Right place to post?

powellct

Following a drink problem lasting several years, I find myself in hock to various cards to the tune of ~£10k. I've been dry for 2 years, and recentlt stopped smoking, so I now have fluid funds (when they're available - I'm self employed and not working due to injury - 4 weeks off to go)

Anyway, breakdown is thus:
£3172 Barclaycard @23.9%APR
£678 Mastercard @19.9%
£2560 Nationwide @0% (ending soon, then 17%)
£3721 Barclaycard (old Egg) @21.9%

I'm currently paying a flat £100 to Nationwide and £150 to Barclaycard(Egg), and managing minimum payments on the others.

Question: I've applied for, and been approved for, a£10k loan from Sainsbury's finance @10.1%APR (£256/month repayments over 48 months, 3 month deferred start. Total interest works out to c.£2100) - just got to return the paperwork. Is this the best option? I can't stretch to much more than £260/270pcm very easily.

Ta in advance
Col.

JustinCredibleGillespie

As long as you are sure you'll not run the debts up again

Consolidation is never a good idea unless your absolutely confident you won't fall into the same trap.

JCG

xx

powellct

I don't THINK I will, but I didn't think I'd get this bad either. Any alternate solutions? I'm just about to ring BC to see if they can do anything with it - the calculator elsewhere on this site reckons I can be debt free within 36 months with a "new" barclaycard, but as an existing customer.....

his_missus

I got a loan out once to pay off my CC debts but then started a vicious circle. I started using the credit cards again then when my loan was half paid off ended up getting a new loan out to pay off old loan and CC, got rid of one CC but maxed out the other and got a third loan. Even now, with 6 months to go on this loan my CC is almost at its limit again. Only this time, when my loan is paid off I'm going to pay off the CC using the money I would've used to repay the loan.

I'm not sure about an alternative to a,loan though, hopefully someone wiser than I am will offer you advice.

Brenster

Hi, If I was you I would;

Try and get a new 0% Credit Card for whatever value you are offered (lets say £4000 for the purpose of this)
Then Transfer £4000 from your existing cards, and get a smaller loan of £6000 to pay of the remaining credit cards (It is very important to cancel the cards as soon as you pay them off !).

The important thing to note is how reliable is your income? If you lose your job your loan repayments will remain the same, however with a credit card repayments are flexible, i.e you can reduce to minimum repayments in the even of unemployments etc.

Good Luck

powellct

Thats my thinking. I have a finite pot of money, but I'm sick of seeing at least half of it go in interest. I think its time to speak to barclaycard in the first instance, although that does still tie me to a fixed payment.:mad:

RAS

Limits on those cards?

And do you know the snowball on www.whatsthecost.com?

powellct

Holy ****!!!! Just on barclaycard paying the minimum clears the debt in.....81 years!!!!! That loan, although consolidating debts, looks better after that....

Edit: 47 months on Egg @£150/pcm!
Another edit: under the credit limit on all the cards.

powellct

Bump.

Several people telling me debt consolidation is not a good idea, but apart from Brenster no alternative solutions?

Help? Please?

[Deleted User]

The alternative to the loan is to tackle the cards directly. Pay the minimum towards all the debts, and then pay any extra you have towards the card that is costing you the most in interest, once that card is gone, move on to the next paying the original "extra that you were paying towards the most expensive debt", to the next expensive debt + the previous minimum payment that you were paying towards the card that is now paid off. Do this for each card in turn until they are all fully repaid.

this is snowballing in the way that is detailed when you put all your cards info into the snowball calculator on given above.

The benefit to this is that there's some movement in payments if your income is not fixed or guaranted. With a loan there's no movement in the repayments.

HTH

D9

powellct

Excellent, thankyou! I shall start up a spreadsheet to see some timescales