My Debt Free Journey

abaka

I already am.....but normally I reserve my complaining to those within earshot.  I normally can't be bothered with the hassle of official complaints.  

LittleMissDetermined

abaka said:

I already am.....but normally I reserve my complaining to those within earshot.  I normally can't be bothered with the hassle of official complaints.  

Monetary incentive makes it worth the effort

abaka

So I sat and worked out my balance transfer if I ever get the replacement card from MBNA.

I have an MBNA card with no balance on it.  My Lloyds allows me to transfer up to £4650 on 14 months.  So I think I'm going to balance transfer £4438 which will give me a negative balance of £4438 on the MBNA Card which I will then ask for a refund.  This refund will then allow me to pay off the Lloyds card I have already which is accruing interest (£2740) and then with the remaining £1698 I can pay off  part of my 1st Virgin card which is due to accrue interest in October (I should just able to pay the remaining £2000 by October).  This means I won't have to worry about any interest until Feb 23 and by then I will have cleared even more of my debt meaning I'll stand better chances of getting a 0%.

As it stands now, I need to do a 0% Transfer now, a 0% Transfer in October and then another one in February. This means I'll do one now, and then another in February but I'll then have to do another one in August of next year.  But Theoretically speaking....My debt will be halved by then.  

Keedie

Sounds like you've got a good plan. I've never been in a position where I have a zero balance, let alone a negative one, so I had no clue that you could do that! That's a trick I'll keep up my sleeve if I can't clear my payments before my first 0% interest expires on my Barclaycard in June 2023.

Is the cleared MBNA card the one that you've been doing so well with clearing or another one?

savingholmes

Good luck with your strategy. 

Nice on the £40 compensation.

abaka

I’m lucky I actually have three credit cards with no spend on them.  One with Halifax, one with MBNA and one with Lloyds.   

I’ve done this trick before.  This is part of why I’m in so much debt.  Every time previously when I’ve I done a balance transfer, I’ve usually transferred a little extra so the original card becomes a negative balance…looking back I have no idea why I done something so stupid.  The first time I did it was to give myself extra interest free spending power for my wedding but every other time was just sheer stupidity and greed.

I know I was able to do it previously for a lesser amount, about 800 and Halifax issued me a cheque (I was closing that account so they had no option to refund me….I’m not entirely sure if MBNA will do for such a large sum.

Rather than doing my above mentioned plan.  I think what I’ll do is transfer the full balance of the Virgin to the Lloyds at 14 months (the 0% ends in October) and then switch the Lloyds card which has a balance and is charging interest to Virgin.  (They will actually give me a 0% rate until May next year at which point I’ll have cleared that amount).

This still means I’ll not have to worry about interest rates expiring until April.

It really is a mess how much juggling and swapping I have to do.

Keedie

I admittedly am not very good at following and understanding stuff like this, but it sounds like you have a good plan that will work for you and the paypal back up if it doesn't go your way in terms of a large amount paid to the MBNA card. I can't wait to have a clear credit card!

If you can halve your creditors by October 2022 (I assume you mean this year?) then that would be absolutely amazing. By October I'll have paid off my mum, so I'll be down from 7 to 5 creditors, and then dropping to 4 after March 2023. 

Sorry if I've missed it beforehand, but what is your target debt free date? It sounds like you're full steam ahead which is great x

abaka

It’s basically just what is known as the credit card shuffle.  I’m maximising the interest free offers on my current cards as I’m not entirely convinced I’ll get any new offers at this moment in time.  Means I don’t have to worry about interest until Feb!  

I’ve now had to request a new Virgin card as I don’t have the physical card for that and will need it for the transfer.

Today is going to be a spend day for me.  I’ve had more NSD than Spend days this month which is unlike me.  My mother in law had got me tickets for a. Game of Thrones exhibition (I’m from N.Ireland where it was filmed) for my birthday in March and just getting round to using them now…plus I need to stop off at a retail park near the exhibition as usual, I forgot to get my Father’s Day stuff in early!! 

Keedie

Ooh I liked GoT, didn't finish it though as I got distracted by another series - oops. I didn't realise it was filmed in Northern Ireland, it's such beautiful scenery. I had an ex-boyfriend from Larne, and I used to like flying up there to visit him and his family. Have fun tonight at the exhibition.

Good luck with the credit card reshuffle. Your plan sounds good if they'll allow you to hold and then refund that negative balance. I'm hoping to more or less clear my MBNA by April/May 2023, so that I can use it for a 0% balance transfer as there's no way I can clear Barclaycard before the 0% interest on that runs out in June 2023. As I'm just making the minimum payments for now so that I have more breathing space in my budget.

abaka

So yesterday wasn’t a NSD as I expected.  Tenner spent on the way to the studio tour we were doing for coffee and a bite to eat….it felt really nice to say that I will get these to my wife.  As usually at this point in the month, I will be in my overdraft by now and avoiding any luxury spends to lessen the damage.  I also spent £40 for Father’s Day gift from me and my daughter to my dad.

the studio tour was excellent and I would recommend any GoT fan to make the journey over to N.Ireland and check it out! 

Last night took a strange turn…I told my wife I was going to go round to my brothers (who lives round the corner) to grab a chair he borrowed from us the week before….We wouldn’t reallly be the type of siblings who would socialise much, we don’t have any bad blood but we’re very different personalities but somehow we got talking and asked me if I wanted a Guinness….well 5 hours later I returned home slightly worse for wear with no chair!!!  Was enjoyable having a catch up and chat about stuff.  

Today was a lovely day, had breakfast with my parents, my brother his wife and my wife and my nephew and our daughter…and then we decided we’d spend Father’s Day with the in laws as mother in law has broken her ankle recently so we thought we’ll go up and do dinner as my wife’s step father has been running around after mother in law.  Ended up feasting on a KFC (wife’s treat!!) 

a great weekend….and I’ve enjoyed so much more as I’m in a better mental place with regards to my debts than where I was 3 weeks ago.  3 weeks ago I would have had the debt niggling away in the back of my mind but I know that is being dealt with and I’m in control of everything!  Nice feeling to have!

On the countdown to payday now though so I can have another wage to make more inroads on the overall debt picture!