Debt and what to do.

BabyStepper

Well done for paying off Lloyds, one debt less has to be good. 

Why are you considering moving your Santander card when it's already interest free? Does the deal run out soon? What will the interest rate be? It looks like you'd do better moving all of your Tesco CC and some of your Barclaycard (3k- ish). You could then focus those payments to Barclaycard and make a good dent in it over the next few months. 

How are you getting on making an emergency fund?

stokegal

If your Barclaycard is the same as mine it regularly offers 0% balance transfers. I would clear off the tesco CC and as much of the Barclaycard as you can then it might open up some balance transfer for the Santander for when the 0% is up on that.

BabyStepper

Good point stokegal, my old Barclaycard used to offer deals all the time too. Keep an eye on that one OP. 

ryanm8655

Agree re: Barclaycard. Even though it wasn’t the highest interest card, I focussed on the Barclays for a while as they’d give me a new offer every month. They did stop eventually (when I took out a couple of other 0% cards and closed some cards down), so keep an eye on it.

stokegal

I am kicking myself for not realising it earlier.

I managed to pay £5k from my other cards last month with higher APR's and just left my Barclaycard outstanding.  It wasn't until I read @ryanm8655's diary I realised I should have used the £5k towards the Barclaycard and I probably would of had some BT offers to move it over to 0% - Instead I'm paying a fortune on interest. I'm hoping that once my utilisation goes below 50% I will qualify for another card and can transfer some of it over (Utilisation will be 55% on next payday in 2 days - that is down from 84% in November)

(@ryanm8655 FYI - I read all 50 pages in 1 sitting - I've not been that quiet for that long that my OH though something was wrong with me lol - I got that invested in your story I felt like I went on your journey with you!!) 

enthusiasticsaver

sammysolent1 said:

So a bit of an update 
I paid off a part of the loan and also the Lloyds CC - I then applied for a 0% with John lewis and got approved 6k 0% for 18 months, the card will come by Thursday so going to trans the balance over to this from the Santander and as much as poss from the Barclays. Finally getting somewhere with this. 
Appreciate all of your comments. 

Isn't the Santander CC interest free?  I would address the Tesco CC. 

ryanm8655

stokegal said:

I am kicking myself for not realising it earlier.

I managed to pay £5k from my other cards last month with higher APR's and just left my Barclaycard outstanding.  It wasn't until I read @ryanm8655's diary I realised I should have used the £5k towards the Barclaycard and I probably would of had some BT offers to move it over to 0% - Instead I'm paying a fortune on interest. I'm hoping that once my utilisation goes below 50% I will qualify for another card and can transfer some of it over (Utilisation will be 55% on next payday in 2 days - that is down from 84% in November)

(@ryanm8655 FYI - I read all 50 pages in 1 sitting - I've not been that quiet for that long that my OH though something was wrong with me lol - I got that invested in your story I felt like I went on your journey with you!!) 

Haha blimey, your debt free journey will be easy compared to reading 50 pages of my drivel

Have you checked your eligibility for balance transfer cards using the MSE eligibility checker? I’d be surprised if you can’t get any at that level of utilisation but it may depend on other things. If you are eligible then apply for a couple (assuming you’ve got quite a bit of debt that isn’t 0%). I got about £8.5k combined from NatWest and virgin within about 3 months of starting IIRC, so after I’d gone from around £30k to £25k. Found the eligibility checker pretty accurate.

stokegal

It was really well written - I was fan girl-ing at one point cause you have done so well.

I actually talking to my OH about it - He also use to buy and sell perfumes including Creed, that was before I told him to stop to stop being so frivolous because he was just wasting money... (I might have been wrong there as he's a fan of wheeling and dealing for profit!)

I checked my eligibility just before I paid off last months chunk - I was at 84% utilisation so it said no.  I too also considered consolidating but I would rather plough on paying 2k a month and get it off this year than extending it.  I have checked my eligibility since one of my cards has updated with a 0 balance and I'm now being offered the subprime cards so I'm guessing it will take a bit more before I am offered anything with a 0% balance transfer. I was at just over £18k out of £21 (85%) on cards and overdraft + £18k on car finance and sofa but I'll  be at £12k on payday (Friday) so 55% - I'm not sure if car / sofa payments go towards utilisation or if its just available credit like CC 
 

ryanm8655

stokegal said:

It was really well written - I was fan girl-ing at one point cause you have done so well.

I actually talking to my OH about it - He also use to buy and sell perfumes including Creed, that was before I told him to stop to stop being so frivolous because he was just wasting money... (I might have been wrong there as he's a fan of wheeling and dealing for profit!)

I checked my eligibility just before I paid off last months chunk - I was at 84% utilisation so it said no.  I too also considered consolidating but I would rather plough on paying 2k a month and get it off this year than extending it.  I have checked my eligibility since one of my cards has updated with a 0 balance and I'm now being offered the subprime cards so I'm guessing it will take a bit more before I am offered anything with a 0% balance transfer. I was at just over £18k out of £21 (85%) on cards and overdraft + £18k on car finance and sofa but I'll  be at £12k on payday (Friday) so 55% - I'm not sure if car / sofa payments go towards utilisation or if its just available credit like CC 
 

Haha. Interesting. On the whole I've probably just funded my hobby as a lot of them I've lost a small amount on (though they weren't bought for profit) but if I just bought the ones I can profit from then it's a small income boost. Probably not worth the effort as hard to scale up ha.

Ahh I see. I'd imagine other finance debts would count but I'd definitely check every month and see how the eligibility is looking (without doing apps unless it's high). You're making great progress. Once you can switch more of it onto 0% deals you'll really notice the difference!