Paying off CC

MarkMick

I have a large CC debt which costs me around £480 per month on fractionally above minimum payment.

I've never missed a payment and to be honest I've been paying it for so long that it hadn't really bothered me that much (yeah I'm aware its reasonable amount of money) that was until recently, I've decided to clear it.

Now my question is, the amount outstanding is around £13k I have some cash set aside of around £15k.

I'm fairly sure i know the answer but its worth asking the question.

Would anyone know if generally the CC companies (BarclayCard in this case) would be open to negotiation on a settlement figure? say offer £10k there and then and keep Credit rating in tact

As I've never missed a payment is that going to counteract what i have in mind?

many thanks

Mark

jonesMUFCforever

No and No.

Why would they accept less when you yourself have not missed any payments?
If they did it would be marked down on your credit files.

msallen

As jones says, not a chance sorry. They would only contemplate this if you were already way in arrears and they had reason to believe they might not see all their money again otherwise. It would also trash your credit history for 6 years.

Dobbibill

I agree 'No' - if you are maintaining payments.

Negotiation is reserved for the very final hurdle.
It would need to be missed/late - then it would get handed to the debt recoveries team - then it would be passed to a DCA - then you can negotiate. In the meantime your credit history is trashed.

Unless your balance is on or about to be moved to a 0% promo card, I would consider using those savings to clear the balance and reduce the amount of interest you are/will pay.

MarkMick

I guessed this would be the case, after all i wouldn't accept it myself so why should a bank or other...but you have to ask the question.

thank you for the replies anyway

Ben8282

£480pm minimum payment on a £13K balance is very high. Whatever is the APR on this card?

AndyPoll

If you're reluctant to spend the savings but don't want to keep paying the interest then could you transfer some or all the balance to a 0% card? If you've not missed a payment on a balance that size you will have a good chance of getting a decent limit on a new card.

Sncjw

Have you been spending on the card whilst paying it off as you said you have been paying it off a long time?

MarkMick

Sncjw wrote: »

Have you been spending on the card whilst paying it off as you said you have been paying it off a long time?

used the card occasionally but on the whole just been paying minimum +plus a little.

something weird did happen yesterday.

based on this comment :

"£480pm minimum payment on a £13K balance is very high. Whatever is the APR on this card?"

I decided to call BarclayCard to ask what rate i was currently on and why my repayments are high.

Well i didn't really get the answer i was looking for,

however the guy said immediately "there are no offers on your account at the moment so as a result i'll freeze the interest for next 2 months saving you a total of £6xx , call back at end of June and see what offers we have"

I'm still looking at wiping the debt out as soon as rather than a balance transfer, but i have spoken to a family friend who has dealings with money (some form of financial advisor) and he's made some suggestions.

newuser86

Pay off the amount asap. You're obviously paying a lot of interest and are losing money every month. The family friend I'm assuming would have said the same

Ben8282

You say this is a Barclaycard.
Barclaycard minimum payment is 1% plus interest.
1% of £13000 is £130.
£480 - £130 = £350
£350 per-month interest on a balance of £13000 represents a monthly interest rate of about 2.7% which represents an APR in the region of about 32% (APPROXIMATE CALCULATION)
This is very high for a Barclaycard Platinum but looks about right for a Barclaycard Initial (quoted rate 34.9% APR. But do Barclaycard Initial cards come with 13K+ credit limits?
Your interest rate is clearly shown on the statement so you didn't need to call to ask. You only had to look at the statement.
Be careful with this 'freezing' of interest after being told that no promotional offers were available to you.. It may be reported on your credit files as some sort of arrangement to pay.
I would be curious as to the advice that the family friend gave you. I hope that it doesn't involve applying for 0% cards as there is NO WAY you will get one with anything like the sort of credit limit that you appear to have on this card, if you get one at all, after a history of what can only be almost 100% utilisation and more-or-less minimum payments for 4 years.