Snowballing

Dante

Hi

This is my first time posting on this site even though I've used it loads of times to help with info about credit cards, loans and general advice etc...

Obviously I'm debt, quite a significant amount of debt £46000!!! I need to know which is the best way to pay this debt off. I can't get anymore credit, understandably, so consolidation is out of the question. I looked into snowballing but I currently pay more than the minimum payments on all my debts. I don't know how comfortable I feel about changing this, I feel like the credit card companies will not look favourably upon me in the future if I just start paying the minimum. My mum recently got told that she couldn't use her available balance on her Barclaycard credit card for a balance transfer because she only ever pays a little over the minimum payment!!!

Basically I need advice... does snowballing your debts by paying off the highest APR first really work, do the card credit company penalise you in the future for this?

I've used the snowball calculator but I’m still not sure which is the best way to attack these debts! My current plan has been to pay off all my debts in the next 2.5 to 3 years so I can buy a place before I'm 31!!! I allocate £1500 a month to my repayments.

Any advice anyone?

flowerofscotland

Hi Dante and welcome to the board - you'll get lots of support and advice here.

Snowballing allows for paying as much as you can each month - what is does is show which order to pay off debts. Have you used the snowball calculator? https://www.whatsthecost.com
You can put it your £1500 and it will allocate the minimum to most of your debts and then the maximum to the the first priority debt. When this is paid off the payment to the 2nd card increases etc.

I'm no expert but I think credit card companies look at your credit file in total - paying off and closing some of your cards so that you have less available credit should help when you apply for a mortgage.

If you post a SOA (see the sticky at the top of the thread) some of the good folks on here will suggest ways that you can increase that £1500 and bring your DFD even closer.

Good luck

Dante

Thanks for that.

I've used the snowball calculator from https://www.whatsthecost.com and I could be debt free in 34 months, it was really helpful to see how allocating my payments in a different way will help me become debt free quicker. I've also got my credit report form all the 3 credit agencies this morning. I'll be posting a SOA once I go through that with a fine tooth comb!