Balance transfer advice

12bdebt3

Hello,

I am looking for some advice on a loan I took out with Nationwide Building Society a few months ago.

In September I took out a loan for £3,000.00.
I would pay this over 18 months.
The total amount of interest is £372.30. (Pretty much £20.00 interest a month, which isn't too bad.)
I would pay £187.35 a month for 18 months, with a total repayable amount of £3,372.30.

Up to now I have made 3 repayments of £187.35, totalling £562.05, which means that I now owe £2810.25. At the current rate I'm paying it would take me 15 more months to pay off. I really don't want this debt hanging over my head on until March 2012.

My current income is £970.00 a month. I live with my girlfriend and pay half of all the bills:
Rent: [STRIKE]£550.00[/STRIKE] £275.00
Council Tax: [STRIKE]£75.00[/STRIKE] £37.50
Gas: [STRIKE]£40.00[/STRIKE] £20.00
Electric: [STRIKE]£30.00[/STRIKE] £15.00
Water: [STRIKE]£30.00[/STRIKE] £15.00
TV License: [STRIKE]£25.00[/STRIKE] £12.50 (First 6 months so we pay double, I never actually get why so if someone wants to explain that to me too?)
Food: [STRIKE]£200.00[/STRIKE] £100.00
Sky (TV, Internet & Line Rental): [STRIKE]£50.00[/STRIKE] £25.00
The only other thing I have to pay out for, apart from my loan of course, is my iPhone bill which is £40.00.

All of this means that I pay out around £540.00 a month. Which leaves me with a disposable income of £430.00. Obviously with my current loan repayment I have a disposable income of £242.65. I am looking to get my debt cleared in about 8 months, so at the end of next year I have around £500.00 disposable income in the run up to Christmas. Repaying my debt will cost me around £350.00 a month, which will only leave me with £20.00 spare a week.

I am wondering if anybody is in a similar situation and has any advice? I have looked into applying for 0% balance transfer credit card. Can I pay a loan off with one of these? Is there anything better for my situation? Would you advise me leaving myself with only £20.00 a week disposable income?

I know that the only thing I don't want to be doing is paying this debt off next Christmas I want it gone sometime in the middle of 2011.

stephane_2

You first need to contact Nationwide to get a settlement figure so you know how much you exactly owe, you also need to check if there are any penalties for paying the loan earlier, some lenders will charge 1 month interest but it vary. The only way to pay the loan off with a credit card would be to get a card which allow SBT (super balance transfer) where you can transfer fund directly onto your account....the other option would be to put any excess cash into a saving account until you have enough to pay the loan off.....

the_insider

Can you make overpayments on the loan? If you can without penalties then do that.