How do I snowball whilst minimising monthly outgoings

monday_blues

Hi guys, I currently have 5 debts, one personal loan low rate of interest which I will just live with until repaid (2014).

4 other credit cards including
b/card 5,000 - 22.9%
b/card (husband) 4500 - 19.9%
n/wide 1,700 - 19.9% - this one has 2,300 available credit on it. should i balance transfer "some" of the b/card 22.9% on to this - is it worth it for 3% difference??? - not sure.
IF 7,000 - 12.9%

Ideally, I would like to reduce our monthly credit repayments as our monthly budget is really tight, and think we need to spare up some funds to avoid getting further into credit, as we really dont have much left after bills and credit repayments? However, in saying that, don't know whhere to apply to, if we would be successful, dont know whether to ask the bank where the loan is with if we could (a) extend the term and reduce the repayment (b) borrow additional moniies on loan to consolidate some of the cards???

To be honest, I really dont know in the current climate how the lenders think anymore and how best to approach this. Does anyone have any experience they could share?

Out of the blue thhe othher week a M&S credit card came through the post (we did have m&s cards but i;m not sure if we closed them, or simply paid offf the balance. Seems a bbit odd replacement cards came through whhen we havent had any statements or anything for 1+ years (really not sure how long). The card is in my husband's name so I would need to get him to phone and ask if there is balance transfer rate available?

And that leads me to think, do we have any other credit card accounts that are dormant but not closed? Would thhey be an option to approach? How do I find out?

Also, moneysuupermarket.com had a popup box for nationwide advertising personal loan rates from 6.6%. Would they look favourabbly at giving a loan to consoliidate since we have a card witth them already, or do thhey just look at you as being overcommited???? Please help, feel a bit overwhelmed and lost here...

Many thanks, MOnday Blues

Happytogetdebtfree

Hi and welcome, I didn't want to read and run :-) post a statement of affairs if you can, I would not advise further credit ... I too felt like consolidating which led to further consolidation the best bet is to maybe utilise the cards you have , if you can get a nice balance transfer on the card that's open great. It seems in the current climate that you need an excellent credit rating to even get a sniff of a good deal which can be hard when you feel like your payments are all intrest bit eventually dents will be made :-) keep posting an welcome

monday_blues

thanks happytogetdebtfree, i will work on an updated statement of affairs, what do you think of moviing "half the balance" from one card to another, with only 3% difference in rate?

Happytogetdebtfree

Depends how much you intend to move it could end up been the same with the balance transfer fee, I'd probably just try pay what I can off, it's a stomach churner when I look at intrest rates of some of my cards but I keep paying and it's slowly coming down :-) your making the first move coming on here :-)