My fault or theirs?

Gromitt

newshoes72 wrote: »

What happened there is that I didn't pay enough attention - I presumed it was all taken care of, felt that I had set everything up to sort itself out, huge sense of relief, and then just ignored it as it was all set up to happen electronically.

You can do that, but you need two things:

A direct debit for the minimum payment - this will stop you getting stung for late payment fees and losing your 0% offer
A standing order for the amount you want to pay. This will pay off the balance.

Personally, I wouldn't bother with the SO, put the money into a savings account (3%+ is easy) and a month before the 0% offer ends, close the account and put the entire balance onto the CC. If your balance was 5K, that could be an additional £150 paid off (assuming you don't pay tax on your savings, £120 otherwise).

moatmeister

Good idea above but set up a DD for the minimum and a standing order for an extra £1.00. That way you wont be recorded on your credit file as paying just the minimum payment which can only stand you in good stead in the future for other applications should you wish to do some

Gromitt

moatmeister wrote: »

Good idea above but set up a DD for the minimum and a standing order for an extra £1.00. That way you wont be recorded on your credit file as paying just the minimum payment which can only stand you in good stead in the future for other applications should you wish to do some

Normally that only matters if you are not on a promotional rate. Paying just the minimum on a 0% offer is unlikely to do bad things to your credit report.

moatmeister

I agree but paying more than the minimum can only be a good thing and you never know what further new ways to trip us up and catch us out the sneaky lenders might be planning for the future. Thing to remember isthat they will lend you an umbrella when it is sunny but demand it back when it is raining. Best to stay ahead of the game in my view!!