Having an ARRRRGHGGGH moment!

Pyrrhic_2

I am so frustrated and !!!!ed off at the minute I just want my debts gone. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

A few years ago I had no credit. Bought everything with cash, had a current account, no phone contract...nothing. Then when I married my husband we figured I should build a credit profile so that one day we could afford a house. Mistake!

I WAS paying off my credit cards every month, but not now.

I have...

Capital one: £500- monthly payment £30 (£8 over minimum amount)
Lloyds TSB: £1,000- monthly payment £30 (£10 over minimum amount)
Littlewoods: £400- months payment £30 (£2 over minimum amount)

They are all sitting at 29%-34% APR. I couldn't get anything lower at the time as I had no credit history.

When I could make full payments each month, my credit file showed scores of 800-900. Yay!

Then Next came along...

I ordered something on the Next website, entered my card details and it was delivered. Went away with work for a rather long time, came home to angry letters from a credit account from Next. Ok, should have read the small print but I had no idea I was opening a credit account. So I defaulted on £12. Have tried speaking to Next and they treated me like a criminal and wouldn't reverse the default after I paid it.

So now I have a very low credit score of about 600. Credit cards and a store account up in the 30% APR area and I am getting annoyed with having them.

Is there any way I can clear them? I have tried applying for an overdraft or consolidation loan through my bank and was declined due to my credit score.

edinburgher

Have you tried using a snowball calculator? Basic idea behind this is that all 'spare' money goes towards the card with the highest APR - just paying the minimums for the others. Once the highest APR card is paid off, rinse and repeat.

cassidy0111

Posting an SOA may help. There is a sticky with details at the top of the DFW board. Can your husband help out?