Any advice gratefully appreciated

Ruth25

Hi. I'm struggling to see the light regarding multiple credit card debts, anybody wise to shuffling or balance transfering may be able to advise me? I currently have:
1) Egg Card with £2,100 on it, limit is £2,200
2) A&L M/Card with £4,500 on it, limit is £6,500
3) Amex Platinum with £3,400 on it, limit is £4,500

At present I'm paying about £160 per month just in interest. I've tried applying for three new cards recently to balance transfer, no good as I was turned down by all three. Capital One, Halifax and Natwest. I work intermittantly self employed and average income is about £1,000 per month. I also have an outstanding loan with HSBC, monthly payment of £214. I'm starting a new job next March with monthly income of £1,000, but no outgoings as food and accomodation is included, this will help a lot I think, but it's the next 6 months I'm worried about! All advice most welcome. Thank you in advance, Ruth

lynzpower

Ruth, what are your aprS ON these cards?

Have you checked your credit rating?

HaVE YOU done a SOA before *read southerscousers sticky for advice on what one is and how to do it* if you like you can post this up and get advice from all the debt nerds here

Welcome :wave:

RAS

Hi and welcome

There will be somethings that can be done to improve you situation, so post up your SOA.

And given that you have applied and been refused it might be worth checking out martin's article on credit checks under cards and laons and requesting all three of your credit checks from the reference agencies.

The link for the SOA is here
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=107280

sarah0404

Hi, have you had a look at the snowball debt calculator? http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx It helps you work out the best order to pay money to your cards, so you avoid paying so much interest.

If you are really struggling to pay then I would suggest trying to contact one of the debt charities. Payplan or CCCS. They could help you negotiate lower payments to your credit cards, and maybe have the interest frozen. At least until March, when you will be in a better position to pay things.

CharliesAngel

Alliance and Leicester currently have a 0% deal for 12 months... however I always find it a problem finding someone who will both accept my applications AND have a high enough credit limit to transfer the whole lot!

Recently opened the nationwide one and that let me transfer quite a bit over (see sig).

Have you tried calling your lenders/credit card companies and asking them to lower the interest rates? Or to match their current best deal for existing customers? I did this with MBNA and got the rate down to 14.6% from 21.9%...

You could also ring and ask them if they're willing to take token payment for the next 6 months if things are going to be tight, it might bump up the overall cost of borrowing but once you start your new job you'll be able to overpay and catch up a bit.. their reaction might be nicer than you think!

never_too_late_2

Hi Ruth,

Firstly - welcome!

Secondly, post up your SOA (statement of affairs) so the cleverer people on here can give you lots of advice.

Thirdly, if you've been turned down for 3 c/cs recently, you should definitely check your credit rating.

I transferred over 4 grand to Virgin back in March this year but after many years of having bad credit, my rating was finally "well" again! And often to get a 0% deal you need to have good credit I'm afraid.

But, we can still give you advice about which way is best to pay your existing c/cs for the next 6 months or so. As well as amounts and limits, can you find out the APRs for them all and give us an idea of how you normally pay them each month?

Good luck,
ntl
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