Barclaycard troubles (NEWBIE)

dragonfly02

Hey there my partner currently owes £805.00 on his barclaycard, we have only been paying the minimum payment for at least 4 years now as its all we can afford(original lend was £1000)
The payments never seem to make a dent in the debt and I am sure we can do something to change this but as a newbie I don't even know where to start.

He also owes about £800 on an abbey national overdraft this never seems to depleate

Can anyone help me out with advice on how I can sort this out? these are our only debts and Im desperate to pay it off and be debt free but cant seem to make sense of it on my own, my partner seems to think he cannot transfer the balance as he has defaulted on some payments is this correct.

PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!

moggins

By cutting down somewhere else (maybe in your weekly food bill) could you manage even £5 extra above the minimum payment. It might seem like a very small amount but it would start cutting into the capital instead of just paying off the interest, which would also mean that the interest you are paying would start to go down.

We've just discovered that by paying £13 extra a month on a loan we took out over 10 years we will actually pay it off 4 years early.

dragonfly02

hmmm good thinking, about a week ago my answer to cutting down the weekly food bill would have been "we have already cut it as far as we can" however after reading though the forum I have worked out how to save money on my weekly tesco shop so that may be possible.

Also it may seem like a silly question but can you arange for a regular bank transfer to pay you credit card balance as my partner is useless at remembering when he needs to pay the credit card until the same day it is due and therefore defaults as the payment takes 2ish days to go through

rchddap1

You can set up a direct debit. My Credit card direct debit takes the full amount, but you can specify lower amounts. If you don't intend to spend anything more on the credit card take a look at the last bill and it should show you how much interest was added. Set up the direct debit for higher than this amount and slowly you'll pay the debt off.

moggins

You can set up a direct debit that will pay it automatically, however I've set mine up with a bank transfer that I have to do manually, I preferred to do it this way because if I find I have extra money somewhere I can just nip onto my online banking and pay a bit off my credit card.

rchddap1

Very true moggins. It depends on the person though. If you have the option to change it online how tempted would the individual be to reduce it to the bare minimum one month and not increase it back up again the next. Setting up a direct debit means that you never have to worry about late charges, as it always comes out of your account. You can always pay them extra by sending a cheque. Personal choice though.

dragonfly02

well already i feel a weight lifted thanx for all great advice so far, would it not be better to transfer the balance over to a 0% credit card or is this not possible for me?
the way i see it if i can pay £20 per month and 12.09p is interest with barclaycard surely on a 0% bt £20 payment will be £20 off debt not £7.91 off debt?

moggins

rchddap1 wrote:

Very true moggins. It depends on the person though. If you have the option to change it online how tempted would the individual be to reduce it to the bare minimum one month and not increase it back up again the next. Setting up a direct debit means that you never have to worry about late charges, as it always comes out of your account. You can always pay them extra by sending a cheque. Personal choice though.

That's very true, luckily I can do both with my online banking if I wanted to but I prefer to pay off my credit card in full every month (it's got a very low limit) and I only use mine for my pocket money spending.

I've even thought about keeping it in credit, might do a post about that later

rchddap1

A 0% card would most definately be a good idea. However, don't forget to close the Barclaycard account once the balance has been transferred. As long as you have a good credit rating that this shouldn't be a problem

dragonfly02

my partners only credit rating problems are in relation to this barclaycard and I think on the experian report they are down as late payments.

Which ccard comapany is best for free balance transfers? I dont want to spend ANY money just pay it off

fatboyonadiet

depends but best one is probably Egg as they don't charge a BT fee and you could do a SBT to a current account and pay off your overdraft you would need to get a new card every 6-9 months depending on your promotional rate, would save a packet and pay the card off much quicker