One day I will be debt free...

creditcardchaos

I am still not doing great because of being on furlough and using the cards a little but here is an updated position to keep me on track. One bonus is that HSBC gave me a BT deal so I moved some of my balances from other cards ...

MBNA - £0 / £1,900
Fluid - £725 / £1,100 (0%)
BOS - £1,000 / £4,200 (23.65%pa)
BC - £3,400 / £4,050 (17.65%pa)
HSBC - £7,400 / £8,000 (£5,275 @ 20.05% and £2,125 @ 1.9%pa)

I am paying the most towards HSBC each month as although it’s not the highest interest rate it is the one charging the most interest each month. I hate that despite paying £4/500 each month the balance only reduces by £100 across the cards because of all the interest. It’s really getting me down.

I would appreciate any advice from anyone on anything more I can do! Credit rating is still good on equifax and my score is in the good rating, I think just under the excellent bar. 

MBNA still haven’t offered any BT discounts despite it having been paid off for a while - is it worth calling them? I really only left it open so my available overall credit was more and the utilisation percentage would drop. At the moment it’s 65% over everything which is the only bad point on the report. I’ve never missed payments or had any other problems. 

Sarahwithlove

Have you looked at eligibility calculator to see if you can get a different card and maybe close the mbna if they don't offer you a better deal. What's your eligibility for a new Mbna card as you could maybe ring them up and say I saw you do this would I be eligible for it? 

creditcardchaos

Sarahwithlove said:

Have you looked at eligibility calculator to see if you can get a different card and maybe close the mbna if they don't offer you a better deal. What's your eligibility for a new Mbna card as you could maybe ring them up and say I saw you do this would I be eligible for it? 

I’m not eligible for any new cards Can’t understand why other than maybe the high overall utilisation. I was pre approved for a virgin card but applied and was rejected!

Sarahwithlove

Oh that's rubbish. I guess all you can do then is try and ring up and see if you can get an offer from mbna 

EchoB

Call MBNA and say you want to close your account because they aren’t offering you any transfers, it might prompt them to make an offer!

creditcardchaos

I called MBNA today but they weren’t able to offer any offer at all - either reduced interest or 0% despite me mentioning I might close the account if there were no offers. I made sure I was super polite when I called to ask as well but they said there was noting they could do. 

creditcardchaos

I also called BOS to see if they’d consider reducing the interest rates since I was a loyal customer and had current and saving accounts with them but they said no as well 

Sarahwithlove

Sounds like to me that until you get your utilisation below 50% you'll struggle to get any offers. So try focus on that for now 

enthusiasticsaver

Lenders are tightening up on offers at the moment due to a possible recession so that might be the reason. Do they know you have been furloughed as that would definitely be a mark against you sadly. 

 Pre approved means nothing.  They are just a marketing tactic and no one except you sees your credit score with the credit agencies so they do not mean a lot ether.  Each lender has their own way of credit scoring and they do not all score the same way. 

If you are now in the position of having to use the cards to live you may have to consider something like a DMP which would have the advantage of freezing the interest but would affect your credit file for sometime. 

creditcardchaos

So...still not eligible for any 0% offers but HSBC have offered a 1.9% deal which I think I’ll take up. These are the balances at the moment ..
MBNA - £0 / £1,900
Fluid - £300 / £1,100 (0%)
BOS - £850 / £4,200 (23.65%pa)
BC - £3,800 / £4,050 (17.65%pa)
HSBC - £6,975 / £8,000 (£4,850 @ 20.05% and £2,125 @ 1.9%pa)
= £11,925
interest still to be added so balance will go up slightly. 

I think I’ll probably move as much of the BOS one as I can to HSBC - transfer fee is 2.9%. Then once I have paid off the Fluid card I only have two cards and can concentrate on getting the balances down rather than making payments to all different cards. 

Does anyone have any different advice or something they’d recommend doing?

thanks