So what's next?

Willing2Learn · 16 August 2018 at 4:51PM

Dragonpie wrote: »

...B/T would cost around £160 but I feel like I would save more in interest on the mortgage (but cannot be sure!)

Why does it cost £160? You can get a card that offers a balance transfer with a 0% fee, zero, zilch.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/balance-transfer-credit-cards/

Dragonpie · 16 August 2018 at 4:59PM

The likelihood of me getting a new card with a 0% BT fee is very slim whereas I have an offer from an existing card which would allow me to transfer the full balance of my other 2 cards.

Willing2Learn · 16 August 2018 at 5:03PM

You can do a 'soft' search for the MBNA card @ 0%. There's a link for the 'soft' search in the article I referred to in my last post. (It's the MSE Eligibility Checker). A 'soft' search does not impact negatively on your credit file.

Dragonpie · 16 August 2018 at 5:05PM

I've done the soft search and none of the cards with a 0% fee are above 50% chance of acceptance, a bit too much of a gamble for me.

Dragonpie · 16 August 2018 at 5:08PM

Although, I am not planning on any other applications for credit so it might be worth a try hmmm

Dragonpie · 17 August 2018 at 8:34AM

Thanks for your help Willing2learn. I have been mulling this over and decided not to risk another application for another CC, I really doubt that I will get the credit limit required as my available credit already exceeds my annual income and I already have 5 active cards (a rewards card, a card for holidays and 3 with balance transfers) so I am going to put them all into my MBNA card, I appreciate it is lazy to do this despite the fee of £158 but I want the simplicity of it all being on a card so that I can set up a DD where it will be repaid in full by the end of the 0% offer and I can just let it look after itself, I can also set up an overpayment to my mortgage on DD as well and know how much I have paid to each, every month and have a set amount of my income available to me for living. I like predictability in my finances, it makes me feel a lot more in control and helps minimise my anxiety.

Dragonpie · 19 August 2018 at 7:15PM

I feel like I am finally getting my head around budgeting! I went to a festival last year and spent around £60, I went to the same festival yesterday and spent just over £20 and our usual weekend takeaways have been replaced by pre-bought convenience food which I cooked myself... I hate cooking from scratch at weekend but this way, I have spent about 1/4 of what I normally spend with minimal effort.
I withdrew £40 yesterday and have £17.60 left so the plan is to use that for the week at work (including my £12 bus ticket), cards are being left at home and hopefully I will have money leftover at the end of the month from my spends budget to start an emergency fund! I thought that I had broken my tumble dryer yesterday (thankfully it appears that it is the extension lead which broke - I removed the plug and the live wire in the plug had melted!) but this has reinforced that j need an emergency fund.

beanielou · 19 August 2018 at 9:06PM

Blimey you were lucky with that extension lead.

Dragonpie · 21 August 2018 at 4:42PM

Just scrolled back to 18th July and my short term debt on my credit report was £20,289, I checked today and Noddle now shows my debt as £18, 761. Yay, this budgeting malarkey seems to be working!