Divorce debt be gone!

biggerpickle

The other card gets used from time to time as its a zero loading overseas card and I have family overseas I see / support regularly so if I have saved cash / emergency fund then I can use that to clear transactions in the month.

InDebtEnby

If you can reduce the repayments so that you have enough money each month so that you don't spend more on the interest bearing card, then wait until the 0% offers are close to ending, you would have still paid off some of the debt and then when you transfer, the fee will be less.

biggerpickle

@InDebtEnby that's what I was thinking too - am hoping there'll be some longish offers in July / Aug time, 36 months @ £175 would do the job nicely! The last two BT cards I've got have come through with limits waaaaay in excess of that so fingers crossed they would again. 

biggerpickle

Martin Lewis is a marvelous man with his weekly emails - well him and his team!

I've just been accepted for an overseas card that is half the APR % of my current one, these cards always need paying in the same month to avoid interest but this doesn't always happen so one at 12.9% instead of 24+% is a result. Thank you Mr Lewis!

I have ~£840 to clear on my current one which I am focusing on for the next 3 paydays and then I can close that account. Will be weird not to have the card I've had so long but I have just saved me money as I've paid about a hundred quid a year in interest on that card over the years.  Of course I am now paranoid that I have applied for too many cards recently and won't get accepted for another BT one in the summer but we'll worry about that in 6 months. 

beanielou

Good result there.

joedenise

Well done on getting an overseas card at 12.x% rather than 24.x%.  You should be OK in 6 months time.  It's usually advised to not apply for the previous 6 months.

biggerpickle

Logged on the H app thinking it was statement day so can see the interest and next payment amount but seems am a day early.

I noticed then that my new card there too as it's from a linked bank. Anyway, I can BT the balance of the H card for a 5% fee and the interest is obviously lower. When the statement does land I will work out if it's worth it, as I should have cleared it by end of April so might be cheaper to just pay a couple of months interest than a fee then interest too, even though it's at a lower annual %. The new card has a much higher credit limit than the H card so if the BT plan goes wrong in the summer and I can't get £5-6k on a 0% card then at least I know I have the option of using some of this card, obviously a 5% fee isn't ideal but the expiring BT cards revert to whopping interest rates so would almost certainly save money. 

biggerpickle

H card statement arrived and interest "only" £13.50 so have decided it's probably not worth doing the balance transfer and will just pay it down for the next 2/3 months (the 5% would be £40 plus the interest it'd accrue) where as obviously 3 months at the H interest is less. My exciting life, eh   😀 

And now to painting the lounge with paint I bought before Christmas but never got round to doing.

biggerpickle

Yay, got the lounge painted and it's a bang on colour - I don't know how many paint samples I had on the go, ended up going with one for the whole room that looked like it might work but didn't so now have a "feature wall" of the right colour. The galling thing is the whole room colour was a pay to get mixed one from the orange diy shop so didn't come cheap, the one that's the right colour was a tenner a pot on offer from another diy chain! 

January payday was early yesteday due to the weekend but have rehashed spreadsheets after February bills and things are looking sort of OK despite the £1k service charge bill paid over Dec & Jan paydays. 

Also did a no fee but 5.9% pa for 30 months balance transfer from B to H cards which I think should avoid the need to apply for any new credit in the summer, its marginal if fee on any long 0% deals would be cheaper than doing this, perhaps £100, 1% of debt but a lot less admin.

biggerpickle

I realise this is a bit of a nice to have problem to work out but the much maligned Irish airline has some decent prices on summer hols flights for the teenmonsters and I to visit family in August (we do every year, it's non-negotiable) and am trying to fathom out if I should hit buy now or wait a month or 2 so a bit more knocked off debt before adding to the (new lower interest!) overseas card.

We have to be home for GCSE results day so flights under £100 each, each way to a major European summer spot in mid August is a good price. After 25 years of doing this route, I've got some experience!