credit Utilisation Help please

hedgehog123

Can anyone answer this? I have alot of credit cards!! 7 to be precise and I pay interest on approximately 3'4 of them, I don't spend on these cards they have merely been balance transfers. My credit rating is shown as good but I have one mark that's pink/red and that's credit utilisation is relatively high.
I have an mbna credit card that I have just balance transferred to lloyds. mbna has offered me 0% BT for a year. Do i transfer 3 of my CC on to mbna and pay the 5% fee and pay as much as I can 0% for a year off them? that's the better option isn't it. And then for my credit utilisation the cards im transferring over to mbna, close the accounts or leave them open and don't touch them would this make my utilisation look better?
If that makes any sense!! Thank you
I would prefer to get a loan to consolidate it all, so there is just one payment coming out for everything but I was declined by Santander for one, the branch manager did say it was probably due to my high credit utilisation even though I am up to date with all payments and on time.
The biggest thing that I struggle with that keeps me awake at night is that I am 31 years old still renting, I want to be able to own my own house and have children sooner rather than later and at the minute I feel as this is a long way away. Silly I know, it will take time and I have to concentrate on the important thing and that is reducing this debt and start transferring balances so im not paying interest because some of these credit cards I have are not budgeting because the interest is now so high but because I have so many different ones it's harder to get a new balance transfer one if that makes sense. Please help much appreciate

bexster1975

Hello

I would suggest consolidation is not the best way to go. Mainly because, from what I've seen, it just means you spend on the cards again. I don't know if closing the accounts is a good idea once you have BT to MBNA in terms of credit utilisation, but to ensure you don't spend on them again, I'm afraid I would close them. It is important to know how you ended up in cc debt. Was it purchases/emergencies or living month to month. Either way a SOA and a spending diary will help you ensure it doesn't happen again.

I am very sympathetic to your housing/ family situation. For what it is worth, I think a large number of people if your age, and some significantly older are dealing with similar issues re: renting and starting a family.

Good luck

Bexster

hedgehog123

Thanks for your reply! There is no issue of Me respending on the cards, They are all broken up and haven't been spent on for over 2 years. My issue was I was paying interest on a number of them which meant my balance was never reducing. Debt consolidation by a loan would of never been a problem as once the credit cards are gone, I would never get another one unless it was for the use of credit where i would then pay in full each month. I've educated myself over the years to live within my means and without credit. In the past I had these credit cards because my husband was made redundant, he then went self employed and so for a couple of years spending were made on CC. My main issue is to pay the debt off interest free or at a low interest and to know what the best thing to do for credit utilisation for credit ratings for the future ��

bexster1975

Hi

I would imagine as your cc debt decreased, so your credit utilisation would also decrease, even if you had got rid of extra cards. Hopefully someone will correct this if I'm wrong.

Good luck

Bexster

System

The reason your debt is now at the level it is is because you effectively tried to consolidate your credit card debt onto another 0% card and then reused the card you'd just cleared. You've cut the cards up but there's nothing stopping you picking up the phone and getting a replacement. Because of your past inability to not spend on cards just cleared I'm with the others and believe you should close down the cards once you've cleared them.

What is your income and what is the level of credit card and loan debt you have? It may be that your debt to income ratio takes you beyond the affordability criteria too.

Debtslayer

I think you'd be better off posting an soa so we could provide the best advice to enable you to finally get out of debt.
It seems all you are doing is keep making balance transfers and paying transfer fees and not really clearing the debts.
What are your credit card APR's?
How much do you owe on each card?
What is the credit limit on each card?

Debt consolidation via a loan is very rarely a good idea as I'm sure many on here know from experience

sourcrates

hedgehog123 wrote: »

The biggest thing that I struggle with that keeps me awake at night is that I am 31 years old still renting, I want to be able to own my own house and have children sooner rather than later and at the minute I feel as this is a long way away.

Posting an SOA will give us a better picture of your finances, but as a general response, if you want a quick fix, then some kind of insolvency solution may be appropriate, otherwise it's the long slog either stoozing the debts, or a debt management plan.

Your SOA will tell us the best option for you.

http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php