Help shuffling credit card debt

missk_ensington

Hi everyone,

I wonder if people can help me. This is my debt situation:

Cap1 £4000
HBOS £1800
Halifax £2200
Asda £1500
Egg £1400

I have always got a new card and tranferred when the 0% expired, but like many people I am not being accepted for new credit (I have never missed a single payment for any credit or my mortgage in 7 years, but I acknowledge for my age it does look like I have a lot of debt - all was taken out to start my business).

I have £2,000 available credit on my Capital One card and I was thinking of moving HBOS onto it, then trying to get an existing customer deal on HBOS and moving Egg onto it... and so on to try and reduce the monthly interest Im paying.

The concern I have, is what if I BT to Capital One, then ring up HBOS and they say no to the existing customer deal? I know on Martins thread it is listed as one that regularly gives deals - but is this pretty much guaranteed, or just luck of the draw?

Any advice is much appreciated.

Thanks

Tixy

I would never count on getting existing customer deals and assume you will be able to BT onwards. Its just as possible you could clear a card and then find they write to you to decrease your credit limit on the cleared card - lenders are doing this more now, even for people who have always managed accounts well.

What are the APRs on all your cards? unless cap 1 is cheaper than your most expensive card I wouldn't transfer anything on to it.
Have you looked at the snowball calulator to see how long it will take to repay them all if you can't get any new deals?
http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

missk_ensington

Hi,

Egg is 16.9, Halifax is 15.9, HBOS is 15.9, ASDA IS 22.9% and Cap1 is 15.75 so Cap1 is the cheapest, but it's also the only card with enough available credit to 'free up' another card.

At the moment I am not making any dent in the debt, the whole debt is only about £500 less than it was this time last year because I'm only paying off interest and cant afford to overpay any more - so the only thing I can do is try and reduce the interest on some of them!

Tixy

What is the transfer fee for cap 1? Asda is costing you the most so that is the one to move across to the cap1 card.
Then you could ask for a BT deal from asda, but if you don't get one you are still in a better position overall.

Perhaps it would be worth popping over to the debt free wannabe board and posting up a statement of affairs for people to make suggestions as to how you could save money/ get things cheaper/ improve your finances in a different way so that you could increase your payments above the minimum payment. Even paying only a small amount more than the minimum to your most expensive card will make a big difference to how long it will take to pay the debt off.

missk_ensington

Ive rang Asda and they have no deals, neither do Cap1 - but I rang Halifax cracking on to them that Id just BT'ed most of the debt to Cap1 and that I was debating whether to pay the balance and cancel it or get a 0% BT - he offered me 9 months 0%....

Thinking I may now ring Egg and spin the same yarn... at least then I'll know categorically what deal I have before I go moving anything....

Tixy

A card provider would offer you different deals if you have no balance on a card than when you have a balance.
The best deals are usually given once an account has been empty for a couple of statements and if you speak to the retentions department.

Since egg have sold all their credit card business I would imagine that it would be unlikely to get any deals from them (although I don't know this for certain).

sniperpenguin

Personally, I would be looking at either a personal loan after a discussion with a branch manager (Approx 8%) or Life of Balance card (Around 7%) to rollup the debts into one manageable target. Any BT fees would be countered by the lower interest rate.

The latter option would be the better avenue in my honest opinion. Once this is done, I would write the statement figure on a pad / whiteboard and have it somewhere prominent - reminding me to overpay like hell to sort it.

At the same time, I would look at other cost savers. If you have sky, ditch it. Even if your home signal is poor, you can buy a freesat box (similar to freeview) which works off the sky dish.

bouncydog1

Would strongly suggest you don't consolidate your debts. PL rates of 7% are generally only on offer to individuals that have low debt to income ratio.

Far better to post on the DFW board and see where you can save money. Set up a realistic budget and use the snowball calculator to start making dents in your debt rather than keep trying to shift it around.

That is not to say you shouldn't look at shifting high rate to low rate, but you need to take into account all charges etc.

You should also set yourself up with a spreadsheet with a column for each card showing interest rate at the top. Start with opening balances, then interest due (formula required) less amount paid in month = closing balance.

That way you can see where you are best going to use your money to lower your debt. Also suggest a spreadsheet for budgeting and make sure you list everything so you can see where your money is going. Sounds a bit sad, but once you see the debt reducing each month you will be encouraged.