Back again

shellslife

Well still no answer on the holiday but it is now looking likely that i5 won’t be cancelled so I will have to rebook for next year.

I have also checked b&c insurance and have had quotes for just over £100 for the year. Currently paying £238 so that will be getting changed this year. 

Another thing that I have done today is get a BT card in DHs name and transferred some of the balance that was on CC2. It is 0% for 23 months. Thinking about it now maybe I should have done all of CC4 and then the rest of the available balance for CC2. Oh well it’s done now and does buy us some more breathing space. Will up the direct debit payments for CC4 and lower them for CC2.
Once I have cleared the 2 cards that are charging interest would it then be better to try and clear the loan off earlier and then the 0% cards? 

bamgbost

well done Shell. You seem to be doin a fantastic job....! Keep it up!

shellslife

Morning all. Just enjoying a couple of days off from work which is very much deserved.
Im just waiting for the BT to go through and then I’m thinking of doing another one as DHs CC2 has a BT offer on. I would then transfer CC4 to CC2 so would still have 4 cards to pay off but only have to pay interest on around £1,600 that would be remaining onCC2 at 19.9% which I could hopefully have cleared off within 3 months then it would only be our loan charging interest. Does that make sense? 

enthusiasticsaver

I would definitely tackle the interest earning cards first.  The problem is that you have substantial amounts on credit cards and the transfer fees for BT them will be  high.  Make sure you work those out before juggling the debt.  I am not sure also that it is a good idea to apply for two cards at the same time. I would focus on the cards for now as presumably CC1 and CC3 deals will expire soon? 23 months is worth applying for.  Don't bother with the short deals though.  

shellslife

We wouldn’t be applying for another card. DH has a Barclaycard which is CC2. On the offers page it is allowing him to do a BT but at the minute this card has a balance of almost 6k. A BT has been done from the card to a 0% card for 23 months but would only allow £4300. 

The other card paying interest of 29.9% is a Sainsbury’s one (CC4). This owes Just over 2k. We are thinking of moving that 2k onto the Barclaycard for the 0% until 2022. 

The other 2 cards are on 0% until 2022 as well. 

We would the only have about £1600 charging interest on cards. This should be paid off in maybe 3-4 months depending on extra shifts in work etc. Then I can change all the direct debits to the remaining 4 cards and even tho we doubt they will be cleared by the time the 0% offers finish (I have a note of all end dates) we will have at least made huge chunks in them without worrying about all the interest being added each month.

enthusiasticsaver

OK that sounds like a good plan. 
So to get  this straight?
CC1 and CC3 would remain as they are for now and both expire in 2022?
CC2 will have around £1600 charging interest as the other £4300 has been moved to a new card at 0% also finishing in 2022? It will also have £2k from CC4 on 0% until 2022? 
That means that CC4 can be closed and has been replaced by the new 0% deal with £4300 on it? 
You will have transfer fees for the new card then of £4300 times whatever the percentage fee is and £2k from CC4 to CC2 but you will have moved £6300 from interest bearing cards to 0%? 

I am a bit worried about that holiday too as presumably you will need to save for that over the coming year even if you move it. Putting that on cards would be counter productive to spend all that time, effort and sacrifice to pay off the cards then ramp them up again to pay for a holiday.  

shellslife

Yep that sounds right.
Holiday is paid for in full as we are due to go in less than 4 weeks. We are hoping for a cancellation which would mean full refund and allow a huge chuck of debt cleared (best case scenario) if not then hoping to rebook free of charge to next year.
If holiday is cancelled the we could possibly be debt free in around 2 years especially if the only interest we are paying is on the loan.

shellslife

Well we have had the best case as just had notification our holiday has been cancelled so I’ve opted for the refund. Now to wait for all of that to come through and also try and cancel the other extras. 

shellslife

Managed to cancel airport parking so that will be £119.99 coming back to us onto a credit card.  We booked fast track and lounge service at the airport in Jamaica so I have emailed them to see about cancelling. Fingers crossed that money comes through as it’s about £280.
Cancelled insurance as well, only getting a 50% refund on that. They asked if we wanted to transfer it to another holiday if we have rebooked it. When I explained that we hadn’t due to me working for NHS she waived the £15 admin charge which I thought was really nice. 

I can now also upgrade my phone so I’m searching for a cheap sim only deal. I’m currently paying £28 a month for mine 😱 DH has a sim only which is £10 a month. The girls phones are around £25-£30 a month each 😭😱 I cant believe at one point we were paying over £100 a month on phones. How stupid have we been! DD1s phone we can’t do anything about until December but she is trying to find herself a job and has said that she will be paying for her own phone after that.
I need to check DD2s contract to see when we can upgrade her phone.

Will get DH to cancel the B&C insurance renewal and go for the £100 one. 

Been asking both girls what they would like for their birthdays next month and neither of them have been forthcoming with ideas. Well apart from the oldest asking for a £360 pair of trainers!! 

enthusiasticsaver

Great that you will be getting a full refund for the holiday.  That will make a massive difference and presumably you can pay off the £1600 interest bearing debt on CC2 and then overpay the loan? Debt free in 2 years would be great.