Egg loan not enough - shoudl I get a bigger loan or BT it onto 2 0% cards?

greendale9061

Hey everyone,

Im in a bit a of a dilema. Last year I have quite alot of debts spread over 3 credit cards & thanks to this site I found out a way to reduce the intresst. I have was about £5500 in debt. Firstly I applied for a EGG card 0% for 6 months bt across 2250. Then got an MBNA card 0% for 9 months and BT 1800.Then opened a HSBC card 0& for 6 months BT 1450. Everything was fine I was paying £50 each a month. As my cards neared the end of the BT, I applied for a Sainburys card & a Capital One card - I was refused both of them. I then paid £2 for a credit check. I had a good credit rating end of 2004 and because I applied for these 3 cards over the space of 3 months in summer 2005 I now have bad credit. I then tried out for a loan, to pay everyting off. Direct line & Lombrad rejected me and then I finally got accepted fom Egg in March 2006. I got a £7000 @ 7.7% for 60 months with ppi = £176/month Total ammount around £9000. I paid off all my cc, and cancelled my MBNA. In June I split up with my partner of 10 years, and since then I have found it quite hard with keepimg up with bills. I cancelled my ppi on the loan which reduced the whole ammount to about £6500 + my loan is now £125/month.

This is where it get bad. As I still had the HSBC & Egg card which I started paying bills, food with, as I actually thought I would be able to pay it off end of the month. It has slowly built up to about £2800. I then got a m&s more card for 3.9% life of balance 2 weeks ago, but due to my poor credit rating they only gave me £1500 limit. I was expecting at least 5k (as a few other threads claimed this) I BT £1500 onto m&s and have left £1300 on my hsbc card @ 9.9%. Xmas is soon approaching and want to at least buy my parents & brother sumthing for xmas, but the only option is to put it on my credit card. Im due a big xmas bonus + payrise end of December, so next yr may not be much of a struggle. I also have £3000 tied up in a 2 yr high intresst account which can not be touch until May 07. I can withdraw all but will lose 2 yrs intesst.

Well the whole thread is about whether I should find sum more 0% cards and BT my loan & remanining debt onto them, or try and get a bigger loan to cover everything? If anyone else has any more suggestions please let me know.

PS. Im not that bad that I have to call the cccs to control my finances, but in a bit stuck at the mo. I do have money but its all tied up. Im sure I can downsize my house or sell my car, but really want to avoid that so close to xmas. I have also tried to selling on ebay, that had earnt me about £100, but I then had to pay off a parking fine with it last month :-( I haven't really got that much else to sell

Many Thanks :-)