Tesco CC demanding repayment in full

[Deleted User]

whitesmith said:

Nothing has changed on your credit agreement - you still are able to pay the minimum payment each month if you choose.

Look on the letter as a 'friendly advice on other options to get your debt down' letter, that is all.

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/persistent-debt

Feel free to ignore it.

That link literally tells you that if you ignore it they can suspend your card. OP ignoring the letter is daft - they're clearly paying a huge amount of interest. If the bank is proposing £350 a month and they're paying less than that, it's no wonder they only cleared £500 in 7 months i.e. about £71 a month going on the capital and whatever the rest they are paying is on interest. OP desperately needs to make changes and pay off more every month

whitesmith

I was simply pointing out that the heading of this thread about Tesco 'demanding' and also what the OP said does not mean that they have to do anything other than continue paying the minimum

they are perfectly free to ignore the letter

This will of course (as you said) have consequences - maybe suspension of the card and certainly higher interest than they would otherwise have paid had they reduced the balance

They certainly do not 'need' to reduce the balance they are perfectly at liberty to continue in exactly the way they are

Kevindurant

D3xt3r5L4b said:

So you've borrowed money "for years" without paying it back in full, and now they want it back?

Whatever next...

Oh how incredibly helpful, thank you for your wisdom and insight.. They have fared very well out of this arrangement so I wouldn’t weep too much for Tesco banking.

Kevindurant

sleepyjones said:

The minimum payment on £11k that must be around £350 anyway?

sleepyjones said:

The minimum payment on £11k that must be around £350 anyway?

No it’s about £190 and I repay £250 a month. I’ve got other debts and we are a single income family.

Kevindurant

whitesmith said:

I was simply pointing out that the heading of this thread about Tesco 'demanding' and also what the OP said does not mean that they have to do anything other than continue paying the minimum

they are perfectly free to ignore the letter

This will of course (as you said) have consequences - maybe suspension of the card and certainly higher interest than they would otherwise have paid had they reduced the balance

They certainly do not 'need' to reduce the balance they are perfectly at liberty to continue in exactly the way they are

Thanks very much for advice, Martin says something similar on here once I looked into it. I know i need to repay it but it’s my lowest interest APR so least priority. Now I know they cannot enforce a higher repayment I feel better. I get a decent bonus in March that will clear a good chunk of it. 

sleepyjones

Kevindurant said:

sleepyjones said:

The minimum payment on £11k that must be around £350 anyway?

No it’s about £190 and I repay £250 a month. I’ve got other debts and we are a single income family.

Cool, I'm not judging you bud ... You've got a much better APR and higher limit than I do
I think it's looking likely that they will put a hold on your card if you don't do something about reducing the balance (which they are 100% entitled to do) so I think you need to be prepared for that, to be honest it might not be such a bad thing to allow them to do it, or to ask them to do that,  so you can freeze the interest and start making a dent on the balance.  You will, of course, lose the use of the card.  
I don't think you'll get a balance transfer at the moment and it probably wouldn't be advisable anyway since it'll effectively just give you more credit and delay the problem.
I would speak to them and tell them you're in financial difficulty, ask them to put a hold on the card and freeze the interest (Initially for 6 months), then offer to repay whatever you can afford (even £150 a month) ... you can ask for a payment plan lower than the minimum monthly payment since the interest will no longer be accruing ... you've got nothing to lose at the moment and you won't be "out of pocket" since your paying that towards the interest anyway.  They could say no, but you can cross that bridge when you get to it and they're more likely to be sympathetic at the moment because of Covid.  Your credit file will take a hit but I think that's the lesser of two evils in this scenario.  
This is what I would do, but I'm no expert.
As mentioned above, the Debt Free Wannabe board is probably where you want to look ... Don't bury your head in the sand and assume this can continue because you know it can't, get on top of it now as best you can and it'll feel like a weight has been lifted and you can get on with your life with one less thing to worry about (I apologise if that sounds patronising, it's not meant to).
Good luck

Anamox

I wasn't in this exact situation before but I had a similar level of CC debt that I decided I wanted to chip away more. I managed to get four balance transfer cards with limits of something like £2000 each using MSE's web page on BT cards, I paid something like £100 to move the majority of the debt to those cards and enjoyed 18-24 months of 0% interest. 

It meant that I could continue paying the minimum but it was chipping away more of the debt than when it was sitting on higher interest cards. I just did this for a few years and eventually got the debt amount down to an amount where I could luckily pay it off with a lump sum.

ManyWays

the cheapest was to start repaying £350 a month

The cheapest per month but this may result in you paying a LOT more interest over the next few years. 
I think you should look hard at the other options as a tough year and transform your finances?
Perhaps not if 350 is going to be hard, then really look at debt advice. Carrying on for years paying interest and getting nowhere isnt sensible. Talk to Stepchange, for half an hour of your time find out your options.

[Deleted User]

whitesmith said:

I was simply pointing out that the heading of this thread about Tesco 'demanding' and also what the OP said does not mean that they have to do anything other than continue paying the minimum

they are perfectly free to ignore the letter

This will of course (as you said) have consequences - maybe suspension of the card and certainly higher interest than they would otherwise have paid had they reduced the balance

They certainly do not 'need' to reduce the balance they are perfectly at liberty to continue in exactly the way they are

Giving that "advice" is poor, you should make clear the consequences, not just tell the OP what they want to hear

Kevindurant

sleepyjones said:

Kevindurant said:

sleepyjones said:

The minimum payment on £11k that must be around £350 anyway?

No it’s about £190 and I repay £250 a month. I’ve got other debts and we are a single income family.

Cool, I'm not judging you bud ... You've got a much better APR and higher limit than I do
I think it's looking likely that they will put a hold on your card if you don't do something about reducing the balance (which they are 100% entitled to do) so I think you need to be prepared for that, to be honest it might not be such a bad thing to allow them to do it, or to ask them to do that,  so you can freeze the interest and start making a dent on the balance.  You will, of course, lose the use of the card.  
I don't think you'll get a balance transfer at the moment and it probably wouldn't be advisable anyway since it'll effectively just give you more credit and delay the problem.
I would speak to them and tell them you're in financial difficulty, ask them to put a hold on the card and freeze the interest (Initially for 6 months), then offer to repay whatever you can afford (even £150 a month) ... you can ask for a payment plan lower than the minimum monthly payment since the interest will no longer be accruing ... you've got nothing to lose at the moment and you won't be "out of pocket" since your paying that towards the interest anyway.  They could say no, but you can cross that bridge when you get to it and they're more likely to be sympathetic at the moment because of Covid.  Your credit file will take a hit but I think that's the lesser of two evils in this scenario.  
This is what I would do, but I'm no expert.
As mentioned above, the Debt Free Wannabe board is probably where you want to look ... Don't bury your head in the sand and assume this can continue because you know it can't, get on top of it now as best you can and it'll feel like a weight has been lifted and you can get on with your life with one less thing to worry about (I apologise if that sounds patronising, it's not meant to).
Good luck

No, you are spot on, sound advice . I can afford to repay £250 so I’ll figure out how I pay another £50 which will just be a little under what  they are asking. Thanks for taking the time to reply.