Help with wife's credit card balance.

downs523

My wife has just over £2000 on her tesco credit card and it has gone past the 0% purchase rate so she is stuck paying the minimum payment of £46 which I believe £39 of interest gets added on each month!!!! So it is going no where!

Is there anyway to solve this? Will a balance transfer accept that much balance? and where is best to look for balance transfers? One more thing... Which company or card is the easiest to get accepted? She has an OK credit rating, one default a few months ago which was not her fault and was rectified by tesco.

lisyloo

so she is stuck paying the minimum payment of £46 which I believe £39 of interest gets added on each month!!!! So it is going no where!

You make it sound like this is someone else's fault ?????
What was her plan?

She could solve it by transferring to another 0% card, the question of course is whether she will get a card.
Here's a list of 0% cards.

Did the error get rectified on her credit reports? Has she checked them?
That might be worth doing.
It's only £2 each and the main agencies are Equifax and Experian. Personally I would avoid the free trials and pay the £2. There can be issues with cancelling the trials.

downs523

Oh no it's all her fault spending with the card. Also we have just got married and she has taken my surname. Will this effect her application as she would have been known under a different name ref credit checks etc?

YorkshireBoy

Application forms ask "have you been known by another name?" or ask for a female's maiden name.

When you say "default", what do you mean?...a missed payment or overlimit charge, or something much worse?

Some on here say the Creation card is fairly easy to get, but I have no personal experience of it.

And there's generally no cap on the amount that can be transferred (I've done as much as £20K), other than 90-95% of any credit limit assigned (to allow for the BT fee).

downs523

They took two monthly payments one month then refunded both of them which showed she didn't pay anything that month and she was charged £12. We called them and they rectified it and stated to us nothing would be shown on her credit report. We applied for the experian £2 report and it wasn't on there but I am going to double check and order it again along with the equifax report.

This "default" was spring last year but since then we have had no problems. I see cards like the Barclay card platinum 22 month 0% free balance transfer and the halifax one but are these for people with excellent credit ratings?

lisyloo

And there's generally no cap on the amount that can be transferred

In practice of course limits are governed by income. It's perfectly possibe to get that amount, but the limit is individual and remeber that lenders will see she already has £2000 worth of debt.

Some cards are for people with good credit ratings, but there is no way we can know each lenders exact criteria for each card.
Why do you think her rating is only OK if she does not have any defaults.

Lending also depends on income, status e.g. employed/self-employed, age etc. and not only on the credit report.

lisyloo

Does she have a bank account.
Many people have greater success with their own bank as they have reams of internal information in addition to the credit report.

Tixy

To get most 0% balance transfer cards you need to have a pretty much spotless credit history, it sounds like she has now? no missed payments etc?

You'll also need to be earning, and for some cards need to be earning more than a certain amount. This is a list of some of the main 0% cards on the market - and some you will see list minimum salaries. http://www.stoozing.com/0fees.php

If she is financially associated to anyone (you?) by way of a joint mortgage or joint bank account etc then any problems on your credit file could also cause an issue.

Any potential lender will also look at how much debts she has, how much available credit and compare these to her income. Is the tesco card her only debt?

Who does she bank with? do they offer a 0% balance transfer card? If so that might be worth trying for assuming she has run that account well (no had things bounce, gone over an overdraft limit etc).
No harm in her trying for barclaycard or halifax etc if her credit history is good. If she is declined then as said it might be worth trying creation.