Halifax interest on closed account

robert_donat

I'm not sure if anyone can help but....

I owe the Halifax quite a bit & pay about £160 per month, but the interest is 24.9%. The account is closed & I did ask if they could lower or freeze the interest, but they said no.:mad:

Now if if miss a payment & a default notice is issued, then will they have to freeze the interests & charges.

If this is correct is this my best option??

Many, many thanks

Rob.

Tixy

No they don't have to freeze the interest if you default on the agreement or if you miss payments or at any point.

They may agree to freeze interest if you ask them to and can demonstrate that you cannot afford the current repayments and that you are treating them the same as any other creditors (ie if you pay them reduced payments are you also paying other unsecured creditors reduced payments) but they don't have to.

robert_donat

So would I be better off taking out a loan & paying of the CC debt that way??

Reob

Tixy

Difficult to say without knowing your circumstances.

If this is your only debt and if you are able to get accepted for a loan with a lower APR and can afford the repayments then that is certainly something to consider. But if you are struggling with repayments (not sure if you are or not), have anything negative on your credit file or if your debts are high compared to your income you may not be able to obtain such a loan.

robert_donat

What if I switched to a lower APR credit card?
Is it just a case of swapping them over??

Thanks in advance Rob

wolveslass

All you need to do is apply for a 0% balance transfer card. Virgin and Barclaycard are offering the longest deals at the moment, up to 22 months I think.
Obviously you are not guaranteed to get this, depending on your credit file etc. Also you may not get a big enough limit to cover your debt. If this is the case you could still transfer as much as possible to 0% and then over pay on the remaining debt with the highest APR.
When I was in your position I transferred to 0% and I switch whenever the deal runs out.

Tixy

Do you mean a card you already have? or that you were thinking of applying for one?
If its a card you already have and has a sufficent limit, a lower APR and isn't part of the same halifax banking group then you could certainly request a balance transfer from the other card to pay off the halifax card.

If its a new card then again it would depend if you are able to get accepted for a credit card with a sufficent limit and with a lower APR, if so then that might be an option.
You don't say how much you owe but in general card providers these days don't tend to be as generous with limits for new card holders as they used to be (although it will again come down to how much you owe, what you earn, what your credit history shows etc).

robert_donat

I owe £4700, & pay off £160.00 per month.
Of which £100 is the interest.

Rob

wolveslass

If your credit file is sound then you should be able to shift at least some of this debt to 0%. Have a look on MSEs page on best balance transfers, and if you do apply try going through a cashback site.