I have been paying my credit card at £200 a month for £6500 over 5 years and still owe the same

tequilalala

Hi Newbie here,
I got a credit card out for my business in 2013 and used it to buy up to £6500 over 2 years paying some off as I went.  I stopped using it and I have been paying it off at £200 a month since 2015; I did have to put £400 on it at one point, but I still however near enough owe the same amount, I have paid double the debt and they say I have just paid interest. Apologies I can not remember the interest %.  Is there anything I can do?  I am more than happy to pay any debt that I have but I feel like this is ridiculous.
Thank you in advance 

Hasbeen

At £200 per month payment, and not used since 2015 it appears you will have only being paying the interest on the balance owed.

The amount owing will be on your monthly statements.

You run a business?

SpreadableToast

If the interest being charged is about £200 a month and that's all you've been paying it's not really ridiculous, is it?

I find it hard to believe that you took out a card, spent £6500 on it and just decided that £200 a month would clear it in some unspecified period of time, and never bothered to check another statement for 5 years, but if that's what you did then you have no-one to blame but yourself really.

sourcrates

Hi,

Credit card debt will invariably incur interest, is it a sub prime card ?

You cannot remember the interest rate, with a 6k plus balance thats a worrying statement to be honest, I`m guessing it may be around 39.9% APR or possibly higher.

You ask "is there anything i can do ?"  well non payment will have repercussions for your credit file, your options are limited to be honest, you can default and the debt will be frozen, or you can ask for interest to be stopped, both will result in account closure, no easy exit from this unfortunatly.

lopsyfa

What is the current balance now?

You need to confirm the interest rate and confirms all your payments have been correctly allocated and interest charged correctly. 
You have three options really (in order of preference I will think):
1. Transfer the balance and then pay monthly to clear while the balance is at low interest
2. If you can't balance transfer, increase your monthly payment so you pay more of the balance than interest. The balance will then come down more sharply.
3. As suggested above, defaults and then hope to come to some arrange with the provider or whoever the debt is eventually sold to.

dcfc67

You only have yourself to blame, Credit card companies will tell you minimum payment on statements typically 2-3% which will just pay of the interest.
You need to move it to a 0% card then the £200 you pay each month will reduce the debt by £200 a month.

Take this as a very expensive lesson learnt and try not to fall into this trap again

D3xt3r5L4b

Didn’t we have a post like this already?

SpreadableToast

D3xt3r5L4b said:

Didn’t we have a post like this already?

Probably.  It ticks most of the boxes for a typical school holiday troll post.

Dandytf

Persistent Debt rules springs to mind.
From one that has some experience -though from 1.7k not quite 6K
Surprised FCA haven't forced any Action or re payment plan via your Card provider.
good luck, maybe you can find a way if the card is suspended.

SpreadableToast

Dandytf said:

Persistent Debt rules springs to mind.
From one that has some experience -though from 1.7k not quite 6K
Surprised FCA haven't forced any Action or re payment plan via your Card provider.
good luck, maybe you can find a way if the card is suspended.

Do persistent debt rules cover business credit cards?  I can't find anything that specifies it is specifically for consumer credit cards but equally can't find anything that mentions these rules in relation to business cards.

Generally, these kinds of rules are aimed at consumers (who are assumed to be idiots) rather than businesses who are assumed not to need their hands held by the Government.

macman

If you can't be bothered to find out the interest rate, then how do you expect to reduce the debt?