I am mega chuffed (and slightly nervous)

abby1234519

For the first time in 7 years I have managed to get almost all the debt onto 0% cards to pay off. I hovered around 13k for a good 4 years and have got it down to around 10k (been hard as husband doesn't work and have a child)

I've now managed to get this 10k spread across 0% credit cards, and had a salary increase, if I pay this off at £500 a month it should take me less than 2 years to pay it off. Added incentive is husband graduating university around that time so need it done before he leaves. Doing this has shortened the pay off time by a year according to whatsthecost.com. Husband is now more involved in money which helps as I can't bury my head in the sand.

Obviously, need to make sure I do not accrue more debt as I know can happen. It would kill us financially if that happened.

I closed the Vanquis card finally. Gone gone gone.

I have two capital one cards that have nothing on them (£1750 and £1000 limit). An empty simply be account (£1300 limit). Aqua Card (£400 limit)

I read that it can be good to show that you have credit that you aren't utilising BUT I have a large number of credit accounts open so I would like to close all of the above. I do feel like I should leave a card open but locked away for emergencies however then again my husband has a credit card that we are solely using to pay for food and petrol (and paying it off at the end of the month which is around £300 in total and we have a £1000 limit) so maybe just keep that? All the 0% cards are locked in a red tin that I can't get at

If you can read the brainfart what are my next steps

DawnW

I would close them to be honest. Even if you decided to keep one, you certainly don't need all of them

abby1234519

Well that what I thought. Close both Capital One Cards and Aqua. I might reduce Simply Be to £200 from £1300 as I find it useful to be able to order something and return it without the money being deducted from my own card and then pay if I keep it. I don't buy anything really anyway as well, debt first and all that, but there have been clothing emergencies.

I would hope that the £700 we are not using on the groceries credit card would be enough to cover an emergency

Bobarella

Well done by the way on working your debt down so much already. It must have been hard work under the circumstances you describe.

EssexHebridean

Does your repayment plan mean that the total will be gone by the time the 0% periods run out? If so, then consider whether you can pay off a small amount less each month and instead put that money to savings to start an emergency fund. Your aim is to gradually build up enough in a savings account that you would no longer need the credit card in the event of an emergency. If you need to throw the full £500 at the cards to get them cleared within the 0% timescale, then now is a great time to start searching for what we always called "money we didn't know we had" - so, decide against a coffee while you're out in favour of waiting until you get home? Put the cost into a tin when you get back. Opt for tap water with a meal out rather than paying for a drink? Again, the cost of the glass of wine/beer/juice you would otherwise have had goes in the tin. Make a saving on your utility bills/broadband etc...then set up a regular monthly transfer to your "emergency fund" savings account from the account the bills come out of for the amount you've saved. (And as you make more savings, the amount of this transfer can increase). It's truly astonishing how savings made like this can mount up. If you can combine that method with scrounging a small amount from your card payments as well then you should build a decent fund, fairly quickly.

As for the existing cards - I'd close any accounts you can, and cut up the 0% ones so they can't be used. As and when the debt is paid off then a card for rebuilding your credit will be handy, but that should be set to pay off in full every month in the same way that your husband's one is currently. Your Simply Be account - is that currently set to pay off in full? If so then I wouldn't worry about the credit limit necessarily as long as you don't feel you're likely to be tempted to have a big splurge that you can't afford.

And finally - well done for managing things to get yourself to the stage you're at! :T

abby1234519

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Does your repayment plan mean that the total will be gone by the time the 0% periods run out? If so, then consider whether you can pay off a small amount less each month and instead put that money to savings to start an emergency fund. Your aim is to gradually build up enough in a savings account that you would no longer need the credit card in the event of an emergency. If you need to throw the full £500 at the cards to get them cleared within the 0% timescale, then now is a great time to start searching for what we always called "money we didn't know we had" - so, decide against a coffee while you're out in favour of waiting until you get home? Put the cost into a tin when you get back. Opt for tap water with a meal out rather than paying for a drink? Again, the cost of the glass of wine/beer/juice you would otherwise have had goes in the tin. Make a saving on your utility bills/broadband etc...then set up a regular monthly transfer to your "emergency fund" savings account from the account the bills come out of for the amount you've saved. (And as you make more savings, the amount of this transfer can increase). It's truly astonishing how savings made like this can mount up. If you can combine that method with scrounging a small amount from your card payments as well then you should build a decent fund, fairly quickly.

As for the existing cards - I'd close any accounts you can, and cut up the 0% ones so they can't be used. As and when the debt is paid off then a card for rebuilding your credit will be handy, but that should be set to pay off in full every month in the same way that your husband's one is currently. Your Simply Be account - is that currently set to pay off in full? If so then I wouldn't worry about the credit limit necessarily as long as you don't feel you're likely to be tempted to have a big splurge that you can't afford.

And finally - well done for managing things to get yourself to the stage you're at! :T

It is staggered, so I have one finishing June 2017, November 2017 and the last is 32 months from now so circa January 2019? I may well need to shuffle June 2017 one though BUT Barclaycard are always offering me new balance transfer deals so it might just be some shuffling required.
I would like to pay off £500 a month for the next 12 months mainly to get rid of my ex-student overdraft.

The “Money we didn’t know we had” idea though I think is a really good idea for us in terms of saving. We have a money jar that is for groceries where we just put all the change in (but we were using it for bits and bobs) so I might turn it into a savings pot. Our bills are pretty cheap as it is. We only pay £65 a month for gas and electric, £33 for a water meter (I blame the dishwasher) and Virgin Media Fibre Optic plus Line rental is £31 (we got rid of television and just have the free channels on TiVo)

I’m still paying for 3 mobile contracts, one should drop off in July but I’m still budgeting for it so I’ll just put it in savings. I use YNAB so it is quite easy to see if you’ve underspent and so I’ll just transfer it into savings.

I get a bonus every quarter which I do not enter into the budget. Think the extra after tax is £170. I was also going to use this to pay off debt but I guess I could save it. I just worry that I will end of splurging it. I will close 1 of the capital one cards and the aqua card. I’ll keep the other capital one card open for 6 months but husband can hide it as its not set up on amazon or anything. Once I’ve got enough saved to pay for emergency car repairs for example I will close it. Simply Be, I worry that I will go and spend £400 on it because I feel that I need new clothes. Even though its expensive! I thought £200 would be a good level, doesn’t allow for lots to be bought

Thank you 

abby1234519

Oooft I have another dilemma

I balance transfered from my barclaycard to the MBNA card (18 months at 0%)

I now suddenly have a money transfer offer on the BarclayCard at 0% for a year

Now should I take advantage of this to pay off my £1600 Natwest overdraft? I currently incur charges of £6 a month plus 17.80% interest which is around £25-£32 a month in total

abby1234519

Should I repost my question in credit cards?

Brightspark87

Hi firstly huge well done on the debt repayments - honestly, its hard work and you've done amazing!

Secondly, it looks like even with a fee the money transfer offer is worth looking at if you can repay it within the 0% term. If so, look at the money transfer fee vs how much you pay in fees and interest each month. If its lower then go for it!