When is enough, enough?

controversialmike

Hi all,

I need to ask a rather strange question:

I'd like to know when/if a Credit Card company ever looks at an account and says, "you know what, we've had enough out of this customer"?

I've had a Virgin card now for over 7 years. I transferred £5k and then a bank error on the 2nd month caused me to miss a payment and I lost my 0%. I did a cash withdrawal unaware of the rates) and another few transactions and got my debt up to a unhealthy £7.5k before cutting my card, that was 5 years ago. I did a bout of paying as much as I could off but, since then I've (foolishly) been head in sand, paying off the minimum and, with business as it is (getting progressively worse), I don't any way I can up this amount.

I don't know the figures exactly (they don't have that information available over the phone), at one point I was paying over 30% apparently which I renegotiated down to 18%. I'm pretty sure however, that I've paid back over 10K and I still have £3k remaining.

Are Credit Cards companies bound, like many of the other financial service providers nowadays, to some sort of governed customer fairness policy? Do they have a maximum limit they can charge?

Any help appreciated.

JakeGreen

controversialmike wrote: »

Are Credit Cards companies bound, like many of the other financial service providers nowadays, to some sort of governed customer fairness policy? Do they have a maximum limit they can charge?

Any help appreciated.

In short, no.

They will keep charging interest in accordance with the terms that you agreed at the start.

For cards issued now the minimum monthly payment is 1% of the balance plus interest and fees. Which means that eventually the debt will be fully paid off (it takes a long time though!)

My advice to you is:

Try to pay off as much as possible as soon as you can. Make sacrifices to your lifestyle to increase the amount you are paying. The more you pay off now, the less interest you will pay in the future.

Try to transfer the balance (or as much of it as possible) to a 0% credit card and pay off the remaining balance as quickly as you can. This will only buy you time, you still have to pay it off eventually.

Always make the minimum payment at least and don't be late with payments or miss any payments. Try not to damage your credit profile, any damage could haunt you for up to 6 years.

A number of us have been in situations where the interest alone each month is a huge amount, but it can be overcome.

All the best,

meer53

They offer you money, you can decide whether to spend it or not. You have a choice in the matter, the limit on your credit card is just that, a limit, it's not a target you have to reach.

JakeGreen's advice is good.

Herbalus

There may well be a time when a company decides it doesn't want a customer, but you can be assured that while you still owe them £3000, plus interest that is added every month, they will not wipe that clear.

If you can't get a balance transfer to lower your interest rate, and can't pay more than the minimum payment, it is advisable to look at your minimum payment at the moment and set that up as a fixed payment amount i.e. if your min payment is £100, pay £100 every month, and not less when your minimum payments decrease. This will significantly reduce the amount you pay back.

Minimum payments are the longest and most expensive way to pay off a credit card.

[Deleted User]

They're not going to say "we don't want this customer any more", because you're their perfect customer. You owe them money, and you're giving them a wad of interest every month.