Will it be hard for us to swap?

bass3k

My wife has a credit card with an APR of just under 30% - she got it before she met me, years ago when she was at uni. We've been paying it off at about £30 a month for ages and I really want to get rid of it. I was reading around on here about transfering to 0% interest cards but our credit rating as a couple is diabolical. I'm a student, she earns about 12k a year, we have a few loans/student overdrafts etc. I don't think your "decent" 0% cards would take us and fear the credit checks they carry out would just further dent our rating (thats true isnt it? searches effect your rating?)

Any advice on what we can do? I imagine getting the balance onto a lower rate would be a start - using the tools on here I found if we upped how much we paid off a month to 40 and there was 0% interest it would take just under 2 years to pay off. Right now it will take ages unless we find a lump sum along the way to pay it off with which is very unlikely!

Consumerist

I think it unlikely that you would get any mainstream credit card if your credit history is "diabolical".

To be honest, I think the interest rate will have a fairly marginal effect on the time it takes to pay off the card but increasing the monthly payment will have a more significant effect. If you can concentrate on paying as much as possible each month, you may be surprised at how quickly the interest charges start to come down.

I think this is probably your best option for the moment.

intranicity

Agree, getting a better deal will be very hard.

Looks like you owe approx £1000, at 30% interest, paying the minimum balance each month (3%?)

It would take you until 2042 to repay this.
If you paid £30 every month it would still take you about 6 years to clear this
£40 a month would reduce this to 3 years 4 months!

Pay as much over the minimum amount you can afford to, it will save you a fortune

PS to clear this off over 2 years you'd need to make payments of approx £56 a month if that helps

PNPSUKNET

whats equifax report like? if has 1 max settled default try sygma

Consumerist

If you have used a Tesco clubcard for a few years and you fancy a long shot then you just might have a ghost of a chance if you apply for a Tesco Clubcard credit card and allow them to refer to your clubcard record in the application process. The effect of the search on a bad credit history will be minimal.

theoretica

As soon as you can move to a system where she pays off the card entirely with her wages and then puts the spending back on the card. She will need to investigate how much of her spending can go on the card and be sure to pay it off every month without fail. If you pay purchases off every month most cards give them to you interest free- I assume hers does, worth checking!