another credit card or loan which one!

glitzy

Hi there i meant that we would be able to use the £1000 towards our other bills/debts rather then having to clear the overdraft every month. At the mo really we only have £1400 a month for bills left after we have cleared the overdraft.(So it gets cleared & then we have to use it again!) If we didnt have that we could save £348 approx - cant wait.
:j

Robflh

Hi glitzy

If you only pay the amounts in your SOA you have £348 left each month, so if you use the £1,000 overdraft to pay your bills, you will only need to put back £652 (£1,000-£348)

The next month you would use the £652 overdraft to pay the bills and put back £304 (£652-£348). At the end of the next month you will have nothing to put back and can then use that money to pay extra off the IF credit card.

However that is based on the average amount you have left each month. Post what your cash flow says you will have left for the next four months, and I will try to explain it using the actual figures.

As you have not mentioned the Mint card before, I am going to assuming that you recently paid it off. As I said last time, the credit card companies want your money. Well strictly speaking, they want your debt.

At the moment Mint are not making money from you, so they have offered you a BT at a good rate. If they can get you to transfer money to their card, they will again be making money from you.

For most people this would be great news but it is not good news for you. If you look at the APR for your four credit cards, you will see that the highest one is only 4.9%. Therefore, any amount of money that you transferred would be at a higher rate of 5.9%. This would mean you paying more interest and not less (sorry).

Credit cards
M&S £150.00 3.9% life 5000 outstanding, limit 6000
If £50.00 4.9% life 2500 outstanding, limit 5750
hsbc £50.00 0% 12mths 1632 outstanding, limit1750
tesco £60.00 0% 12mths 2160 outstanding, limit2300


For the holiday money you need to ring both IF and M&S and ask them what percentage they can offer you for a balance transfer. As I said before there could be two, a short low rate and a higher life of the balance rate. Also, ask them what the transfer fee is for both rates. Then post what each of them has offered you. Then I will explain what to do next.

glitzy

Hi Robflh

have just applied for goldfish card 3.9% for 3 years. Did not do 0% as have 2 already, which i will need to change those next year & worried about credit score. Can i still ask M&S to balance transfer even though the introductory offer is finished (6mths), if (1mth)?

Will do cashflow but we never have cash so at the mo everything goes on cards( we never take cash out on cards), so next month will have this months spend etc - its that vicious circle again!

Robflh

Hi glitzy

As far as I am aware, you can have as many 0% cards as you can get your hands on.

As long as you are making you credit card payments each month, your credit score will only be effected by how often a credit search is done on your credit report. Each time you apply for a credit card a search will be done on your credit report. If you have more then about two searches every six months, it could reduce your credit rating.

glitzy wrote: »

Can I still ask M&S to balance transfer even though the introductory offer is finished (6mths), if (1mth)?

Yes, you can, so ring IF and M&S to ask them what percentage they can offer you for a balance transfer. As I said before there could be two, a short low rate and a higher life of the balance rate. Also, ask them what the transfer fee is for both rates. Then post what each of them has offered you. Then I will explain what to do next.

Today is the first of the month. Can you do a post and tell me what the balance was for the bank account the day before your husband was paid. Then put underneath that how much he was paid and what this made the bank balance. If your wages arrive before his, then start with your wages.

Then each time you pay for something or have money come in to the account, add it to the post. At the end of the month, I will be able to see what you have paid for and consequently where all the money is going.

Can you also do the same thing with the Amex card?

It should look something like the table below.

Figures in red are negative or minus. Ie. It is what you owe the bank. Black figures are what you have in the bank. In this example, you owe the bank £900 and when the wages come in you have £400 of your own money in the bank. (-900+13000=400)

Last Month

---

£900.00
Wages

---

£1,300.00

---

£400.00
Mortgage

---

£729.99

---

£329.99
Child Benefit

---

£36.00

---

£293.99
Wages

---

---£1,000.00

---

£706.01


American Express
Weekly Shop

---

£271.00

---

£271.00
His Mobile

---

£20.00

---

£291.00

glitzy

Hi Robflh

Have just phoned M&S and they have stopped bts within the last 2 weeks, if are calling me back!

I can do the expense sheet you asked for no problems as thats how i do our a/cs to know what money we dont have!

bal a/l 999.72
my wages 941.89 57.83
lottery 8.00 65.83
endowment 40.65 106.48
hubbys wages 1355.26 1248.78
my am ex 439.10 809.68
ms card 148.67 661.01
cash machine 20.00 641.01
cash machine & charge! 21.50 619.51 hubbys fault
gas/elect 60.00 559.51
life ins 12.76 546.75
mortgage 729.99 183.24
ch benefit 72.40 110.84
sky 37.00 147.84
if 48.16 196.00
my mobile 53.89 249.89
gym 29.00 278.89
swim less 13.50 292.39
tv licence 11.37 303.76
water rates 32.60 336.36
sofa 33.37 369.73
ch tax cr 41.73 328.00
mint 361.35 689.35 £200 not ours have used cash
hubbys am ex 67.03 756.38
poll tax 123.00 879.38
tesco 64.00 943.38
hsbc 48.00 991.38
pet ins 7.98 999.36
hubbys mob 21.00 1020.36
haircut 20.00 1040.36

So £40 short without going out! hubby has got a pub carpet to clean next week so money can go in bank to pay for some of mint card. Anyway this has depressed me so im going now.:sad:

Robflh

Hi glitzy

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but you have an error in your calculations. After paying the mortgage, you should have a minus £183.24. So, all the figures after that are incorrect.

life ins 12.76 546.75
mortgage 729.99 £183.24
ch benefit 72.40 £110.84

I will look at the rest of the outgoing later and then I will do another post.

Robflh

Hi glitzy

So far, you have used the cash machine twice, paid £20 for a haircut and spent £21.50 more on your mobile, then in your SOA.

Unless it was for you or your daughter, £20 is a lot for one haircut. A back street hairdresser costs me £6.50 for a trim and I only go once every few months.

That makes an additional £81.50, which is not bad. Unfortunately, the Mint payment is what wiped you out this time. If it had not been for that, the overdraft would have gone down by about £160.

Not forgetting that the outstanding balance on the credit cards will also have dropped by about £282. That would have been a total debt reduction of around £442 in one month. As it is you still have an overall reduction of £241 and that is not bad.

The big question I have at the moment is, what was the Mint debt for and will it happen again next month. Also, if you have a Mint card, ring them and ask them what percentage rate they would give you for a balance transfer.

One other thing, can you do me a breakdown of the transactions on the Amex cards. I have online access to my credit cards, which means I can see my statements online anytime I need to. It is then easy to copy and paste the transactions into a post.

If you do not have online access to your Amex cards, then click on the link below and follow the instructions.

https://sso.americanexpress.com/SSO/request?request_type=un_createid&ssolang=en_GB&ssobrand=expressnet&ssourl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww99.americanexpress.com%2Fmyca%2Festatement%2Femea%2Faction%3Frequest_type%3Dauthreg_CardsList%26Face%3Den_GB%26uk_pers%3Dcards_cycad

glitzy

Hi Robflh

You were not the bearer of bad news, i forgot to put it as red. The mobile was not an extra 21.50 as i thought, they debited mine & my husbands altogether, as his is in my name aswell. The haircut is just a guess as its on tues but its for my daughter and i, but it is at home and i have not had my haircut since october, so afraid its a must.

Mint offered me 5.9% for bt but you said it was more then the others, so hopefully 3.9% bt with goldfish for 3 yrs will tie me over as worried that 0% will gradually dwindle and i will run out of cards to try.

Am EX Shopping 285.20 daughters b/day
petrol 119.96
Harvester meal 21.95 fathers day
c.d 7.99 fathers day
shoes 4.00

Mint is generally between 150/200 a mth(only use it when shops etc dont take am ex), but i paid a bill for a friend and used the cash to survive last
mth, so playing catch up now.
trfn

Robflh

Hi glitzy

That makes it a bit better and I found a mistake that I made, so the spreadsheet I imported the data into, now agrees with your figures. Accordingly, I have changed the figures in my last post.

A new credit card does not help you get more money, but it can help you save on the amount of interest you are paying and therefore how fast you can pay off the debt.

I forgot about the Mint card, it could come in handy when the 0% offer ends on the Tesco and HSBC cards.

As the overdraft was around £3,000, I presume it can go above £1,000 without it causing any problems. In which case there was no need to use the £200 cash to get you by last month. As you said, it only meant you playing catch up this month.

You have to look at the bigger picture and not focus just on the overdraft. It may have gone up by about £50 but your total debt went down by £241 in one month and that was with you playing catch up. Next month it could be a £450 reduction.

glitzy

Hi Robflh

I think im lost where was the overdraft £3000 did i mis-type somewhere, at the mo im intoxicated, actually maybe im not as i seem 2 typing ok, but im rabbiting on. My overdraft is only £1000, they wiil not give me anymore a defo no! Yeah im drunk! Best 2 go 2 bed now i think. trfn