Newbie, what should I do?

Doctordavies

Hi All, I'll explain my current situation.

I currently have £22000 of CC debt, which I would like to get paid off asap. It is currently with Egg, Barclaycard and First Direct.

I have just applied and received a M&S Credit card to which I wanted to transfer the balances to to take advantage of the 4.9% lifitime of debt offer.

I just called up to transfer the balances and was told that I can only transfer £4000 and that I could transfer more after I have been a customer for more than 6 months, which obviously negates the 4.9% offer..... (be weary of this people.....)

I do not want to transfer £4000 to another card and hang onto the others, as I want to cut down on the number of cards I have, not increase.

I have reduced my balances by about £10k in the last year, but I just want to clear this debt so I can get back on track again. The debt was incurred by doing up a home on which I have made money, but I don't want to sell at the moment.

So, what would be the best thing for me to do, consolidate the debt into one loan (I have a mortgage with the Woolwich) Should I cancel the M&S Card?

Thanks all.

Edited with SOA

Ok finances as follows -

Debt

Egg 6479.65 @ 16.9%
Barclaycard 9052.13 @ 14.9%
First Direct 8989.29 @ 16.9%

No other loans.

My Income is about £70k per year, but not set, as I have commission included. Last month for example it was £3000 and the month before was £5300.

Outgoings
Mortgage 1380.08
Telephone 60.00
Hose insurance 52.00
LEGAL & GEN 26.67
LEGAL & GEN 63.69
LEGAL & GEN 57.87
Council Tax 131.00
Broadband 19.99
Gas?elec 65.00

1856.30

My wifes income of £1200 takes care of food etc and she puts £500 directly into one of the cards each month.

CLAPTON

you dont say what your APRs on the CCs are or how much you can repay each year so its pretty much impossible to say.

but for example

4000 at 4.9% is 196
4000 at 15% is 600
a difference of £404

some would consider this a useful sum.

rog2

Hi DD - and welcome to DFW. I couldn't help but notice the dreaded word 'CONSOLIDATION' towards the end of your post. :eek: :eek:

BEFORE you go down this route, why not post a full SOA (Statement of Affairs - see 'sticky' at top of page) listing all income, expenditure and debts.

Then we'll be able to give you some advice.

Doctordavies

Ok finances as follows -

Debt

Egg 6479.65 @ 16.9%
Barclaycard 9052.13 @ 14.9%
First Direct 8989.29 @ 16.9%

No other loans.

My Income is about £70k per year, but not set, as I have commission included. Last month for example it was £3000 and the month before was £5300.

Outgoings
Mortgage 1380.08
Telephone 60.00
Hose insurance 52.00
LEGAL & GEN 26.67
LEGAL & GEN 63.69
LEGAL & GEN 57.87
Council Tax 131.00
Broadband 19.99
Gas?elec 65.00

1856.30

My wifes income of £1200 takes care of food etc and she puts £500 directly into one of the cards each month.

Dr_Hook

Absolutely use the M&S card - get £4k of the Egg balance transferred onto it and then work on paying off the remaining £2.5k.

I don't have an egg card myself, but I'm sure I remember reading somewhere that they do annual balance transfer offers for existing customers. Once the egg card is clear you can look at transferring as much of first direct over as possible on a special rate.

Have a play around with the snowball calculator at https://www.whatsthecost.com to see what difference this will make to the amount of interest you'll pay and your projected debt free date.

Definitely worth doing IMO - especially since M&S balance transfers are fee free - you have nothing to lose and lots to gain.

Dr_Hook

Doctordavies wrote: »

Hose insurance 52.00

P.S. You must be well endowed if you need to pay £52 per month to insure your hose :shocked: :rotfl:

Doctordavies

Dr_Hook wrote: »

P.S. You must be well endowed if you need to pay £52 per month to insure your hose :shocked: :rotfl:

hahahaha.

Ok I'll transfer some of the balance to the M&S card.

Has anyone had any luck increasing their limit on the M&S card within the first 6 months..?

Dr_Hook

I recently got an M&S card for the balance transfer. I was originally given a limit of £1,500 which they upped to £2,500 when I rang and asked. It's gotta be worth posing the question - if you don't ask, you don't get

Edit: just re-read your original post - apologies if you have already done this

Doctordavies

Ok, My egg credit limit is £12500 and my Anniversary month is November, so if I transfer £4000 of the eggs balance over to M&S then that leaves me with an available balance of £10000. If I then transfer the full balance of the Barclaycard over to the egg card in November that would be at 0% for 5 months, and I can cancel the barclaycard.

I guess this would make sense to do.

I'll call M&S now and see if they will increase my limit at all.

thanks so far, I'm enjoying my lightbulb moment.

Update -

£4000 has been transferred over to M&S (they would not increase my limit.. )

so now I have the following

£4000 M&S @ 4.9% for life
£2479.65 EGG @ 17.9%

I will see if I can get the £2479.65 paid off in the next two months, then transfer the Barclaycard balance to the egg card in my Anniversary month of November and take advantage of the 5 months at 0%. then cancel the Barclaycard

RAS

Hi

Great. Cheer yourself even more by feeding the inforation about your old situation into the snowball and then putting up info re the new situation. How much have your saved?

Doctordavies

RAS wrote: »

Hi

Great. Cheer yourself even more by feeding the inforation about your old situation into the snowball and then putting up info re the new situation. How much have your saved?

mmmmmmm yes paying off the same amount (£200 pm)

It was £2459 Interest on just the eggcard, or £940 interest with both, so a saving of £1519.00 :beer: