To transfer or not?

charlies_tribe

Right all, we have got into a right mess moneywise and were are desperatly trying to sort it.

Bit of background, we have a loan for about £15000, a virgin credit card, interest free at about £6000 and a barclay card now at £5800.

The barclay card was almost clear until a few months ago. Our car broke down, we have a disabled son and really need it. We spent over a £1000 trying to fix it, a further 500 on a hire car while trying and then still ended up paying 1500 for a new car and 1000 for insurance (we have 5 children and 2 pushchairs so needed the bigger car). All of which went on the card. A huge chunk was taken out in cash and we are paying a huge interest (can find all amounts if needed).

I have just tried appling for another interest free and was declined but was accepted for a fixed 5.9% but only for 2500.

Now my question is... Are we going to be better off just transfering as much as we can to the new card or will it make things worse? I currently pay £100 on virgin, not sure what the minimum is at the moment. Then we pay £200 to barclay card (min this month was about £160).

We are trying to pay it all off as soon as possible. I could really do with my personal Mr Lewis at this moment:)

Thank yo for any help x

charlies_tribe

Thought i should add, we are hoping to still fix the original car when we have saved a bit of money and then sell that one, as it is a vw, and worth a lot more than our new car. Then hopefully pay the 4-5k off the cards. Not sure if it makes any difference as we dont know how long this will take.

Tixy

The 5.9% - is that a new card or a new offer on the existing virgin card and you have £2500 before you reach your limit?

What is the APR on the BC for purchases and for cash?

What is the balance transfer fee for the 5.9% card?

Is £300 the max you can afford a month to service all the card debt? At the very least you would be better just paying the minimum to the virgin card and diverting the rest to the BC balance.

charlies_tribe

Arrggh, just posted a huge reply and it logged me out!
Thank you for replying.

Its a new card, the MBNA one. Theyve allowed £2500 and transfer fee is 1.5% leaving me £2330 to transfer if ive worked that out right (the 95%limit).

Will find out th BC rates but it was a 0% card so is really high.
I was sure they pay off the highest interest first so what i transfer will be the cash withdrawals, reducing it to only 5.9%. I might be completely wrong though.
Think i am going to go to minimum on virgin tough and pay it off the BC.
i PUT THE £300 ASIDE EACH MONTH (WAS PAYING IT ALL ON THE VIRGIN UNTIL THE CAR BROKE) Sorry, caps!
Anything else left at the end of each month is then going on it. Managed about £600 last month but cleared my next account.

charlies_tribe

From what i can find on my account standard rate is 17.9% (on all but £179 which is still interest free) and my cash transfer is 27.9% and was £1500.
My virgin min payment was £63 this month so set up a direct debit for min amount and just looking at whats best for the rest. Splitting it or paying the full £235 (roughly) and any extra straight onto BC.

Tixy

Put all the figures into the snowball calculator here (http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx) including minimum payment %s and when your virgin deal ends etc - that will then tell you the best allocation of your money.

A balance transfer will pay off the more costly cash part of your bcard balance first.

JimmyTheWig

The balance transfer has got to help.
Pay the minimum on the 0% card as you are doing.
Transfer as much as you can from the Barclaycard to the new card.
Pay the minimum on the new card.
Pay as much as you possibly can as quickly as you possibly can off the Barclaycard.

charlies_tribe

Thank you both.
Using the calculator at £300 a month it will take 56 months as we are or 51 months using the new card, paying minimum on V and MBNA and clearing BC. Not a great deal but it should hopefully allow enough on the BC to transfer the balance of the virgin once the deal ends at christmas. Hopefully a 0%will be available then. That takes us to when our loan should finish but im determined it will be cleared before then.
Thank you for your help.