Help needed

Tjrw1985

Hi All,

I am currently assisting my sister with her finances, after sorting out my own and thew one area I wanted to tackle were her Credit cards.

The interest rates vary on all of them but they are:

Natwest x2 : 18.40%
Barclaycard: 24.9%
Capital One: 29.9%

I phoned these copnaies last night to see if they would consider a temporary reduction in interest rate for a period of 3-6 months to help her reduce the balances.

As you can imagine they all refused stating that they 'CAN'T' reduce the interest rate. I know this not to be true as I did it with mine.

Does anyone know what my next step would be, as I know they don't have to give a reduction but it annoys me they said they 'can't' whereas I know that it is more a case of 'won't'.

Any help on next course would be most appreciated?

Tixy

Does she have any other cards?

Has she tried applying for another card with a promo balance (0% or low life of balance).

Do she have sufficent unused credit on the natwest cards to BT the captial one debt across to them?

Tjrw1985

Thanks tixy,

These are the only cards that she has and unfortunately there is no available balance on any of them to BT anything.

All I want to be able to do is help her get some of the balance paid off. And reducing the interest was the way i thought would be easier.

She cannot afford to default as she works in finance, currently through an agency and they should be making her permanent in the new year, but they will credit check her when she goes permanent.

vendetta4v

Hi Tjrw

If it was me (in your sister's place) I would be inclined to simple tell them that I'm reducing the rates. Ie just start paying less to them. I wouldn't ask them for permission. If it's all I can pay that's all I can pay.

But that's just me and it might not suite you. They will reply in writing and phone calls and if one doesn't know how to handle these it can cause distress.

It's easy to learn though and isn't rocket science like people would lead us to believe.

chanz4

I would not advice above, that is if she wants her job. She needs to keep the minimum payments no matter what.

Curr946

As she is working, she might be able to get a new card, but the limit may not be high enough to hold all the moneys owed.