Help and advice needed plz :)

Evileddie

Hi, first time poster here.

First the good news, i have just paid off my capital one card and it's balance is £0.00

Now i am left with 3 credit cards..

HSBC, Barclaycard and Virgin total amount of debt combined on all of them is £7500, i'm looking to pay this off quickly so the thought of a consolidation loans scares me off, I have also called capital one to see if i could balance transfer some of it to them but they are saying they have no special 0% rates at the moment......

HSBC 20.9 %

Virgin 16.9%

Barclaycard 16.9%

I have also applied for two other cards but got declined on both, don't know why as i always make payments and have a good credit history.

I'm a little stuck now on what to do for the best, a bit miffed at Capital One really as i thought they would jmp at the chance to let me transfer say £6K to them but i guess not lol.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

dresdendave

Well done for clearing one of your cards. I don't know enough about your personal circumstances to give precise information of what to do next. However, presumably now that you have one less card to pay you have a bit more money to put towards paying the others. The usual strategy is to make minimum payments on the cards with the lowest interest rates and pay as much as possible on the higher interest card. The more you can pay each month the quicker your debt will reduce.
Although getting a 0% card sounds good in theory, to a certain extent it's moving debt around (albeit at a lower rate) rather than focussing on clearing it.

As to why you have been declined for other cards, perhaps lenders feel that with £7500 debt outstanding they don't feel comfortable offering you any more.

Good luck.

peterbaker

Congratulations on clearing one of those balances

Best not to press anymore applications for credit for a while I would have thought as you might only get one shot if a new card "0%" prospect appears on the horizon (remember that a 0% BT doesn't cost 0% if there is a 4% upfront fee - it costs more than 4%!).

Clearly interest rates of 16.9 are better than 20.9 so the HSBC balance might be the next one to aim at.

Have you made sure you are squeaky clean with on-time monthly payments? Any late payments on your record will be affecting your ability to get a new card. Unless you are totally on top of it (and perhaps you are not yet because you are still paying double digit interest ), I would strongly recommend a DD for the minimums on all the cards unless you have very good other reason not to.

I am however wondering if you might be able to get a half decent BT deal with Barclaycard if you can create some useful headroom on that card.

As you may have worked out, a total outstanding balance of £6,000 at 16.9% would be costing you approximately £80 per month in pure new interest alone. At 20.9% it would be approaching £100.

If you could transfer half of the total to a deal of say 6.9% (does anyone know if Barclaycard are still offering such deals on BTs?) then if that left you with £3000@6.9% plus £3000@16.9% then your total accruing new interest liability reduces to approx. £56 pm.

I expect if you post the approximate balances on each card, the credit limits and how much in total you can pay each month, then some of the more fluent cardsters on here might have some ideas for you.

Evileddie

Thanks for the replies guys,

I have DD on all cards at Minimum payemnt at the moment, i fouccussed on one card and paid it off, I am now thinking of just focussing on another card and going along that way.

HSBC approx: 3.2k at 20.9%

Virgin: 2k at 16.9%

Barclaycard: 2.2K at 16.9%


As i say all of them are paid direct debit on minimums, i have never missed any payments.

Maybe i should up the HSBC payments and start to get that down asap and then move to the next card? Unless of course someone with some 'card savvy' can point me in the right direction.

dresdendave

Evileddie wrote: »

Thanks for the replies guys,


HSBC approx: 3.2k at 20.9%

Virgin: 2k at 16.9%

Barclaycard: 2.2K at 16.9%


As i say all of them are paid direct debit on minimums, i have never missed any payments.

Maybe i should up the HSBC payments and start to get that down asap and then move to the next card? Unless of course someone with some 'card savvy' can point me in the right direction.

Sounds like a good plan, pay minimum on Virgin and Barclaycard and throw as much as you can afford at the HSBC.

Evileddie

Ok thats what i will do then, bloody HSBC rate is killing, ill be very happy once thats paid off.

Thanks.