Keeping track in 2008

red74

I've not done the requesting to lower the APR myself but I'd definitely have a go at convincing virgin not to up their rate to 34.9%, and if they won't I'd use the cahoot loan to pay off the majority of it (I'm assuming it's their flexi-loan?)

beanielou

Bl**dy hell if Virgin put their rate up to 34% Id better try & get mine paid off soonish

ZTD

Watch out for flexi-loans. Cahoot have a habit of raising their interest rate to punative rates once they think they have you.

red74

ZTD wrote: »

Watch out for flexi-loans. Cahoot have a habit of raising their interest rate to punative rates once they think they have you.

I thought 15.9% was their punative rate, mine increased to that from 6.9% after I'd been with them for a year.

ZTD

I think Lynzpower's OH's went up to 29%, but that's just from memory, and I might be wrong.

beanielou

IT was high i remember Z.

Mupeteer

This is a bit of a long post but I think it covers everything.

I've just spent some time on the phone to my credit card companies and these are the results:

Virgin have lowered my APR to 22.9%. Still a hideously high rate but better than 34.9%.
Egg have told me that I have a 0% rate on my account until 1st September 2008 with a 2.5% BT fee.
Cahoot "have no plans to review their rates."
Barclaycard can offer me a BT rate of 6.9% LOB, with no transfer fee.
Lloyds TSB - I don't really have much in the way of spare capacity on this but they have had some reasonable LOB transfer rates in the past.

So, given the above I thought I could do the following:

Transfer £ 3230 from Lloyds TSB to Egg (BT fee of £80.75) at 0% until September
Transfer £ 1439.40 from Lloyds TSB to Barclaycard (no fee) LOB 6.9%
Transfer £ 5774 from Lloyds TSB to Cahoot flexiloan 15.9%

This leaves me with zero balance on Lloyds TSB. When cleared then move all my Virgin debt £6960.82 to my Lloyds card. Hopefully I'd be able to get a decent LOB rate for this (probably subject to a 3% fee) but if not the interest would still be less than I would be paying to Virgin.

I hope that all makes sense.

That would mean my minimum payments would be:

Barclaycard £122
Egg £65
Lloyds TSB £144
Cahoot £116

I'd be scraping by with these figures but I reckon this is the best I can do right now. Any left over money would go to the one with the highest rate (Lloyds TSB).

Any thoughts.

ZTD

Mupeteer wrote: »

Virgin have lowered my APR to 22.9%. Still a hideously high rate but better than 34.9%.

It's unsustainable given what you've said you can afford - 15% is your limit - and even that is just paying the interest.

Mupeteer wrote: »

Egg have told me that I have a 0% rate on my account until 1st September 2008 with a 2.5% BT fee.

So it's the equivalent of about 8.92% interest rate for the first year.

Mupeteer wrote: »

Cahoot "have no plans to review their rates."

That's a meaningless statement but sounds nice. One of the reasons politicians use it all the time.

Mupeteer wrote: »

Barclaycard can offer me a BT rate of 6.9% LOB, with no transfer fee.

Lloyds TSB - I don't really have much in the way of spare capacity on this but they have had some reasonable LOB transfer rates in the past.

So, given the above I thought I could do the following:

Transfer £ 3230 from Lloyds TSB to Egg (BT fee of £80.75) at 0% until September
Transfer £ 1439.40 from Lloyds TSB to Barclaycard (no fee) LOB 6.9%
Transfer £ 5774 from Lloyds TSB to Cahoot flexiloan 15.9%

This leaves me with zero balance on Lloyds TSB. When cleared then move all my Virgin debt £6960.82 to my Lloyds card. Hopefully I'd be able to get a decent LOB rate for this (probably subject to a 3% fee) but if not the interest would still be less than I would be paying to Virgin.

What about transferring as much of the Virgin loan as you can to the flexiloan (assuming you wish to risk that they're not going to raise your rates), and the rest onto your barclay card?

Mupeteer wrote: »

I'd be scraping by with these figures but I reckon this is the best I can do right now. Any left over money would go to the one with the highest rate (Lloyds TSB).

Any thoughts.

You MUST start to make inroads into these. I think it is fair to say you are quite on the edge with things as they are now. If you don't reduce your debt significantly, then something will send you over the edge. I hope you can see that.

Mupeteer

I figure that by transferring out of Lloyds first I can then get a better deal with them when I transfer the Virgin money across to them. It seems to be the way to get the lowest interest payments on everything. Then, when the 0% Egg rate ends I'll still have spare capacity with Lloyds and that too can be transferred to them.

I've used the snowball calculator and it all seems to work.

I know I'm in a serious position at the moment but I intend to get a job over the summer and I'll throw every spare penny at the debts then. It isn't really feasable to find work now as I know I struggled with uni and work before.

Can anyone name any good agencies for finding summer work? Also, when should I start looking? My course year finishes the second last week in May so I'll have a good 3 1/2 months I can work.

Mupeteer

I've fallen off the wagon a bit lately. BF and I went away for the weekend and stayed in a little fisherman's cottage on the east coast of Scotland (we did get a cancellation so it was a bargain but still a bargain I can't really afford). I took food with us so at least we didn't spend alot on eating out. It was a really good weekend though - long walks along the beach in the sunshine and visits to old castles etc. We both really needed it and I guess it's ok to spend money sometimes. I'd better not make it a habit though!

I'm in the middle of my credit card shuffle and it's going ok so far. Just got another couple of transfers to make then I should be sorted until September.

It seems like ages since I've posted on here but I've just been busy with uni and stuff like that. I should be doing some uni work right now but I need a break. Back to it in 15 minutes.