Took out three credit cards in two months and all are nearly to their limit already

honeybee1234

sourcrates said:

The previous conservative Government held a review of PIP, which closed at the end of July.

Now what Starmer does with the results of this is anyone's guess at present, however, just to re-assure the OP, if for any reason your income drops, all you need to do is write to your creditors, and explain what has happened, you can`t afford payments due to loss of benefits, and they will put a hold on your accounts, they won`t be chased, until or unless, your situation changes.

So as far as your debts and potential loss of your PIP is concerned, you will be OK.

They can`t take what you don`t have, no amount of legal action, courts etc etc will change that fact, so don`t worry about it.

Lenders are very aware of affordability issues these days, what with the cost of living crisis and everything, they know all unsecured borrowings are non essential debts, and if the money isn`t there, they don`t get paid, its really that simple.

Yep I remember hearing about this so have had it in back of my mind. I consider myself lucky that my budget means I am currently able to afford rent, bills, groceries and other life stuff, but I am very aware that only 3 years ago I was in the opposite situation and it's taken this long to become somewhat stable - I've moved 3 times, gone through the process of applying for PIP up to tribunal, spent hours each month poring over bills, receipts, direct debits and the like. 

There's always been a hope that I can eventually buy a house, which feels way off, and that I don't want to jeopardise this by screwing up my credit. But sometimes I need to look at the important things first - I have a roof over my head, I have food in the fridge, I have my children, I have an outstanding partner who supports me all the way, I have family who care. That's a lot to appreciate. 

Brie

honeybee1234 said:

Brie said:

If you do decide to not pay your cards I do suggest you contact them and say you're in a tight spot and are reviewing your finances and need a break from your payments.  This potentially may buy you a couple of months without interest or fees.  

Good idea @Brie, I'll bear this in mind.

TheAble said:

Are these on 0% cards? It sounded like that was the intention but not entirely clear from your post.

If so, you're only a couple of months in so presumably they've a fair amount of time to run yet.

Yes, that's right, all 0% APR. IIRC they're all around 12 months with 0% APR and I think I took the first one out at the start of June but I'll go off and check this.

Ah! just saw this!!  If they are on promos and you don't pay the minimum you'll lose the 0% deal.  So think about what you want to do and what you can afford going forward.

honeybee1234

Brie said:

honeybee1234 said:

Brie said:

If you do decide to not pay your cards I do suggest you contact them and say you're in a tight spot and are reviewing your finances and need a break from your payments.  This potentially may buy you a couple of months without interest or fees.  

Good idea @Brie, I'll bear this in mind.

TheAble said:

Are these on 0% cards? It sounded like that was the intention but not entirely clear from your post.

If so, you're only a couple of months in so presumably they've a fair amount of time to run yet.

Yes, that's right, all 0% APR. IIRC they're all around 12 months with 0% APR and I think I took the first one out at the start of June but I'll go off and check this.

Ah! just saw this!!  If they are on promos and you don't pay the minimum you'll lose the 0% deal.  So think about what you want to do and what you can afford going forward.

I can afford the minimum currently fortunately - I just don't think I can afford to pay them all down during their 0% period. So I've picked the first one, and am throwing as much as I can at it, so minimum payment + surplus cash in my budget + any other money, from surveys/cashback.

Thinking about it, I'm going to go off and check the interest rates after the 0% ends, and see what's going to cost most in interest pending having paid off a monthly minimum amount plus the surplus, and see which is most logical to work on. 

Brie

Good plan to see if you can clear one ahead of time and then potentially another 0% offer will come up on it in time to do another BT.  Not a good long term strategy but one a lot of us have used to get us through the lean times.  

honeybee1234

Brie said:

Good plan to see if you can clear one ahead of time and then potentially another 0% offer will come up on it in time to do another BT.  Not a good long term strategy but one a lot of us have used to get us through the lean times.  

Honestly @Brie I hadn't even thought of another 0% offer coming up on the first one! I just assumed nothing else would come up any time soon so I needed to make as much headway as possible as soon as possible!

I've been working on everything today and I was right in throwing all my extra money to the first card I took out... It's a 12 month 0% offer and the other two are both 15 months interest free with a longer gap between end dates than I initially thought. This means that after the initial 12 months on card 1, I have some downtime to tackle cards 2 and 3 before the 0% runs out on them.

Slightly different than I initially thought, in a positive way!