Advice about Arrangement to Pay with Barclaycard needed please.

mikalis_2

A few years ago I had a serious bout of depression, and got behind on my finances. I entered a payment plan with Barclaycard, and I've stayed on this payment plan for about three years now. I wasn't aware of what a negative effect it would have on my credit rating, I asked them on the phone about it at the time, and they said it only stayed on my record while I was on the payment plan. I've now checked my credit score (which is just over 200) and can see it's on there for a long time. I've since found out stays on there for six years, not what they told me! I also read these were only supposed to be a temporary thing for six months? They did call me every six months to renew it.

I've been in a position to come off the payment plan for a while, but I thought I was better off staying on it to save on interest (to be fair until very recently I was still struggling). I now want to take out a personal loan to consolidate my credit cards, so want to sort my credit rating out, but don't know what to do. I don't feel that the full implications of this agreement were explained to me, and because of the depression I didn't pay much attention to the letters they sent, I was just relieved for them to leave me alone.

I'm left with a £1100 balance on Barclaycard, on a repayment plan of £57 a month at 0%. I have about £1300 free balance on my Capital One card. I don't know what to do now, as this is going to leave me with a severely impaired credit rating for a long time, even if I come off the payment plan. I considered paying off Barclaycard with my Capital One card, thus paying off the debt I had from Barclaycard completely, but this would leave me with no available credit or ability to get more. Would this improve my credit rating greatly? Or am I better off just finishing the payment plan, and paying Barclaycard at the usual rate? Or even better, is there a way to get this payment plan off my credit rating if I pay Barclaycard in full? I'm very confused...

I have a flawless record with Capital one, and with Santander I have flawless credit card history, and only two late payments several years ago on my current account. I have no other negative things on my credit history now, it's literally just this payment plan.

Any advice people could give me about resolving this situation would be greatly appreciated, I've left the payment plan agreement on Barclaycard while I figure out my best option. Sorry for the long post, just thought it's better to explain in detail.