Im confused! Whats the best way to pay off my debt?!

easytiger27

Ive been reading all the help and advice on here and im still not sure of the best way to go about paying my debt.

I currently have:

£2400 on a vigin credit card - the 0% offer is due to end
£300 on a halifax card which im paying standard interest on
£1550 overdraft with lloyds TSB which is costing me a small fortune in fees!

My debt is really getting me down as it doesnt seem to be getting any smaller no matter how hard i try!

ideally i would like to put it all in 1 place and throw all the money i can afford at it.

Can anyone suggest a cheaper way to pay my debt?? Im totally confused by all the different methods and cards :mad:

Thanks, Maria.

rachie_2011

Hello Maria...

I was introduced to this the other day and it's a great way of working out which debt you should pay off first... http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

I've just moved all of my direct debits and standing orders to Halifax, to start from scratch. I've left my Lloyds TSB account open as I have an overdraft of £2,800 which I need to clear before the end of the year. That's the plan any way. It makes it easier to see the overdraft on it's own instead of seeing a wage going in every month. I can treat it like a credit card bill then... if that makes sence?

Do you have a set amount of money you plan to use to pay off your debt?

wornoutmumoftwo

The debt that charges you the most should be given priority.
If you have a good credit rating then you can take advantage of the 0% credit cards and move debt around as you are paying it off.

GeorgeUK

I would try to get a new 0% card to transfer the Virgin balance to. Possibly also the halifax. After a while you may be sent an offer as an existing customer of Virgin and may be able to do a money transfer at a low life of balance - this will hopefully enable you to get rid of the overdraft.

If you can't get a new 0% card, i would suggest paying the minimum to to Virgin and throwing everything else at the Halifax card. Once that is clear, wait a month and try phoning to see if they have any balance transfer deals for existing customers. You may then be able to transfer the Virgin balance to 0% for 6 months or low rate for life of balance.