Urgent help desperately needed

Vegasbabe

My mother in law has run up a debt of around £1,865 on Barclaycard.

Her income is her pension of £8,000 a year.

At 72 years old I am having extreme difficulty trying to find a) the best 0% interest credit card, and b) a credit card that will actually accept her.

I've tried doing the soft checks on this site but I can't get her accepted on any of the decent credit card.

Right now she is paying back £50 with £32/37 just in interest.

I would move her to a 17 month or lower 0% credit account but I'm worried that at the end of that period I wouldn't have anywhere to transfer the remaining balance to bearing in mind the difficulty I'm having now.

I've applied to Fluid, Halifax and Nat West.

Any help/suggestions greatfully received because this is driving me craaazzzy!!!

Thanks in advance

geekonthepc

Ok at this point it's probably advisable not to make any applications as chances fall very low if you make that many applications in a short space of time. Creditors see you as desperate if several "hard" checks are made within 3 months.

Might be worth talking to her bank with her to see if there's anything they can do to help - they tend to make better offers if she's been a customer for a long period of time and they know her long term income / spending habits.

Hope that helps.

Dogger69

Would you not be able to pay the debt off, and she pay you back? Or if you do not have the funds, could you take out a card on her behalf?

platterfish

You may want to get her to check her credit report. See if theres anything stopping the applications. Noddle is a free service and will give an indication of any negative information.

If you do decide to apply for another, whilst as mentioned above sometimes many searches can have a negative effect, Asda Money do a 12 month balance transfer offer, they let you transfer up to 80% of the limit.

Whilst it would be another search on her name, they only search on the reference agency Equifax. (Halifax/Fluid search Experian, and Natwest both Experian and Equifax) From what I have read they are a little easier to obtain credit with, however this will be dependant on how the credit file is.

Vegasbabe

Dogger 69 I hadn't considered that and it's a very good suggestion and a strong possibility.

Want to try and exhaust every possible option before I put myself into debt though.

Thank you also platterfish. I did 3 searches in total. I did realise that it could have further negative affects on her account so I didn't do anymore. I really didn't think it would be so difficult. The info about ASDA is good. Didin't know about it until now.

Thanks you both for taking the time out to respond.

Vegasbabe

Hi geekonthepc

She's been with Barclays for over 30 years and she went to see them about her debt but all they dis was OFFER HER MORE MONEY!!! How crazy is that?

I did try speaking to Barclaycard tonight (where her debt is) on her behalf but didn't really make much headway.

I do now have options that I didn't have an hour ago thanks to forum members.

[Deleted User]

Vegasbabe wrote: »

She's been with Barclays for over 30 years and she went to see them about her debt but all they dis was OFFER HER MORE MONEY!!! How crazy is that?

May not be crazy at all. A lower rate loan may be better than chasing continual BT offers which you admit will be ghard to get

chattychappy

Agree with the above.

But one thing:

Vegasbabe wrote: »

I would move her to a 17 month or lower 0% credit account but I'm worried that at the end of that period I wouldn't have anywhere to transfer the remaining balance to bearing in mind the difficulty I'm having now.

I wouldn't worry about that. Because at least for those 17 months all of each repayment will go towards paying the balance down. 17 x £50 would make a serious dent in her £1865 debt!

Secondly, if you did find such a card I would keep the Barclaycard open. Once the balance goes to zero, they might well make further offers. So the likelihood would be that whatever balance remains after the 17 months you could transfer it back and continue on a decent/0% rate.

This all assumes she doesn't have a spending problem and extra credit will cause her to spend more.