Debt consolidation

llcooljayne1

Hi,

so I would like some advice on what to do with my current debt. 

I have four credit cards which are the following:

Santander £2500
MBNA £2600
Tesco £500
Barclaycard £300

i would like to have just one or two payments rather than paying four lots of interest however I’m finding it hard to find a card than will give me a large enough balance to transfer. Would a loan be better for me?

thanks 

Ebe_Scrooge

auntloo said:

Would a loan be better for me?

No.

Sorry, that sounds rather abrupt!  First off, the advice you'll see posted on here time and time again is that consolidation rarely works.  The temptation is to use the loan to clear the cards, then merrily run up the cards again.  Before you know it, you've got double the debt you started with.

OK - if the loan is at a substantially lower APR than the cards, and if you are super-disciplined, cut up the cards and never use them again ... then consolidation may be an option.  But the number of stories we hear where the "twice the debt" situation occurs makes it prudent to advise against consolidation in general.

The main problem is the affordability checks.  If you apply for a loan, the lender has to assume that the new loan will be in addition to, not instead of, your existing debt.  With the best will in the world, there's nothing to stop you getting the loan then putting the whole lot on "Lame Larry" in the 3:30 at Aintree.  So the lender has to take a worst-case view.  And for that reason you may well struggle to get a loan at anything approaching a half-decent rate.

From the figures you've quoted, it's not a massively-huge debt in the grand scheme of things (I know it's easy to say that as an outsider, and it probably feels overwhelming to you).  Your best option is to head on over to the Debt-Free Wannabe board, post a Statement of Affairs, and let the friendly folk there offer you tons of helpful advice.  If you're prepared to suffer a relatively short period of living frugally, odds on you can nail this debt in pretty short order and you'll reap the long-term rewards many times over.  Hope this helps.

Oh, quick edit.  Just to say - if you can shift even part of the debt to a 0% card, it's well worth doing.  Even if you can't get a card with a sufficient limit to transfer the whole lot, any amount that you're paying 0% on is better than paying <some>%.  Though do make sure you'll be able to clear that card before the 0% promotion expires, otherwise you're back to square one.

eskbanker

auntloo said:

I’m finding it hard to find a card than will give me a large enough balance to transfer

Have you actually been applying for cards with decent balance transfer rates?  If you've gone as far as securing the credit at better rates than you're currently paying, then transferring partial balances is still likely to be worth doing....

llcooljayne1

Thankyou for responding. I totally understand where your coming from. The loan I’ve bee pre approved for is enough to cover the full debt at 10.6apr. It’s not the lowest but works out less than what I’m paying for all cards now. I would definitely cut up all the cards once paid off. Sick to death of the things! I have approximately £600 a month spare after all outgoings to use to live off and pay towards my cards.

born_again

If you do go down that route. Cancel all but one card & try to avoid using at all costs.

Might be worth popping over  to debt board & posting a Statement of Affairs.

MrFrugalFever

For my two pence worth, what ebe said is spot on.

Sncjw

The pre approved rate might not be the actual rate you get mind.