Advice Needed - To BT or Not

Narola1976

Hi, I just thought I would ask for some advice. I don’t want to make a bad decision. I will try to give all the info in one go. I have been on my DFJ since September 2019 and have made some progress. I have been snowballing my debt.  But I still have a long way to go. 

Currently I have 4 CC’s: 

• HSBC - Balance is £2065.65. Min payment is circa £65. Interest an eye watering 28.9%. Credit Limit - £9200.  I have been paying a lot towards this, nothing less than £536 and if all goes to plan will have paid this off by July / August 2021
• Barclays - Balance is £6344.28. Set payment of £180 which is few ££‘s more than min payment. Interest rate 17.03% simple rate. Credit Limit - £11700
• MBNA1 - Balance £7348.63. Set payment of £195 which is a few ££’s more than min payment. Interest rate is 20.93%. Have had 2 persistent debt letters. Credit Limit is £11500
• MBNA 2 - Balance is £ 11446.23. Set payment of £257 which is circa £30 more than min payment. Some of the balance is on 0% but this will end in June. I knew I would not be able to pay it off in time but I had transferred some of the HSBC balance because it had a much higher interest rate. Credit limit is £13500. Interest is 20.93%

I have not needed a payment break or anything and have always made my payments. However, despite history proving I am reliable, being so heavily committed and with 2 PD letters has meant I am not attractive to new BT cards. Which is completely understandable. My preference is not to apply for new cards anyway but use my existing cards for offers if possible. But lenders have tightened up considerably so these have been few and far between. I have not used the HSBC card since 2019 and have never used the others for anything but BT. 

I now have an offer from HSBC for 0% for 15 months, 2.9% fee. Clearly they have noted I am working hard to pay them off and am nearly there and they don’t want to lose the opportunity to get lots of interest out of me, based on historical behaviour which I hope I have now changed!  But I am so wary of taking them up on this offer for fear that I won’t be able to pay the balance off in time and then be stung with their very high interest rates for longer than I would like. But at the same time I am paying so much interest on the cards across the board, is it an acceptable risk?

I know that BC may actually close my card if I do transfer the balance, as they have been quite strict du too pandemic. I am hopeful they won’t so I can try to transfer from MBNA one day. But I can’t know what will happen and must assume the worst. 

So what should I do - if I do transfer the BC amount, the £180 I was paying will be added to the £536 I am already paying and assuming they do what they say they will, i.e pay the interest bearing amount off first, I will be able to pay that amount in 3 to 4 months. I know the MBNA interest is higher than BC but the balance is higher and I won’t be able to transfer the whole amount whereas with BC I believe I could. 

So, should I take the risk and transfer? Or let sleeping dogs lie and finish HSBC off in 4 months. What would you do if you were in my shoes? If I do nothing, my DFD is July 2023. I can’t work out what it would be if I did do the BT because having an interest bearing amount and a 0% balance makes it harder to calculate.

Thanks for reading.

[Deleted User]

Get the offer for sure and move the Barclays one - then you might get lucky and they give you an offer which will help you solve another one. Otherwise, move the debt(s) with the highest interest charges to that card and hit the other balances with lower rates. It sounds odd but you'll pay off more of the balance of your debts throwing more at the lower interest ones (as more goes to the debt rather than paying interest) while the higher rate is no longer accumulating interest. Any which way, you will have a lot of debt and a lot of interest soon. I would suggest you go to the debt free pages and see if they have any advice on cuts you could make to spending to free up more cash

yksi

I personally applied for a payment holiday for all my lower-interest debts and am putting those repayments onto the one with the highest interest rate. It means that some of them will take longer to pay off overall, but I think the saving still stacks up for me.

cymruchris

As you are making progress, and are committed to keep on making progress - I would take the offer - and then don't stop on the journey - keep pushing and cutting and trimming everything you can to get those balances down. Now's not the time to take your foot off the gas if you do take the offer.