Nearly debt free

anarki · 20 October 2014 at 10:46AM

Long-time lurker here, I guess for me its difficult posting in a new forum, especially when it comes to debt.

My story, quite long:

I took out a credit card with HSBC 10 years ago with a limit of £500 and an APR rate of 29.9%. I maxed this out within a couple of weeks and for years I was just paying the minimum amount.

4 years from taking that card out I switched banks and transferred the debt over to a card with them. They gave me a £1500 limit (29.9% APR again) as well as a £500 overdraft. Soon I found both maxed and I was always in my overdraft.

Thankfully a couple years later I found myself in a much better position career wise and salary wise, which meant I planned to pay off both. So I upped the payments on the credit card to £200 a month and all was going well. My bank upped my credit limit further to £2000 and I wasn’t tempted to go anywhere near it.
Disaster struck just as I had the balance down to around £600, my car had packed up and a hefty bill ensued, straight on the credit card!

That wasn’t the last of the car woes and only months later it was fit for the scrapper. Faced without a car and needing one for my job I took out a loan with my bank 2 years ago. Borrowed £5000 at 9.9% over 2 years. Paid off the credit card and cleared my overdraft as well as buying a newer car.

Phew though I, only one debt to manage for 2 years and I’m home and dry. Newer car had other plans however landing me with another huge bill which, guess what, went straight back on the credit card. I had also gone back into my overdraft and everything felt impossible for me financially.

At one point around 18 months ago I was in over £6k of debt, which to me was crippling, considering the poor credit card interest rate making matters worse

Thanks to the info within this site, 6 months ago I applied and was successful for a 0% balance transfer card for 21 months with a 1.5% fee. The limit I was offered was £1200 which meant I could put a large chunk of my high interest card onto that.

Fast forward to today and I think I can finally see light at the end of the tunnel and felt the need to just post my feelings here. My partner knew how much debt I had gotten myself in and has always been there for me, but I feel so incredibly stupid seeing that she had been through worse (debt wise) and is now free of debt herself after years of hardship! We have never let money rule us but I don’t think she realises how much I have been worried since I took out my loan.

Today though…
£0 Overdraft!
One £233 loan payment left coming out end of the month, cannot wait!
£500 left on 29.9% credit card – want this cleared by Xmas.
£900 left on the 0% card with 16 months left of the interest free period – will hammer this down after all other debt has gone.

Thanks for reading and a big thanks to this site for all their advice which I’ve read over the last couple of years.