What to do next with my credit cards

Edm5

Hi I'm new to this & need some advice. I have 3 credit cards, one of which I haven't used for well over a year & has no balance but a limit of £8k. The other 2 have balances of £4,600 the other with £1,200 the limits on them are £8k & £4k. The first one I used initially to pay for our wedding, then transferred the balance when the 0% ended to another 0% rate. This is the one with the higher balance. The next I stupidly took out to pay for the odd thing & planned to pay off after each purchase, but i ran it up to more than I should have. All of them I paid every month and have never been late. I pay as much as I can to them.

I haven't bought anything with them for a while just want to pay them off. My question is the 0% ends soon on both soon & I don't know what to do next and whether I should've closed that account that has been clear for a while. Someone told me it can do your credit rating more harm than good. Any good advice would help. I wasn't even sure if I should try getting a loan and do it that way but would they give you a loan when you have all that credit sitting?!

Or try to get one card with long 0% rate & transfer both balances?

Thanks hope it makes sense.

YorkshireBoy

A lot will depend on your salary. Unless it's 'decent', you should almost certainly close the unused £8K card. However, this may take up to 8 weeks (but 3-4 months is not uncommon in my experience with LTSB) to register at the CRAs.

But before you do anything...some providers regularly offer promotional rates to existing customers so you could possibly avoid another application if this card is run by one such provider.

In short, you should list your providers (complete with their respective limits and debt), salary, and any other relevant financial circumstances (home owner, mortgage, loans, financial associates and their debt, etc) to get the best advice.

Edm5

I work part time & my husband is full time. Myself & hubby have mortgage. No loan, only finance on car which is in hubby's name. My income is around £8,000 it lower last year as I changed jobs.

1. Card is Santander £4,600 limit is £8,000
We have mortgage with them & hubby has finance for car with them.

2. Virgin card with £1,200 with £4,000 limit on it

3. Halifax card no balance & £8,000 limit.

Limits were lower but noticed they've put them up lately!

Paul_the_Painter

OK salary not going to be great for getting new cards!

On the plus side you're not paying any tax, so your annual income is pretty much the £8,000 you earn.

PLANS A.) Your 1st thing to do is ask Halifax if they are doing any balance transfer deals for existing customers. If they are then transfer both balances across to Halifax. (when the deals come to an end - actually a few days before)

Then in 6/12 months, Virgin will probably take the whole balance back, but work really hard to get the balance down to about £3800 in total (to allow for the 5% fee for Virgin - fee can vary)

Do not under any circumstances close the Halifax account until you have established that they will not transfer the balance interest free! It is a potentially huge asset - no one else will give you an £8000 limit on a salary of £8000.

PLAN B.) (If A doesn't work) Log onto your Virgin account you may find that they are offering you a balance transfer offer, if they are transfer £2600 of the Santander Balance to the Virgin card. This will cost you a balance transfer fee (2 - 5%) You will then be left with paying interest on the Virgin balance of £1200, and the remaining Santander Balance of £2000. This will be costing you about £65/month in interest, but any payments you make will go toward reducing that balance of the"interest bearing" debt first.

After a few months of not using the Halifax card (don't use it for shopping, they get money for that, so you want Halifax to think the only way they are going to get a fee out of you is to get a balance transfer fee) See if Halifax will offer a balance transfer deal, if they do transfer around £1000 off the Virgin Card (you will have paid off a bit by now, and this will only leave the "interest free" bit left on there) Also transfer the whole of the remaining Santander balance off to the Halifax card.

PLAN C.) Get hubby to open a card and transfer the whole balance to him £5800.

You will need to work quite hard to get the balances down on your salary, don't just pay the minimums, throw everything you can at it as you may find in the future that balance transfer deals won't be available to you, and your salary would suggest that most lenders wouldn't be prepared to offer you another card, as your available credit is currently about 250% of your salary, they are more comfortable at about 50% (although they I'm at about 75% of my salary)

ENCOURAGMENT

As your credit limits have been increased recently, I would be hopefull that at least one of the above will work. Increasing your credit limit meand they trust you, so are more likely to offer 0% deals.

CLAPTON

do you and husband work as a team or are your finances separate?

Curr946

i called recently to close my halifax card and was offered 13 months BT offer.

;-)

Edm5

We work as a team & work with both incomes really but I took out cards in my name when my salary was better. Thanks for all your help. I will try Halifax route 1st I think.