credit card interest rates

agnesanne

i am over the limit on my credit card and get get under due to the excessive interest ppi and late payment which together total 100 pounds and the interest is adding on to the debt every month..its now up to 4400...the limit was 4000 and ive paid hundreds trying to get it down but it keeps going up
Can someone tell me why i should be paying two lots of interest on the card..one is mercantile inteest..i havent used this card for three years
one interest is 1.4% and the mercantile is 2.3%
i have asked them to stop the ppi as that was about 35 pounds a month too...and i dont need it as i am reired.
please explain ..im going nuts not understanding why

GeorgeUK

The only time i have seen 2 varying interest amounts on the 1 card is one rate for the normal credit and another for cash advances. Is this possibly what is happening?

agnesanne

no i cant take money from it as i dont use it....havent used it cince 2006
but yes at that time i did take cash out...but nver since...can they still be claiming all this interest off me for that..is that legal

jamalfatty

agnesanne wrote: »

no i cant take money from it as i dont use it....havent used it cince 2006
but yes at that time i did take cash out...but nver since...can they still be claiming all this interest off me for that..is that legal

If only I got a quid for every time that word was used on this board.............:p

Yes they can and do, you will almost certainly be paying off the lowest interest rate items on your account first, which means the cash advances at the higher APR will be the last things to be paid off. If you have never cleared your balance completely since using it for cash, they will still be on there which would explain the 2 different interest charges

marksandsparksgal

Exactly as Jamal said, they'll always continue charging you the higher rate for as long as poss, that's how you never see a poor credit card company! If you're in the position, maybe look at getting a balance transfer to another card, then you can be sure all of the debt will be at one (hopefully lower) interest rate.

GeorgeUK

A few suggestions.

Go to experian and get a free look at your credit history. This will show you what banks etc see when making a decision as to whether or not to give you credit. Not sure what CC retired people can get easily, but hopefully a BT to a 0% card is possible. Failing that, perhaps a Life of Balance (LOB) which has a low interest rate. Possibly worth asking your current provider about this if you can't get a 0% offer.

Note: Every time a company does a credit check, they take into account how many checks have been done recently. I would suggest doing no more than 2 applications in a 3 month period or it may damage your credit score.

EDIT: forgot to mention - make sure anyone you approach for a new card is does not have the same card provider as your existing bank. eg you can't transfer between First Direct + M&S as they have the same supplier (HSBC)
http://www.stoozing.com/cards.htm

You mentioned that you were paying PPI. Martin has an article on how you may be able to claim back some money if it was mis-sold (ie you were paying for it, but it was of no use to you).
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/ppi-loan-insurance

Also have a look at claiming back your CC charges. The court case that is going on right now is dealing with overdraft charges but CC charges, you should be able to still claim. There are template letters around for that too.
(Would the amount of charges you have paid in the last 6 years amount to £4k? That would be worthwhile )
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/credit-card-charges
also google consumeractiongroup - their forum has quite a bit of info on dealing with the various banks.

I'll let you know if i think of anything else.