CC repayment plan - please advise!

massivechewsets

I'm new to this, so please bear with me.

I have a MBNA card - interest rate 5.8% - payments up to date. Balance £6000 approx.
I have a Barclaycard - interest rate 8.6% - payments up to date. Balance £3000 approx.
I never use these to spend on, they are hidden away so I don't use them.

I have a Tesco loan - interest rate 8.9% - payments up to date, but Feb payment was late. Balance £11000 approx.

The major problem is my BOS card - interest rate 29%(!) - last 3 months payments have been late. Balance £7900. I spoke to them yesterday to say that my March payment would be made within the next 10 days and for the 1st time, it was not the automated service, I was put straight through to a (foreign) call centre. They highlighted the fact that I was going over the credit limit (£7900) every month due to my late payments and suggested I should arrange a repayment plan with them. I asked them if they would consider reducing the interest rate for a while and they said it was not possible to do that by speaking to someone. I am to phone them on Monday with my income/expenditure details, which they will (I understand) feed into a computer that will then decide my fate.

Is this normal? I have had a credit card with them since 2002 and banked with them for 30 years. Does loyalty make any difference? I had a very good credit rating until January this year. I spent 2 weeks in November off work and another 2 weeks in December off work and this combined with overspending at Christmas tipped me over the edge.
I pay around £50 a month for payment protection but this has clearly not been any help.

So, is this repayment plan with them a good idea? How will it affect (if at all) my other creditor's relationships with me? Are there any detrimental side effects?

So many questions, and so confused. Any advice welcome! Thanks.

Degenerate

massivechewsets wrote: »

Is this normal? I have had a credit card with them since 2002 and banked with them for 30 years. Does loyalty make any difference?

It is normal when someone falls multiple months behind in payments. Loyalty makes no difference, it's about assessing risk, your ability to repay and recovering as much as they they can as soon as possible.

I pay around £50 a month for payment protection but this has clearly not been any help.

You might be better off ditching the PPI and applying that money to debt repayments.

So, is this repayment plan with them a good idea? How will it affect (if at all) my other creditor's relationships with me? Are there any detrimental side effects?

Your other creditors will be able to see the signs of debt stress on your credit file and the CC providers may choose to reduce credit limits and/or increase interest rates to limit their exposure to you. Once you get to several months of missed payments it becomes obvious that you are struggling anyway, so there is less to lose by going with the repayment plan.

With £28K of debt and falling behind with payments, you need to take a long hard look at your personal financial position and formulate a plan. The first thing I would suggest is to get yourself down to the "Debt-Free Wannabe" board where people can help you draw up a statement of accounts to analyze your income and expenditure.

From a CC perspective, I'd look at doing everything possible to lock in the best rates whilst you can. As people begin to struggle CC providers tend to make it worse by jacking up the rates. you have a right to reject this, so be on the lookout for any attempt to increase them. You still have good interest rates on the other cards - are these the standard APRs or promotional offers? You may still be in the window of time where the others haven't picked up on your problems. I would look at your other accounts to see if you have credit to spare and investigate the possibility of shifting some of the expensive BOS debt to them.