Advice needed

maxvre

Hi Winnie,
I was thinking about this today and one other thing I will say is:

Rather than take out a loan, try to do a 0% interest credit card balance transfer for your existing credit card debt to shift it from interest bearing debt to non interest bearing debt. That's probably what's going to make the biggest difference in terms of time to repay. You can literally shave off months of paying interest if you can do this (run the numbers).

While part of the strategy is indeed to cut your monthly spending down, the other side is to become a credit card tart (as martin calls it) by jumping from one cc company to the next as the 0% interest offer runs out. Virgin have a great deal on at the moment for existing customers, 12 months interest free balance transfer. Barclay card has 2x 20 month interest free balance transfer deals for new customers. Also, rather than going for the full £25,000 etc you could try transferring a smaller amount. It will depend on if they accept you and what credit limit they allocate to you.

Another thing you need to look at is which of your existing cards is costing you the most interest per month. This will be the priority debt that you want to shift to non interest bearing asap.

Check if your existing 2 credit card companies are doing any 0% balance transfer deals for existing customers. You may be able to shift some of your existing cc debt between the 2 companies and cut down your interest payments as a result.

Remember you don't have to transfer the entire amount at once. Virginmoney lets its customers do a balance transfer once every 14 days etc. You may be able to move smaller amounts across from one account to another over time. This may be an option if you are declined by any new credit card companies.

Remember that all these companies are competing for your debt and you can use this to your advantage if you can get them to accept you as a new customer.

The first step would be to go and check out the credit card balance transfer offers on this website...

moneysavingexpert.com/cards/balance-transfer-credit-cards

winnie

Thanks for the tip on the credit card tarting! i will look into it, but not sure id be approved more credit. Do you think id have more luck with that than trying to get a loan to consolidate?

winnie

Ive also changed my utilities supplier which is good and ive lowered by mobile phone tariff. Luckily i was at the end of my contract. i know its only small steps, but hopefully they will make an impact in the long run!

Nessie23

winnie wrote: »

Ive also changed my utilities supplier which is good and ive lowered by mobile phone tariff. Luckily i was at the end of my contract. i know its only small steps, but hopefully they will make an impact in the long run!

Well seems like your are definetely heading in the correct direction . When changing suppliers for utlities, phone, internet, etc. you can also see whether you can get some cashback, have a look at topcashback.com and quidco.com . Also worth a read is MSE's cashback guide http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/cashback-websites and cashback maximiser http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/cashback-sites-comparison/

With regards to your phone, you should be able to get a bundle of phone + internet for £20 have a look at MSE's phones and utilities section. Also you might want to consider doing some shopping at Aldi/Lidl if you have one close by. Some of their own products are quite good at a considerably lower cost than the other supermarkts.

Nessie