paying 34.9% apr on MBNA!!!

bullitt

Hi folks

Unfortunately as happens with many others i've gotten myself into trouble before realising it was too late!

Currently i have a barclaycard with a £3500 balance. This was at 24.9% apr but got this reduced to 6.9% on the credit balance for the life of the card. I hope to change this to a better balance transfer at a later date

Big problem is my 2 MBNA cards, i've got a £2300 balance at 34.9%!! on one card and £1400 at 24.9% on another. MBNA will NOT reprice the interest like barclays did.

i've also got a personal loan outstanding @ £250 a month so basically i need help or advice to try and get the best balance transfers i can to get the hell out of the MBNA cards. I seem to have a good credit score but i missed 1 payment a few months back when i was having a bad run of luck which cost me financially. I also tried to get a loan to consolidate a few months back but got turned down twice (before i knew the effects on my credit score) Now i'm worried that i've got so much credit compared to my salary of 16.5k that i'm stuck with these expensive card debts for good.

I need some advice quick!! this has been a very expensive learning curve so far

Thanks, Frank

Tr@cker

They seem to have tightened up a bit with credit even though there's still plenty of offers for 0% cards with a BT fee.
I got turned down for the first time in years last month for a new card (ive got 6 at present) even though my payment record is A1.
They're predicting new record levels of insolvency over the next 6 months particularly after xmas.
Have you tried asking the bank you have your loan with for a top up? If you have a good payment record with them they might do it.

GeorgeUK

okay - i take it you've looked at your credit history (free @ experian) since you say you have a good credit score. Did you pay for this from somewhere?

Too many credit checks can impact on your credit score so you may not be able to get anything in the short-term. How much debt do you have in total? 3 cards we know of, but the loan?

I think you'll need to wait a few months before asking for more credit, but depending on your total debt, you may still be able to use the 0% interest on BT trick or alternatively contact a bank you are not with and ask for a LOB card to transfer the MBNA debt onto.

on-the-count-of-three

A couple of things you could try.

MBNA might not lower the interest on your card debt, but they might just consider moving it to a personal loan. They did this for me earlier this year so it may be worth a try.

As for balance transfers, you may want to give Mint a try.(12 months interest free) You can apply for a card online & input your balance transfer details. They will give you an instant decision so at least you know where you stand. They are reasonably quick at processing applications & implementing balance transfers too.

Agreed, asking for too much credit at once can impact your score, but it's worth a try..you haven't really got much to lose at this stage.

Also try http://www.moneysupermarket.com/cards/credit_card.asp

Input your details & you'll get a list of cards you're likely to be accepted for.

Good luck

jamalfatty

sparky1664 wrote: »

A couple of things you could try.

MBNA might not lower the interest on your card debt, but they might just consider moving it to a personal loan. They did this for me earlier this year so it may be worth a try.

MBNA no longer take on new business for personal loans

oxmatt

Have you tried extending your barclaycard limit and transferring some of the MBNA debt across?

bullitt

Thankfully i took a chance today and applied for a egg card with 0% Balance transfer until Jan 09 i think. 3% fee for this but way cheaper in the long run.

I'll be doing a transfer ASAP against the 35.9% MBNA, they give me £2250 credit!! so that'll clear the big problem card. The attitude from MBNA has really annoyed me especially when Barclay bent over backwards to reduce to 6.9%. So just still the problem of 24.9% on the second MBNA card, will deal with that after christmas to let my credit score settle.

GeorgeUk, Yep, did the free experian check really on the recommendation of this site total debt is currently 7k left on the loan, about 2.5 years to run and then approx 7.5k on cards. really my credit score was ok but the interest was killing me, i think i had £250 minimum payments at one point which didn't even impact the balance total.

like i said, an expensive lesson. I think if i hadn't discovered this site i'd have been in serious bother within a few months

sicker

bullit, make sure you cancel your free experian report before they start to charge you, many have failed to remember to cancel it.

John