of the DFW. im not too sure on what you could do to your credit cards but im sure someone will be along to help you very soon.
well done on getting a grip against your debts.

Barricade

Hiya and welcome to the boards!
Congratulations on facing your debts and a huge hug and good luck and getting it to that all star £0!

I think it would be worth seeing an SOA to see if there is any area where saving could be made to pay towards the cards.
Additionally, just because you are at the limit of your credit cards, doesnt mean you cannot apply for a 0% balance transfer card. Be wary though.. obviously this will show on your credit report as applying - so if denied once, avoid applying for anymore.

I would also suggest writing to your CreditCard providers and asking them if they will freeze the interest on your account, in order to bring it up to date.

Have a look here at some template letters: http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/debt_advice.php#6
The first one you'll need is "ask creditors to hold action on account" - If they refuse, you can always ask them to reconsider using the "a creditor refuses to freeze interest" letter.

Good Luck!

Tixy

Hi MrsM and welcome on board

Hope you find some of the challenges to help suit your circumstances. As barricade suggests a statement of affairs is really useful at spotting places you can save money - ideally post it on here for others to make suggestions but even if you don't feel ready to do that yet I would still write one out to see if you can spot any changes you can make yourselves - http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html
Once done I would also look at the snowball calculator on that site which can be helpful in helping you make the most of any extra cash you can use for payments above the minimums.

With your cards you can always try requesting they reduce or freeze your interest for a period of time, they may stop any further spending on the cards but that might not be a bad thing! I don't suppose you have any old dormant credit card accounts you might never have closed but forgotten about? if so they you might be able get a good balance transfer deal on that card without needing any new credit applications.

With regard to the challenges have a look here for some ideas - List of Challenges 2010