General advice about getting shot of these cards!

beats2013

Hi all,

Just after a bit of advice really! After doing the whole uni thing twice..i managed to get suckered into having 2 overdrafts and 6 credit cards. Like many others I managed to exhaust all available credit and missed the odd payment..looking back i was very foolish! Graduated in 2008 and always kept the cards upto date not missing a payment, until RBS very kindly had that issue last summer and a payment to my Ulster Bank card was deemed missed.

I managed in June to get a job in London and work required me to open one of their bank accounts to allow my salary to be paid so thats 3 accounts i now hold. In February took an overdraft out and placed the balances of 4 out of the 6 cards on to it and closed 2 out of the 4 mainly as the balances were low and the rates high.

I have left to pay

Bank of Ireland Visa £3949 (limit 4100) @ 17.9 pay
Ulster Bank MC £304 (limit 350) @16.9
Ulster Bank overdraft 1400 (1500 o/d limit) paying roughly £19 interest a month
Danske Bank overdraft 2900 (3000 o/d limit) paying about £30 interest a month
Lloyds o/d 2500 (2600 o/d limit) interest is at 9.9 over balances of £150.

I also have a car loan with black horse paying £303 a month until december 2014.

Having read the posts I think I need to target the BOI Visa to get that amount down, I did take cash out on that card..i know foolish so works out i pay £60 interest a month.

Should i pay off the small ulster bank cc and close it first or drop it down to the min payment and up the BOI cc amount? Similarly I pay £100 into the danske and ulster bank overdrafts..should i use the remainder up and add it to the BOI payment and leave enough to cover the interest each month?

I am reluctant to touch the car loan with black horse as i only have another year and a bit to go on it and after 3 years of paying it religiously seems madness not to have anything to show at the end of it

Good news is moving the 4 cards on to the o/d and cancelling has sent my experian score up to excellent 975 at the last report.
Shows i have 13 credit files either open or settled which is flagged as a lot but from what i can see include my mobile contracts and also a by now pay later purchase i have with creation finance for when i bought a laptop last october which i am paying in full next month all being well.

I thought i might have been able to get a consolidation loan or even one of the long term BT offers so foolishly applied and got the decline. So it looks like its just me and my salary thats going to rid me of this ball and chain!

Any advice welcome at this point!

Thanks all for reading....

YorkshireBoy

Being maxed out on all 'rolling' credit facilities is likely to be a major factor in the credit declines.

The fact that Experian have given you a 'score' (we like to call them meaningless numbers around these parts!) of 975 should clearly show you what a waste of money that was...if you've paid them money for it?

Best advice?...

Concentrate on 'snowballing', ie paying down the highest interest rate debt first, whilst meeting the minimum contractual payments on each (£1 extra will remove the minimum payment marker from your dredit file). But also be mindful that O/D facilities can be withdrawn at any time and are repayable on demand.

Get over to the debt-free wannabe forum, and post up a statement of affairs (SOA), to get some further help on cutting your outgoings.

The_Boss

Yeah, this is a classic example of why Experian scores mean nothing.

I wouldnt close the Ulster card when paid off just because it has shown you are having trouble getting credit elsewhere. The BOI has the cash advance on it but repayments to this card should clear that first ahead of the standard interest so definitely look to clear the cash advance total first.

beats2013

Thanks for the advise chaps..I must admit the experian scores are a load of nonsense. Ill just plod on and ill get there eventually!