Balance transfer

scorpioto

Hi everyone hope you all had a great new years eve, 1st day back at work today but boss gave us a flyer.
I am trying to find the best way to transfer the balance of one of my CCs £5000 there are lots of 0% for 12 months but all have min 2% transfer charge, I found Sainsbury's 5.9% for the life of the transfer with no charge which looks like a better deal. Can anyone tell me if they think this is the best deal for me or if there is a better one somewhere The APR on the present loan is around 16.9%.The 0% cards always look inviting but I already have 5 CCs 3 of which I don't use with no balances and I don't want to keep changing to 0% balances in case it affects my credit rating

LOAN 1 Borrowed £10000 - 60 payments OF £192.35 @ 5.8%
2 Payments made leaving outstanding debt of
£11156.30

LOAN 2 Borrowed £5500 - 36 payments of £172.78 @ 5.6% I think
30 payments made leaving outstanding debt of
£1036.68

CREDIT CARD 1 - outstanding balance of £5121.12 @
16.9% or thereabout (MIN PAY. £128)

CREDIT CARD 2 - outstanding balance of £3350.57 @
3.9% for 45 months max (MIN PAY £84)
Monthly bank charge - £10 ( FOR THAT GET FREE AA CAR COVER, FREE CARD INS. FREE HOLIDAY INS, FREE MOB PHONE INS AND A COUPLE OF OTHER FREE THINGS)

Rent - £221 per month
Council tax - £89 per month
TV lic. - £11.37 per month
Medicash - £12 per month
House/contents ins. - £31.40 per month ( I SHOP AROUND FOR BEST DEAL EVERY YEAR)
Cable/internet - +- £30 per month ( TOOK OUT LOWEST PACKAGE)
GAS - £10 PER WEEK ( THIS IS MORE THAN WE USE KEEPS THE METER FULL FOR A RAINY DAY)
ELECTRIC - £20 PER WEEK ( SAME AS GAS)

SHOPPING - between £60 and £100
Petrol - Between £10 and £15 per week (DEPENDS WHERE I AM WORKING)
Newspapers - £5 per week
Car tax and ins. - Between £400 AND £500 (SHOP AROUND FOR BEST DEAL)
I go out Saturday night but I help my son and that pays for the wifes drinks, I normally just drink water

SAVINGS:

£50 per month into saving acc. £300
£50 per month into ISA acc. £600
Current acc. £3000 +-

A few things I have ben asked to add, monthly costs:

3 Adults at home
Income +- £1800 per month
Monthly outgoings (exc. loans inc CCs) +- £820
Haircuts+- £6
No PPI on loans

---

TOTAL OUTSTANDING DEBT AS OF 30/12/06 = £20664.67

THUMBS UP FOR A NEW LIFE,I FEEL BETTER ALREADY

oscar52

Just about all cards now charge a fee. However M&S and more card currently has an LOB rate of 3.9% with no fee

Mule

Hi scorpioto

I think there is a Marks and Spencers card (called &More) which offers a life of balance deal at 3.9%.

I'm sure others will be along soon who have more ideas.

Good luck!

oscar52

Mule wrote:

Hi scorpioto

I think there is a Marks and Spencers card (called &More) which offers a life of balance deal at 3.9%.

I'm sure others will be along soon who have more ideas.

Good luck!

See above lol

taxi73

HI there the thing that sticks out to me ...you have enough in savings to clear card 2 then that £84 p/m could go towards another debt..don't know whether thats someting you would consider...I'd also do a spending diary to see where your surplus cash goes...there'll be plenty of others along that will give you better advice

justruth

I would go with the low LOB rate than the 0% as you will probably be paying this for much longer then the 0% period.

On your SOA though I noticed you have some savings? When you are paying out 16.9% on a credit card, and only making around 5% on the savings, the money you have in savings is actually losing you 11.9% APR. I would suggest moving some around although I notice that you do not have insurance, and as such might want to keep a couple of months worth of wages aside to cover a rainy day. Also would it be possible to change the gas and electric to credit meters and pay by direct debit in order to reduce the cost some?

justruth

also £3000+ in your current account will not be attracting the best interest rate. I would either pay that off the card attracting the highest APR (card 1), or pay off loan 2 completely giving you a huge amount extra each moth to throw at other debts.

justruth

have you looked at snowballing?

scorpioto

I will look into M&S that looks a very attractive proposition, as for my savings Taxi I want to keep them or most of them because I don't have insurance on my loans and if I am off work I need back up.Also the £84 payment is a fixed rate of 3.9% so not much interest on that. I have started a spending diary as of yesterday, stopped buying newspapers will read my books instead ( more interesting anyway)

justruth

have you got the best current account for the rainy day savings? Would it be possible to clear a credit card with that much on the limit so that if anything happened you could BT the amount you needed into your current account, but would have saved yourself the interest?

You seem to be sensible enough with what you're doing.

scorpioto

Hi Justruth, thats a good point about using my savings to pay off a hunk of my highest percentage debt, I do have CCs that I could use in an emergency, I will have a think about that, I have just applied for the M&S card at LOB of 3.9% that will be a big help if I get that, I will transfer what I can from my £5000 at 16.9% card so keeping fingers and toes crossed.