Credit card debt - will they reduce my interest that I pay? *SOA added*

mwddrwg

Morning all,

I have about 5 credit cards and store cards with various balances (about £1500 each I think) which I'm paying at the minimum rate each month. Trouble is the balance of the cards is going down at about £4 each month while I'm paying £30-£40 each month. :eek:

This has been going on for several years and I'm getting nowhere. Things are very tight and I can't afford to pay any more than the minimum.

Do you think there's any mileage in asking the companies to freeze/reduce the interest charged for a while but keep my repayments the same? Has anyone here done this?

Any advice greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Cycrow

if you keep paying the minimums then you balance will be reducing (just very slowly)

If you havn't defaulted on any of them yet, then its unlikly they will consider freezing or lowering the interest.

You'd be better off trying to find more money to help pay them off, living as cheaply as possible for a year would help a lot

Posting up your SOA should help with the advice you get

mwddrwg

Thanks for that. We have never been late or not paid at all on any of the debts but it's a pain when they won't help you out becuase you're such a "good" customer :rotfl:

Will try to put together an SOA later

mwddrwg

Here's my SOA folks. Any suggestions welcome.

The Northen Rock loan has 4 years to run and the Natwest loan ends July 2015.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1331
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1447
Benefits................................ 134.8
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2912.8
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 715
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 115
Electricity............................. 65
Gas..................................... 10
Oil..................................... 90
Water rates............................. 55
Telephone (land line)................... 23
Mobile phone............................ 44
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 24
Internet Services....................... 20
Groceries etc. ......................... 600
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 150
Road tax................................ 22
Car Insurance........................... 15
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 15
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 60
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 16
Contents insurance...................... 16
Life assurance ......................... 79
Other insurance......................... 14
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50
Haircuts................................ 20
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 2250

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 168000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 168001

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 144000...(715)......4.49
Total secured & HP debts...... 144000....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Virgin Card....................500.......25........18.9
Santander Card.................1600......41........18.9
Northern Rock Loan.............4000......79.33.....0
Natwest Card...................600.......15........18.9
Metropolitan ..................400.......20........0
Debenhams Card.................800.......25........24.9
Argos Card.....................800.......33........28.9
M&S Card.......................1400......54........18.9
Barclaycard....................1800......36........18.9
Santander overdraft 2..........1600......21........0
Santander overdraft 1..........1000......20........0
Natwest overdraft..............600.......10........0
Cahoot overdraft...............500.......10........2
Natwest Loan...................5000......221.......0

Thank you

cats2012

I think you're missing some of your SOA as there should be a summary at the end.

however my instinctive reaction is £600 on groceries?!? You could easily cut that down and have £200+ to put towards debts.

Cycrow

looking at your figures you have about £700 spare after your outgoings, to put towards your debts, with minimum payments of about £600

so in theory you should have £100 left over which you can use on your highest debts, the argos card followed by the debenhams card.

Once the loan has finished, that'll help you out a lot and u'll be able to use the amount your paying on the loan to start clearing the rest.

in the mean time, you can try and cut your outgoings to get more money to throw at the debts, a year of spending very little could make a massive difference.

£600 for groceries seems excessive.
whats the £90 for oil for, is that for heating or something?

Another option is, do you really need a car? that could save £200 a month and you can sell the car to help pay off some other debt

mwddrwg

Cycrow wrote: »

looking at your figures you have about £700 spare after your outgoings, to put towards your debts, with minimum payments of about £600

so in theory you should have £100 left over which you can use on your highest debts, the argos card followed by the debenhams card.

Once the loan has finished, that'll help you out a lot and u'll be able to use the amount your paying on the loan to start clearing the rest.

in the mean time, you can try and cut your outgoings to get more money to throw at the debts, a year of spending very little could make a massive difference.

£600 for groceries seems excessive.
whats the £90 for oil for, is that for heating or something?

Another option is, do you really need a car? that could save £200 a month and you can sell the car to help pay off some other debt

Thanks for your excellent advice all. I agree that we have to cut the grocery bill. The £90 for oil is for our central heating. We pay £90 a month to build up credit as it needs topping up 3 times a year(ish) which is about £350 each time. We really need the car as we live 9 miles from work and bus services are really poor from where we are to work.

I will work on the store cards first I reckon. Going to start overpaying these first and see where that gets me in 6 months or so. Thanks again