Interest free period over but been made redundant

Darklightjulez

Hi all so I am with sainsburys bank for my credit card and have a £1000 balance outstanding. I was planning to pay this off and already but due to corona virus I got made redundant (was working in the place under a year so I didn't get redundancy pay) while I was also on maternity leave. I paid a good chunk off my balance with my lump sum of maternity leave but still have 1k to pay back. I have no job but my partner went back to work. I'm trying to get a balance transfer but they're all saying no. My credit score is 433 in the green and I've never had trouble before. If I don't sort it by the end of this month I'll be paying interest instead!
Please help I've tried so many balance transfers! 

foxy-stoat

If you haven't missed off another "0" at the end then just pay as much as you can each month.  Monthly interest wont be a lot on a thousand pounds but the sooner you clear it the better.  

born_again

Darklightjulez said:

My credit score is 433 in the green and I've never had trouble before. If I don't sort it by the end of this month I'll be paying interest instead!
Please help I've tried so many balance transfers! 

Please forget that score. It means nothing to a lender. They never see it. All they are interested in is your credit history & income.
Given your current situation, then offer are going to very few and far between, or as you have found none. 
Covid has made credit harder to get. Banks are reducing their exposure as much as they can.
As above £1K is not going to have much interest. Just pay off as soon as you can.

Good luck with job hunting or just enjoy the extra time with the new (or soon to be) family member.

cymruchris

Although £1000 is still a fair amount of money - don't panic too much - focus more on finding another source of income - and hopefully in due course you'll get yourself back into employment. If you do have to pay interest on this for a few months it's not going to be the end of the world. You can check eligibility checkers every so often just to see if you'd get a chance of another card - but in the position of having no income, most would say no. 

PRAISETHESUN

When you say you've tried so many balance transfers, have you been making full applications or using eligibility checkers? If the former, stop. Multiple searches in rapid succession make you look desperate (which admittedly you seem) and put off lenders. In either case you'll be very unlikely to get any further credit without income - your best bet will be to focus on job hunting, finding ways to cut back on spending and throwing any spare cash you have lying around at the debt. I agree that paying interest isn't ideal but as long as you continue to pay at least the minimum payment then you'll do no damage to your credit history - it's when you start missing payments and defaulting on your agreements that you run into problems. 

Thrugelmir

With no job currently. There's little point in applying fore further credit facilities. Focus on budgeting well. 

sourcrates

Are you aware of the payment breaks currently available due to covid ?

Talk to your lender.

Yahoo_Mail

sourcrates said:

Are you aware of the payment breaks currently available due to covid ?

Talk to your lender.

But the OP isn't saying they can't afford it, just that they'll be paying interest which they (understandably) wish to avoid.

Going down the payment holiday route won't stop interest accruing and will likely cause problems in the near future if they wish to obtain further credit.

Darklightjulez

Exactly as above. I can afford to pay just don't want to pay interest 

Darklightjulez

Thanks everyone. I won't be going back to work as my son is far too young yet so my partner is bringing in good enough money now. I'll pay the interest and try paying more off extra if I can. Thanks for your comments! 

phillw

Although the interest is not going to be huge, it will be higher than any savings rate you are currently getting. If you haven't emptied your wallet of cash and drained saving accounts then that would be a good idea.
Your partner could also put all his spending on a 0% purchases credit card, which will free up as much money as possible to throw at your credit card balance.