Desperate, Desperate, Desperate!!!!

boxercrazy

Hello all, please HELP! Have been using this site for quite a while to try help sort debts out. Juggling credit cards, loans etc, now I am stuck as to what to do now. Applied for another 0% card and got turned down! Have got 2 Barclaycards (1 in husbands name and 1 in mine) 0% til Sept, £1247 on 1 and £764.20 on other. Had to split the amounts a while ago cos i couldnt get it all accepted on one card. So now got £5180.21 on MBNA @ 1.9% TIL March. I need to move it but dont know to where??
We have other cards with 0 balance on and am trying to see if I can get a deal. Have Cap 1 card with credit limit of £10500, MBNA with £5600, Mint with £9150, (AA card with £7700 but they offered 17.9%!!)
We have a loan each with Cahoot £9000 @5.9% for 5 years, 1 year gone and Northern Rock £5000 @6.9% for 5 years took out in Nov!!
All outgoings come to £1157.50 per month without food, fuel, clothes or going out (which we now only do once a week!!) and our income is £2070 approx, varies every month.
I sort most of it out, my husband just buries his head in the sand and is happy for me to sort it but I cannot sleep at night worrying and I need to know the best way to go about it all. I wondered about adding to our loans?? We always pay on time and did have a good credit score, obviously it must have gone down cos just been refused Virgin card!
PLEASE HELP.....

boxercrazy

Thanks mightymo, have got 2 mbna cards other is my hubbys name so have to wait for him to ring himself. Cap1 said something about 1% but sounds dodgy so am waiting for their transfer form to come so I can read it properly.

Debt_Free_Chick

boxercrazy

Shuffling is OK when the debt is manageable and you can apply for a succession of 0% BT cards. However, you don't appear to be in this situation. I think you need a Debt Management Plan (DMP). You can find out about a DMP here. Download the self help pack and have a good read through. It's important you do this. You also need to be prepared to spend less ... your debt may have built up because you have been living beyond your means. If so, you must tackle this.

Self Help Pack here

http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_factsheets/debt_advice_england_wales.php3#3

Malestrom

From the way that I read your post, these are your debts:

Your Cahoot Loan £7624 (less 12mths paid)
Hubbys Cahoot Loan £7624 (less 12mths paid)
Northern Rock Loan £5167 (less 2mths paid)
Barclaycard 1 £1247
Barclaycard 2 £764.20
MBNA £5180.21
TOTAL £27,606.41

Now thats a fair chunk of debt. Then you say:

We have other cards with 0 balance on and am trying to see if I can get a deal. Have Cap 1 card with credit limit of £10500, MBNA with £5600, Mint with £9150, (AA card with £7700 but they offered 17.9%!!)

I would suspect that these cards with high credit limits are the reason why you got refused by Virgin. If the AA only offered you 17.9% then why on earth do you still have it? Close it down!

The MBNA card is about to come out of its low introductory period so you need to move that debt to either Capital One, Mint or the second??? MBNA card, whichever has the lowest interest rate. You probably won't get another card so don't bother applying for one now. Once the balance is transferred, close the cards with a zero balance. In August, you try to apply for a low APR card to move the two Barclaycard balances to. By then, sufficient time will have passed and a new application should be successful. If it is successful then apply for another low APR card to move the balance that was originally on the MBNA card too.

HOWEVER (and i make no apologies for shouting this), you need to be able to control your finances to make credit card shuffling work and to be honest, looking at your post, I'd have to say that I think its probably beyond that stage now. It *appears* that you are living 'on the edge', possibly beyond your means. Are all the loans for specific things? Home improvements, a car, etc? If not, or if ANY of them are consolidation loans, then its time to face the truth - you are not very good with money. Continuing as you have been will only bring more debt upon you. Your suggestion of 'adding to our loans' really confirms this.

You need to sit back and ask yourself "Why am I in £30,000's worth of debt? Where has that money gone?". Instead, you are saying "How can I move my debt to somewhere marginally cheaper?". Wrong question, wrong attitude. Refer to Debt_Free_Chick's post above, I have to agree that this would be the most sensible suggestion for your current predicament.

Good Luck.

boxercrazy

Hello all, we rang hubbys mbna card and because we havent used it for over 2 years it has been closed down! So will try Mint, cap 1 are sending a form. I must have worded the loans wrong, Malestrom I have the cahoot loan and hubby has the Northern Rock.
Have kept other cards 'just in case' but not used, so I take its best to close them?? (The AA card was originally 0% for 6 months and when it ran out I couldnt get it all on one card!!)
The year before last my husband and I split up, we had addedd to our mortgage and paid off any debts. We got back together nearly a year ago and in the meantime my husband had again ran up £7000 worth of credit card debt!! He had a loan for a car with Peugeot, which we then paid off a year ago with the Cahoot loan. I also bought a car (which is now the Northern Rock loan). All the time he wasnt here I stayed out of debt, except for the car, and I was earning about £1000 per month with tax credits as my daughter lived at home. Now she has left, I earn half what I was earning and for the past 5 months have been off work having had, in Sept, an ankle replacement, so cannot earn more even if I wanted!! Am due to go back in March but am having to stay at base which just earbs me a basic!
I am not too bad with money and have not used a credit card since I paid them off 2 years ago my husband is c**p with money, his own admission, but I have to deal with it on my own! He has given up his cards so is letting me sort it but as I say, I am struggling.
Debt free chick, I have down loaded th doc and will read it all, but have all along been cutting back on household bills, I write it all down to keep a track of it all. I used uswitch for gas and electric, cancelled sky, cut mobiles down, use One tel and 18866 so I am aware and trying with everything.

Malestrom

Ok my mistake, in reading your post again I can see what you actually meant. This would still make you £20,000 in debt though, correct?

Now, because neither car has finance against it, wouldn't it make sense to sell one, or even both and buy something cheaper? Use the money left over to pay off some of those high interest debts.

You need to make sure all your debts are at the lowest possible interest rates, specifically the cards. Close the cards with a zero balance, don't just stop using them. I do think that these will have affected your application for the Virgin card.

You really should consider a DMP, it will remove the worries of what to swap to where, what card is at what rate, etc and will actually save you money as the interest is usually frozen. It WILL affect your credit rating though and make sure that everything is done in JOINT names!

Good Luck!

boxercrazy

Hello Malestrom, Yes this still makes it about £20000! We sold my husbands car a while ago now and put the money in a savings account, which is where I have been paying the cards from. We part exchanged mine against a cheaper car, which we did have to take some of the money out of the savings to pay the difference. It was an incredible amount that we lost! ok learned my lesson because we both rushed into buying our cars, the deals sounded so good!! Now I dont do a lot without researching first!! I have printed the DMP off and filled it all in, but cannot consider losing our credit rating as we are hoping to sell our house and go into the pub trade, where I am hoping to earn more money, altho hubby will be doing most of the work, I will be doing the books!!

Debt_Free_Chick

Hi Boxercrazy

Use the DMP for tips on budgeting etc. If you don't want to affect your credit rating, then you need to keep up at least the minimum repayments. But if you only make the min payments, it will take you a long time to repay the debts. Catch 22, sorry.

Could you increase your income in any way? Could one of you take a second job, part-time? Could you take in ironing with your ankle? Do you have stuff you can sell on eBay? All of these will help, but you need to be realistic about how long it will take and how much extra money you will need to repay the debts more quickly.

Cut up all credit cards - don't increase the debt. If you close all cards with zero balances, your credit record might improve over the next 2 or 3 months and give you the opportunity to apply for another 0% card.

Sorry for my ignorance, but why would a poor credit record affect your ability to go into the pub trade? Bad credit records only last for 6 years, so are you likely to want to move within that time? Perhaps consider a DMP with reduced payments, look to pay off your debt in the next 6 years. You could then have a good credit record and no debt! Perhaps something to consider .. it would be a nice goal to aim for.

Keep posting back with ideas & suggestions :-)

boxercrazy

Hello debt free chick
Have filled the DMP in and will show it to hubby so at least he has an idea!! I have been keeping up the minimum repayments but having filled in DMP have realised I can pay a bit more, esp on the MBNA card. Have now cancelled the AA card and the 2nd MBNA card had already been closed as we hadnt used it for over 2 years!! So 2 gone!! Cap 1 have said their interest rate is 17% so thats no good and am cancelling it too. Just have Mint to try, later, in hubbys name, so see what they can come up with. Then last will try MBNA to see if they can offer me a longer time????? Then, not sure what to do if they dont! but will be paying more than I have.
The pub trade... well if we need machines etc apparently we need a good rating and our house is on the market now and we go on the licensees course on April 2nd
When I go back to my present job I have 4 weeks with less hours, then pub course, then we wait for the right pub but in meantime I hope to increase my hours, ankle permitting!!
Thanks for all advice, I really do appreciate it, dont feel so 'on my own'

Debt_Free_Chick

boxercrazy - hurrah! That's looking good:-)

You sound much more positive too, which I think is important. Paying off debt can be a long, hard slog and you need to keep focused to avoid temptation (temptation of running up more on the cards!).

Have a good look around the site for lots of moneysaving ideas - things you didn't even think you could save money on! The Board Money Saving Old Style is fantastic.

Post back with any questions - lots here will be keen to help.

Good Luck

Martinslovechild

I don't think that anybody else has stated this, but the Virgin Card is actually administered by MBNA.

If I understand it correctly, you already have 2 MBNA cards, one with a balance and one with a zero balance; however, because the zero-balance card is still 'active' (i.e. because you haven't closed it), the amount of credit already available to you from MBNA sources is already over the £10K limit. This is most likely the reason that they've knocked you back.

I recommend that you close any cards not currently being used. To do this, call the respective credit card companies up and tell them that you want to cancel the cards. Once you've done this, a month or so later, the cards should show up as 'settled' on your credit report and the total amount of credit available to you will reduce which will increase your chances of gaining further credit in the future with other lenders.

MBNA actually administer a large number of cards, including Abbey, Priority Club and Alliance & Leicester. Be careful to check their website out before you apply for any further cards from them.

Good Luck.