Help and advice needed please

bobo_frett

Thanks Chop... I think we have a low rent as the property we are in is a three bedroom terrace. As for tax credits, I earned too much last year! 1 year I had on a full time wage and it's thrown us this year as I got put back down to part time. As it is, we owe them money at the minute.

ChopinonaBudget

Oh no, sorry I hear that, tax credits are minefield. Do make sure you keep on top of when it's paid off so you can re-apply, or try before then (much better plan) as you need than back as soon as possible.
I've been stung with owing them money before too, I'm self employed and my income generally rises year on year, so retrospectively I always owe them something, one year it was ALOT. That was when my debt was beginning to hit, too. Scary. Good luck

bobo_frett

We are okay. They want £30 back but the rest is frozen until next year. We are pretty good at letting them know what is what. Thank you. All this help AND support is fantastic. You guys have put a positive spin on what I only ever saw as a negative. Win

bobo_frett

Hi there, I have chained myself in front of the laptop to sort out this joyous debt.

Please could you have a look and offer advice/check it all makes sense?
So...
checked the lovely ladies card. She owes £583 but has a £4500 limit with 0% until next Sept (brill)
We have done this...
on her card we put 3467.26 (virgin card) )% til sept
on my barclaycard we put £2471.61 (MBNA) 0% til Sept
on my MBNA we put £2528.78 (santander) 0% til Oct.
I have to wait for the balances to all transfer until I can put the £461.23 and the £583 on to the MBNA too.

Does this make sense/sound right?

Also, what will I do with the empty cards? Cancel them in the hope of getting a new deal next year or leave em in a drawer?

Thank you again. Really appreciate your time

EJG1982

:eek: Wow you guys have been busy and very productive havent you!. Positive step forward knowing whatever you pay in the next 12mths is ALL going to reducing

once transfers have settled, your own credit file will show you have aprx £23700 credit (not including overdrafts if these are clear) and using around £5.5k (less than 25%). Sometimes too much available credit can put potential lenders off as they may consider you a high risk in struggling to repay if ever maxed cards out. They would base this on income and how much the repayment would be. Imagine that on £24K!

depending how much you aim to clear in 12mths, try to work out what the balances are going to be when the 0% is up as you will want the opportunity to move them again.

Maybe consider clearing & cancel b/card (£2700) and reduce the virgin 10K to 5. Then you have reduced overall credit by £7.5k but still have a £5k card that will know doubt make a balance transfer offer next year and you could move it all to one. Just remember the no transfer between mbna > virgin when deciding what ones to cancel

personally i wouldnt worry to much about cancelling yet anyway. step 1 is done so concentrate on step 2, your budget, this is the main area you need to decide on. i find clearing one balance at a time helps. seeing bigger chunks drop off one debt is more of an incentive to a little chipping away on all

:beer: to your progress so far and keep the positivity going. If this debt is something you want to clear quick then your in prime position to do it.