Hello (and some advice, please!)

Brum

Hi, I've been lurking for a fair few weeks and after seeing how well you lot are doing with managing your debts I thought I would join in and hope some of your good money management skills (and financial knowlege) are rubbed off onto me!

Now, I have debts. Nothing I cant manage for mine and my Husband's income and nothing I really lose too much sleep over, but I want to learn how to manage them smarter (and hopefully have more spare cash I can throw at them in the first instance and then at myself afterwards ). I've had a good hard look at my credit card statements, and, to be fair, other than one for 2.5k and another that I used to put a holiday at 0% on which has a balance of 1.2K, the others are just piddly amounts, a couple of hundred here, a hundred or so there. I've just been on the phone to Marbles to try and get my APR reduced as I feel 19.9%APR is a little extreme considering I run the account well and a nice lady said there was no way they could do this, even when I threatened to move the money to another company. She also seemed quite confused when I asked for them to drop my limit to £500 from £1700 as I wouldnt be using the card again.

(Bear with me, this is leading somewhere....)

Now, if I reduce my limits on all the cards I'm not using will this look better on my credit file? I did the free Experian thing recently and was pleasantly surprised with the results as I was having a bit of a panic about switching our mortgage to ING (which was exceptionally easy, once they spelled my name right!) and I want to make sure that if I ever do need to get additional credit I will be able to. (future 0% transfers etc). Also: Does anyone have any experience in asking for a reduction in their APRs? Is this actually possible?

Seaxwyn

hi Brum

Abbey reduced my APR on an existing credit card when I phoned up and asked. If you have a look at the Credit Cards chat forum on here, there's a sticky called 'Unofficial existing customer something or other' and I got some useful info there.

I'm not an expert but I think you might help yourself by transferring your small balances onto just one or two cards and closing the rest.

Bestthingsinlifearefree

Brum wrote: »

Now, I have debts. Nothing I cant manage for mine and my Husband's income and nothing I really lose too much sleep over, but I want to learn how to manage them move the money to another company. possible?

.

Hi Welcome to MSE,:beer:

Why move the debts to another company? Why not just pay them off?;)

(are you sure they are so managable if you cannot pay them off?)

Maybe do an SOA ?

I wish you well

Best,

Brum

Haha, yeah, you're right, why not pay them off? That's a good question. I'll admit in part to laziness, but also to wanting to be greedy and have a second holiday at the end of the summer to celebrate us being married for 10 years. Paying just twice the minimum amounts on them at the minute makes that a lot more comfortable.

We've been ebaying off some clutter for the last three weeks and have managed to raise a good couple of hundred pounds that way.

I've just realised I don't think I have it in me to be a true Debt Free Wannabe! Help!

Bestthingsinlifearefree

Brum wrote: »

Haha, yeah, you're right, why not pay them off? That's a good question. I'll admit in part to laziness, but also to wanting to be greedy and have a second holiday at the end of the summer to celebrate us being married for 10 years.

If either of you lost your jobs would it still be a case of....

"Nothing I cant manage for mine and my Husband's income and nothing I really lose too much sleep over, but "

The question being you can't afford to pay of your debts but can afford to go on a 2nd holiday?

Not having a go at you Brum but sounds like the slippery slope scenario to me.

Why not pay off your debts then save up and treat yourself to a great holiday? Or is that just a ridiculous suggestion;) :rolleyes:

Best,

david_hellier

Hi and Welome. please do a Statement of Affairs (SOA). This is a list of all your outgoings, all your incomes and a list of the debt repayments, balances and APRs. Once we have this info we can be of much more help.

cheers.

Bestthingsinlifearefree

what is the total of your debt ?

Brum

ok, I'll get a SOA together.

My debt is around 7.5k inc a bank loan for my car, my husband's is around 3k.

Bestthingsinlifearefree

Brum wrote: »

ok, I'll get a SOA together.

My debt is around 7.5k inc a bank loan for my car, my husband's is around 3k.

Ouch 10.5K (including the money for the last holiday which has not been paid for yet) and you want to add another grand or so on that for another holiday ?:eek:

If you are running up debt when you are both working what will happen if one of you is not working?

Time to have your "lightbulb" moment:T

Do you have a mortgage?

How much in savings for a rainy day have you put away?

Brum

Yes, we have a mortgage for 55k, we have about 50% equity in our house.

4k of that figure is in loans for our respective cars, which are both due to finish in around 18 months time, whuch will save us around £230 a month. We have both decided we will be doing our best not to change our cars again for another couple of years after that.

Rainy day savings are on hold while we pay off the holiday on the 0% card at the moment, we have about £800 put aside for replacing our bathroom suite as it is very old.

Bestthingsinlifearefree

Hi Brum,

Thanks for the info.

Pay of the debt with the highest interest rate first.

Post an SOA. Tackle the debt and change the spending behaviour BEFORE it becomes a serious problem.

Keep up the good work !


Best,