Continue transferring or another option?

CraftyHelen

I've been playing the 0% transfer game for a good few years now, but I'm now at the point where my partner and I are in about £9300 of debt across five credit cards. I tried to apply for a loan today to try and get that all into one monthly payment, sadly that was declined. I imagine this is due to the fact that all of that credit is in my name, my husbands credit is poor so we don't have any joint accounts, so as they don't know what the money is for they've said no. I was rather annoyed to be told that the only way to find out more about the decision was to write. The only other option is to go into my local Lloyds branch to book a call, what's that all about?? 

Anyway, I'm looking at continuing the 0% thing, I think I can reduce those 5 cards down to 3 but do wish there was another way to make it less complicated. Is there anything else I can do or am I just stuck?
Cards include the following: 2 x Tesco, 1 x Barclaycard, 1 x Sainsburys, 1 x Lloyds (Who I bank with).

[Deleted User]

Transfer what you can to any new card, but you need to have an exit plan.

Lending criteria have tightened so you may finds your options are limited.

CraftyHelen

Deleted_User said:

Transfer what you can to any new card, but you need to have an exit plan.

Lending criteria have tightened so you may finds your options are limited.

I can get 12 months 0% on my Lloyds but just waiting on the email from Tesco for the offer on those. I usually get one. I did contact them but they said that those offers are automatically sent by email. 
What do you mean by exit plan? I don't believe there is anywhere else I can go... 

[Deleted User]

Exit plan means paying off the debt.

You can kick the can down the road for a while but at some point, it needs repaying.

sourcrates

Hi,

"playing the 0% transfer game" is only ever a short term solution, and is usually used as a stop gap measure.

Zx81 mentions an "exit plan", well sooner or later the piper will want paying, switching to 0% deals, then attempting to consolodate the debt, are all classic signs of someone in unaffordable debt, and attempting to, yet again, borrow their way out of it.

There are only two ways to tackle debt, (A) you either overpay on your monthly payments, as much as you can, to reduce what you owe quicker, or (B) you look at debt mangement options.

Don`t beat yourself up, everyone thinks they can keep borrowing there way out of trouble, lots of people attempt consolodation, some numerous times, they nearly always end up back on the debt boards asking for advice.

So you need a plan, its either A or B.

[Deleted User]

If you can't get another BT card, just use your plan to pay off the debt (savings or whatever your plan was, assuming you weren't planning to try to borrow your way out of debt). Perhaps clearing one or two that still offer BT (even if they have decent time left) and move off the other debts that you can.

cymruchris

CraftyHelen said:

I've been playing the 0% transfer game for a good few years now, but I'm now at the point where my partner and I are in about £9300 of debt across five credit cards. I tried to apply for a loan today to try and get that all into one monthly payment, sadly that was declined. I imagine this is due to the fact that all of that credit is in my name, my husbands credit is poor so we don't have any joint accounts, so as they don't know what the money is for they've said no. I was rather annoyed to be told that the only way to find out more about the decision was to write. The only other option is to go into my local Lloyds branch to book a call, what's that all about?? 

Anyway, I'm looking at continuing the 0% thing, I think I can reduce those 5 cards down to 3 but do wish there was another way to make it less complicated. Is there anything else I can do or am I just stuck?
Cards include the following: 2 x Tesco, 1 x Barclaycard, 1 x Sainsburys, 1 x Lloyds (Who I bank with).

All good games come to an end. 

If you can get a further 0 percent card - all well and good - but the likelihood at the moment is less as lenders are being much more cautious, and if you have a fair amount of debt that's been sitting on your history for a while, you might find they are less inclined to be generous with their credit limits. 

You can't keep this £9300 on a credit card forever. What's the plan to get it back to zero?

Do you have savings in reserve?

If (and when) you start getting charged interest - how will you manage?

born_again

sourcrates said:

Hi,

"playing the 0% transfer game" is only ever a short term solution, and is usually used as a stop gap measure.

Sadly something that many people failed to realise and the whole Stoozing became a game to keep transferring a debt on & on, while never paying any real amount back as they kept spending.
ML has got something to answer for on this as part of his money saving years ago and encouraging people to do it. Maybe now he would like to do something on his show about this and how people need to have that "Exit Plan" in place rather than just keep putting off the inevitable. Which thanks to Covid has happened.

I suppose in some ways lenders have to shoulder some of the blame, as they should have realised this and instead of taking people on with balance transfers. There should have been something in place that checked and if a balance was moved more than X times then a block was placed until it was fully paid off.

Just tweeted the idea to ML to  see if he will do something on his show. As it is a important matter now, with so many people in such dire straights.

[Deleted User]

born_again said:

sourcrates said:

Hi,

"playing the 0% transfer game" is only ever a short term solution, and is usually used as a stop gap measure.

Sadly something that many people failed to realise and the whole Stoozing became a game to keep transferring a debt on & on, while never paying any real amount back as they kept spending.
ML has got something to answer for on this as part of his money saving years ago and encouraging people to do it. Maybe now he would like to do something on his show about this and how people need to have that "Exit Plan" in place rather than just keep putting off the inevitable. Which thanks to Covid has happened.

I suppose in some ways lenders have to shoulder some of the blame, as they should have realised this and instead of taking people on with balance transfers. There should have been something in place that checked and if a balance was moved more than X times then a block was placed until it was fully paid off.

Just tweeted the idea to ML to  see if he will do something on his show. As it is a important matter now, with so many people in such dire straights.

To be fair to ML / MSE site, the very first section called "What is stoozing?" makes it perfectly clear 

• When the 0% deal ends, use your savings to clear the card, or transfer the balance to another 0% card

CraftyHelen

cymruchris said:

All good games come to an end. 

If you can get a further 0 percent card - all well and good - but the likelihood at the moment is less as lenders are being much more cautious, and if you have a fair amount of debt that's been sitting on your history for a while, you might find they are less inclined to be generous with their credit limits. 

You can't keep this £9300 on a credit card forever. What's the plan to get it back to zero?

Do you have savings in reserve?

If (and when) you start getting charged interest - how will you manage?

I completely agree, I'd like to get rid as soon as possible but I'm limited on my options sadly. We have no savings so that's out. y The only way to avoid the interest is to do the 0% transfer again. I'm going to try and contact some other banks in regards to a loan as Lloyds haven't been helpful at all. If that fails then I'll just have to stick with transfers for now. 

CraftyHelen

born_again said:

sourcrates said:

Hi,

"playing the 0% transfer game" is only ever a short term solution, and is usually used as a stop gap measure.

Sadly something that many people failed to realise and the whole Stoozing became a game to keep transferring a debt on & on, while never paying any real amount back as they kept spending.
ML has got something to answer for on this as part of his money saving years ago and encouraging people to do it. Maybe now he would like to do something on his show about this and how people need to have that "Exit Plan" in place rather than just keep putting off the inevitable. Which thanks to Covid has happened.

I suppose in some ways lenders have to shoulder some of the blame, as they should have realised this and instead of taking people on with balance transfers. There should have been something in place that checked and if a balance was moved more than X times then a block was placed until it was fully paid off.

Just tweeted the idea to ML to  see if he will do something on his show. As it is a important matter now, with so many people in such dire straights.

I believe I learnt from ML about the 0% transfer game and for a bit it actually was helpful. But having a child and moving since then hasn't helped matters. I just want to put it all into one and pay it off. I guess without them knowing the full details of what I want to use the money for, they just think I want £9k.