Shuffle question

TheNut

I have always had good success with doing credit card shuffles.

At the moment I am a bit stuck. I have 5 cards. 4 of the cards are all near the limits. The other card is a Santander one which has a £5000 limit and that card has £0 balance. Last time I shuffled them around, I cleared that card.

My problem is, Santander don't have any deals at the moment so I can't transfer anything to it. My credit rating is low so I can't get a new card with a good deal. I applied for a HSBC card after a soft search said I was 90-95% good for being accepted. But I got rejected.

Anyone got any thoughts on other ways to get a 0% deal?

I am really happy with where I have got to, I have controlled my spending and stopped using my cards. Its just so frustrating paying the 4 cards every month and getting over £200 back in interest charges.

Candyapple

Why do you say your credit rating is low? HSBC are known to be fussy for those they accept so it could be a case of yes you got declined with them, but you may be accepted with a different lender.

What are the lender names of the other 4 cards?

What are the balances vs limits?

Annual salary?

I presume you are on the ER and no late payments, defaults etc?

Kendall80

I dont know the details of your situation but it might be worth trying for other good 0% balance transfer cards such as tesco, AA or low fee 0% like Lloyds. Shift your highest rate debt to that card or as much of it as you can. You could also pay them off with a low rate personal loan or remortgage your house to free up some capital. Mortgage rates are low at the moment. 2-3% interest is preferable to 18/20%

TheNut

Barclaycard has £11387/£12000
Fluid £589/£1000
MBNA £10388/£12000
Postoffice £4255/£5000

I have no late payments or defaults

I was with experian and they said I had a low rating. I have never missed a payment or anything like that. But my rating is low because of my total debt and I did quite a few cash advances, I had no idea they were bad, but I learned and never did them again.

I am earning low £20k ish, but they go on my basic which is £16k. Anytime I have had a loan or mortgage I have had to show bank statements as my wage is commision based. A couple of years ago I was earning over £30k but my basic salary was £13k, it causes chaos when appliying for anything.

grumbler

TheNut wrote: »

The other card is a Santander one which has a £5000 limit and that card has £0 balance. Last time I shuffled them around, I cleared that card.

My problem is, Santander don't have any deals at the moment so I can't transfer anything to it.

If other cards offer any deals you can transfer to Santander, then back.
It's a different question whether it's worth paying two sets of BT fees for this.

Anyone got any thoughts on other ways to get a 0% deal?

Well, if you can't get a CC you can try getting a cheaper loan.

TheNut

I haven't spoken to Santander for ages. After writing out this thread, I thought I would ring them just on the off chance they had any deals on. A few months ago I rang and they said no. I just called them 5 mins ago and they said they can do me £5000 at 0% till October 2016 with a 3% fee.

I have took £5000 from Barlcaycard and swapped onto this. This is perfect, as once this is cleared in 1 day, I can swap money onto my Barclaycard from my MBNA.

Thats one good thing about MBNA and Barclaycard, they nearly always have transfer deals on.

Candyapple

The chances of you getting any 0% cards or loans are probably slim to none and you'd probably be declined based on affordability.

Good news about Santander! Hopefully now you can reshuffle the remainder of your cards and all you can do is keep paying them off every month and reshuffling if a deal ends and it still isn't cleared.

TheNut

Cheers candyapple, thats the plan. As my debt falls, that leaves more available credit and more room to shuffle.

I rang Santander a 2 or 3 months ago and they had no deals on and didn't give me any idea about when a 0% deal would come up. Really happy to have been offered it today. Just getting that one, opens up the chance of moving all the others around.

Spendit_Sue

Unfortunately I do not have much room to manoeuvre
/shuffle money with my cards as both almost up to the max at the moment. However I am finally in a position where I can stop spending on my cards and now aiming to pay off gradually. One card is 6.6% interest and I know to pay the minimum off this one and pay as much as I can afford off the dearer card at 17% but it's still going to take years and years to pay off and so disheartening. I rang Capital One and asked if they would consider reducing the interest rate and, as I expected it was a definite no! I have tried for a consolidating loan from my bank but that was a no too. I never default on payments and always pay cards on time. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what else I can do to pay of my cards quicker, please.

Candyapple

Spendit_Sue wrote: »

Unfortunately I do not have much room to manoeuvre
/shuffle money with my cards as both almost up to the max at the moment. However I am finally in a position where I can stop spending on my cards and now aiming to pay off gradually. One card is 6.6% interest and I know to pay the minimum off this one and pay as much as I can afford off the dearer card at 17% but it's still going to take years and years to pay off and so disheartening. I rang Capital One and asked if they would consider reducing the interest rate and, as I expected it was a definite no! I have tried for a consolidating loan from my bank but that was a no too. I never default on payments and always pay cards on time. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what else I can do to pay of my cards quicker, please.

Years and years to pay off? How much do you owe on your Cap One card?

The only thing you can do is increase your income. So either get a better paid job, take on a second job, work overtime if possible, sell things that you no longer need. You need to throw as much money as you can towards clearing the high APR debts and snowballing them so that one is cleared first and then work on paying off the lower APR ones.

Also as you mentioned you have a Cap One card I'm guessing you have a poor credit history so again, all you can do is repay on time every month and watch the balance go down and your credit history will slowly repair itself. Give yourself about a year or 2 and then try for a mainstream card.

Spendit_Sue

Hi Candyapple, I owe £12,000 on my Barclaycard and £7,000 on my Capital One card so will take a long time to pay off. I have recently retired after 49 years of working but need to consider returning to part time work to bring in extra cash. My credit rating is not bad - or wasn't when I was working. I made some bad decisions money wise and accrued these debts but now wanting to get rid of them as quickly as I can. I will also be taking up your advice on hunting out stuff to sell - now that I have more time on my hands!