What can I do??

kiddo1982

About 4 years ago I took out a credit card with monument whilst I was at college. It started with a £250 limit then went to £500. When it went to £500 I spent the lot on my rent which I thought I would pay back straight away. I then lost my job and missed a couple of payments for which they charged me and then charged for going over my limit then interest on top. to cut a long story short I know owe them a grand total of £1600 and growing with interest. I called them and they said they wouldn't charge me charges as long as I pay £75 a month. I am doing this but they a still charging me interest which is about £35 a month. I'm going to be paying for the rest of my life as I cant afford to pay any more. Is there a way I can close the account and just pay what I owe over a period of time without interest? Could I claim any money back from them? Or am I stuck paying what im paying with interest until I can afford more?? Thanks for reading!!

Storm

According to the snowball it will take you around 29 months to pay it off at the current apr & payment levels (I've worked out the apr to around 26.4%, please correct me if this is way off!)

So... is your credit rating up for applying for a 0% or low LOB deal with another company?

If not, to increase your payments you'll need to cut back somewhere else, if you have a look at SouthernScousers sticky you can draw up a full SoA, and we'll be able to see where savings could be made.

Good luck!

kiddo1982

I think my credit is really poor now as I missed quite a few payments with these guys. I cant open a current account now so must be! Whats an LOB?

Storm

LOB stands for Life of Balance - i.e. M&S have a deal at the moment where any balance transfers within the first 6 months will be at 4.9% apr until the complete balance is paid off (if I put that sort of apr against your snowball it cuts 6 months off the payments immediately)

It might be worth having a look at your credit report to see what it's like, as if you've been paying regularly for a while then the missed payments may have fallen off the bottom of the list (it only keeps so many on there).

If you sign up to pigsback.com & search for experion you can get a free 30 day trial of their online credit report service (and get piggypoints!) If it looks OK, then it may be worth applying for a better card (but make sure you cancel the current one!)

kiddo1982

I've already looked, ive only really started making regular payments to this account so it doesn't make for good reading. Under this account name there is loads of 1s and 2s! I have a catalogue that I defaulted on too which has a 8 with it although ive nearly cleared it. I do have a vanquis card with all 1s though! Just out of interest why do other companies not put your record on this file. I have excellent records with other companies that don't show.