Consolidation Loan

mick4x4

Is it worth consolidating credit cards in to one loan?

I’m not missing any payments or struggling to pay, it’s just taking ages to bring the balances down, I have around £16,000 across five cards.

So my thinking is to borrow the £16,000 and pay it off over 3 years monthly payment will be around the same as I currently pay, is this the best way forward or is there a better way.

This is my first post so go easy on me!!!

[Deleted User]

What's your income? ie is anyone likely to lend you another £16k when you currently already owe £16k?

Firefox1975

I won;t post what everyone else is going to ask you. (Salary level, banks won;t lend more than 50% etc.)

but I will just ask - if your paying it off the same over 3 years, does it really matter if it's consolidated?

pay the minimum towards cards with lowest APR. Pay whats left every month to the cards with highest APR.

Shezz

Why not transfer all the balances onto one card making use of the interest free for x amount time on all balance transfer's

Then when the interest free time is up either look for another card with interest free balance transfer, or get a bank loan for the remainder that is left

least your have balance on one card and it is easier to track.

Firefox1975

dammit - ZX81 beat me to it! :-)

poppasmurf_bewdley

Consolidation will only work if you cut up those cards and close all the accounts once they are paid off. Otherwise you will find yourself back with £16k owed on the cards AND a loan to pay off.

[Deleted User]

Firefox1975 wrote: »

dammit - ZX81 beat me to it! :-)

I'm on Super Fast mode this morning.

mick4x4

Thanks for the replies,

I have 5 cards all practically maxed out, Virgin card of £5800, Barclay card at £3700 a HSBC card at £4450 and a capital One card at £900 and a Comet store card at £800.

My salary is £27,500

Nothing left on the cards to transfer too, would just like to get it all down as quick and painlessly as possible

I can afford around £500 a month to pay it all off

rdchick

Hi Mick

I doubt you would get another loan for £16K would mean you 'could' run up £32K

Best bet is to tackle the card with the highest interest rate. Pay the minimums on the rest until that card is paid off... ie: Pay £20 minimum payments on cards a,b,c,d and on card e you throw the extra £500 a month to it until it's gone then to the next one with the highest interest using the £500 plus the minimum payment you would have paid on card e. It's called snowballing and it works really well xxx

~Brock~

Deleted_User wrote: »

I'm on Super Fast mode this morning.

16k Rampack installed then eh?

Shezz

I would look for a new card that has 0% on balance transfers then transfer all them cards onto just the one card if they will let you have that amount on a card, not sure