Advice please....where to start

shopaholic82

Hi Everyone

I’m new around here and I need some advice.

After a history of depression and anxiety and using shopping to help myself feel better I have landed here.

I work part time and am Mum if 4. My husband covers the mortgage and household bills and I work for food shopping and children etc.

I owe around :

£2000 Next
£3000 Credit Card
£1000 overdraft

I can manage minimum payments but my credit rating is awful and I don’t want things to get worse only better. I am 36 and would like to be debt free by 40.

What I would like it advice to get my credit rating massively improved so I can get 0% transfer rate to prevent accruing interest. Can I do this? Improve my rating?

Currently clearscore tells me my score is 286/700. I did the experience one and it was poor.

All advice and help greatly appreciated.

Dobbibill

Hi - Welcome to the forum

Your credit score/rating is only the opinion of the credit referencing agency. What you need to look at is the data and see if there is something that is in your history to cause them to have this opinion. Don't take too much notice of the score though as no-one else sees it.

It's good that you have addressed how you got the debt - you need to pay over the minimum as new rules have just come in about min payments on CCs and persistent debt.
Cut everything back to the bone and throw every spare penny at the debt.

Without knowing the APR, it's hard to see which debt would be priority but an overdraft can be called in at any time so it may be a good idea to focus on that first.

shopaholic82

What’s the new rules about credit card repayments?

Dobbibill

This tells you about it
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43210246


To see exactly where your money is going and where you can cut back and throw spare money at debt it's generally a good idea to complete a SOA.

http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php
Although you don't pay many of the household bills, you still have things you are spending on for the kiddies and food so writing it down is a good tool to see where you stand.

National_Debtline

Hi there and welcome to MSE,


Just to elaborate, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has introduced new rules for credit cards. These are to help people who can just afford their debts but who are only covering the interest payments. Under these new rules firms will be required to take a series of steps to help customers, beginning when the customer has been in persistent debt for over 18 months. They will contact customers prompting them to change their repayment and informing them their card may ultimately be suspended if they do not change their repayment pattern. There are further steps that can be taken for customers in persistent debt for 36 months.


I agree that you need to do a SOA and you may want to talk to your husband about this as well, and do a household budget, as he may be able to help. A SOA will help determine if you can overpay any of the debts, to clear the balances quicker. You should also change banks away from any organisation that you owe money to, in order to keep your money safe.


There is information on this site about doing balance transfers but please be aware, that may not resolve all the debts, and if you are unable to clear the balance before the interest only period ends, you could end up repaying more overall.


Laura
@natdebtline