Paying outstanding balance with credit card

JimmyTheWig

If you can't get a new card (e.g. bad credit history, no current job, etc), there isn't long left on the loan and you are desperate to get the monthly repayments down there is another option - but I would seriously only do this as a last resort as it is a slippery slope.

The answer is to use your credit card for normal purchases that you would have otherwise paid cash / debit card.
E.g. say you've got three months left on the loan and you're paying £280 a month on it.
Use your credit card for £100 worth of shopping during the month and use that £100 to pay towards your loan. That means you've only got to find £180 that month for the loan.
Pay the minimum payment (for the sake of these back-of-an-envelope calculations we'll ignore this) on your credit card on time.
After three months you'll have cleared your loan but have a £300 credit card balance. Pay £180 off this the fourth month (as you're not paying the loan) and pay the rest (with money to spare - wahoo!) the fifth month.

This takes a lot of discipline and planning. Done wrong you can end up in much more debt than you started.

redux

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

If you can't get a new card (e.g. bad credit history, no current job, etc), there isn't long left on the loan and you are desperate to get the monthly repayments down there is another option - but I would seriously only do this as a last resort as it is a slippery slope.

The answer is to use your credit card for normal purchases that you would have otherwise paid cash / debit card.
E.g. say you've got three months left on the loan and you're paying £280 a month on it.
Use your credit card for £100 worth of shopping during the month and use that £100 to pay towards your loan. That means you've only got to find £180 that month for the loan.
Pay the minimum payment (for the sake of these back-of-an-envelope calculations we'll ignore this) on your credit card on time.
After three months you'll have cleared your loan but have a £300 credit card balance. Pay £180 off this the fourth month (as you're not paying the loan) and pay the rest (with money to spare - wahoo!) the fifth month.

This takes a lot of discipline and planning. Done wrong you can end up in much more debt than you started.

Yes, but quite a lot of people would be already doing this anyway, including groceries or car fuel or both.