advice about my credit card

sharlow

HI, I regrettably applied for a vanquis credit card about two years ago, to boost my credit rating. Over time I have kept spending on it and only paying the minimum balance off each time. My outstanding balance is nearly £1500. Since maxing out my credit card my circumstances have change and I am now a single mum on a low income. I spoke to vanquis about my payments and have set up a payment plan to clear the arrears. I pay £100 a month (which is the most i can afford) and i feel like the balance is not going down. Basically within the last 6 months ive paid £600 and i have cleared the account by £40 as interest keeps adding onto the account. People have told me to apply for another credit and transfer the balance over to clear the vanquis account and then pay off the new credit card off with a lower interest. I have checked several credit card companies and because of my credit rating, the most any credit card company is offering me is £250 which wont cover the £1500 ive got with vanquis.

What can people suggest for me, for the best way to get rid of wasting £100 a month to vanquis? as the sooner i pay this off the sooner i have an extra £100 a month

thank you in advance :j

[Deleted User]

Accept all the cards you've been offered and BT as much as you can.

CakeCrusader

Hi, Sharlow.

Is there any way that you can boost your income? Doing some work from home, checking that you're claiming all that you are entitled to etc? I know things are tough and clearing a Vanquis card is really tough, their interest rate is eye watering and if you're only able to pay the minimum amount it's going to take years. The APR from a credit union is lower, if there's one near you. I hope this helps.

sharlow

but ive only been offered another credit card from Barclay card for £250. all other credit cards have turned me down

CakeCrusader

sharlow wrote: »

but ive only been offered another credit card from Barclay card for £250. all other credit cards have turned me down

Is this for a balance transfer, or a new card? I have a Barclaycard, the will increase the limit after a few months if you don't go over the limit and you pay on time.

sharlow

CakeCrusader wrote: »

Hi, Sharlow.

Is there any way that you can boost your income? Doing some work from home, checking that you're claiming all that you are entitled to etc? I know things are tough and clearing a Vanquis card is really tough, their interest rate is eye watering and if you're only able to pay the minimum amount it's going to take years. The APR from a credit union is lower, if there's one near you. I hope this helps.

Thank you the advice. there isn't a way of earning extra money as i am studying for a degree part time. i believe i am claiming everything i am entitled for.

What is a credit union?

sharlow

CakeCrusader wrote: »

Is this for a balance transfer, or a new card? I have a Barclaycard, the will increase the limit after a few months if you don't go over the limit and you pay on time.

it is for a new card

[Deleted User]

Would you rather pay the Barclaycard interest rate on £250 of your debt, or the Vanquis rate?

CakeCrusader

sharlow wrote: »

Thank you the advice. there isn't a way of earning extra money as i am studying for a degree part time. i believe i am claiming everything i am entitled for.

What is a credit union?

Have you been to see Student Support at the Uni/College? They have a fund for students who have children etc (it was called an access to learning fund).

Credit unions are all over the place, and they are community banks. You set up a savings account, and they allow you to lend money at a lower interest rate than Vanquis after a while (the one here allows people to apply for loans without the need to open a savings account first, so I think they all operate differently). It's not ideal to pay off a loan with another loan, but the APR from a credit union is usually 38.8% or something rather than the 59.9/69.9% that Vanquis charges.

CakeCrusader

You need a balance transfer rather than a new card. The limits for a balance transfer are different

I've just cleared a Vanquis card (my ex screwed my credit rating too and I ended up with a couple of CCJ's which are paid but they stick around) by doing a balance transfer to Tesco. I work full time but I think their income limit was 5k. I also have a Barclaycard so I use that to do my spends and clear it off when I'm paid, and I'm using the payment I would have made to Vanquis to clear off the Tesco card. It's saving me 1k.

sharlow

CakeCrusader wrote: »

You need a balance transfer rather than a new card. The limits for a balance transfer are different

I've just cleared a Vanquis card (my ex screwed my credit rating too and I ended up with a couple of CCJ's which are paid but they stick around) by doing a balance transfer to Tesco. I work full time but I think their income limit was 5k. I also have a Barclaycard so I use that to do my spends and clear it off when I'm paid, and I'm using the payment I would have made to Vanquis to clear off the Tesco card. It's saving me 1k.

ok great! so i am now looking at the tesco balance transfer credit card website. if i am successful in getting that to transfer the vanquis balance onto the and then pay tesco? (sorry im not very good at understanding money etc) And how it is set up, is it like a bank account so its easy to transfer money to the vanquis account? is it easy to do?