Can’t get 0% card

freddynelly

Hi 
I want to pay my credit cards off quicker, but I’m unable to get a 0% card to transfer my balance as my card debt is over 70% of my card limit. 

Both me and my partner working, no other debts apart from mortgage, no missed payments, high credit score. 

Spoken to both credit card providers and neither will help by giving me a temporary lower rate even though I’ve been with both for years and never missed a payment. 

One card hasn’t been used for well over a year, the other just for emergencies, unexpected bills i.e car repairs etc. 
Paying fixed amount by DD each month over minimum but as interest rates have gone up so much I’m not really paying as much off the balance as I’d like. Can’t afford any more on my monthly payments. 

Can anyone help me with a solution to this please?

Mark_d

Rather than paying 30% interest on your credit cards, maybe take a loan at 8% and use that to repay your credit card debvt.

Grumpelstiltskin

Mark_d said:

Rather than paying 30% interest on your credit cards, maybe take a loan at 8% and use that to repay your credit card debvt.

Normally we don't agree with consolidation which that is but if you could be disciplined enough to close the credit cards and learn to live on your income it could solve the problem, but if you keep spending on the cards you will just make things worse.

car repairs are not unexpected you should budget and save for them.

Martico

Yeah, consolidation loans are often the very worst thing that you can do, as many people find they start resorting to credit again and end up with twice the amount of debt that they started with. Budgeting is key to start working out the best approach, and for that, more info is needed, about the size of the debts, the person's income and expenditure, and work from there. First step would be to fill out a Statement of Affairs and, if you're willing, to format it for MSE and paste it into this thread, so that people here are in a better position to offer advice. 
Keep it honest and actual (not aspirational) and divide any annual payments by 12 to get the monthly figures. Good luck 

Edit: there's a great thread that's stickied in this subforum, about first steps, which walks through best practice. Here it is - let us know your thoughts after reading and absorbing that

fatbelly

It sounds like you are trying to pay everything off above the contractual minimum payment.

Find out the aprs and start by overpaying the highest one to the maximum you can. Everything else - pay the contractual minimum. It's called snowballing

https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/financecalculators/snowball-calculator.php

Anything you can get to 0% do so. I take it you've used the pre-eligibility bt card checker already

What about a 0% overdraft?

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/cut-overdraft-costs/#zeropercentoverdraft

If done carefully you can let electricity, gas and water drift a little in order to throw more at the high interest debt.

Lastly, just because you can't get a 0% bt card today doesn't mean you can't later.Try again in 4-6 months

Floss

Do you need to keep the card you haven't used for over a year? That available credit may be impacting why you can't get another 0% offer. 

freddynelly

Mark_d said:

Rather than paying 30% interest on your credit cards, maybe take a loan at 8% and use that to repay your credit card debvt.

Thanks, will look into it

Brie

Agree it would be good to see what the card debts are with APR so better advice can be given.  Sometimes that's an easier thing to reveal than the whole SOA.

And I quite get keeping a card tucked away for emergencies.  Yes we should all have X months worth of pay saved for that rainy day but life isn't like that for many of us and having a CC is sometimes the only option.  

So if you can't get rid of a card maybe lower the credit limits?  Lower limits mean you are less of a risk and have a better credit to income balance which might make getting another card in the future more likely.  

And yes I agree about not getting a loan to consolidate the debt but in reality that's little different than getting a new card to BT to.  

Alternatively - do any of your current cards have any 0% money transfer offers?  I have during desperate times in the past done a MT from a card to my bank account, paid off some of the same card, done another MT, paid off some more.  Basically this is transferring your debt into the future without actually accruing more than you already have.  

FluffyBabyPenguin

I'd look at how much I'd have to pay off to get it below 70% usage. If you can really tighten your budget (if you haven't already) and get it down under that in the next few months, then you would hopefully get a 0% offer a month or two after that. Is there any possibility of you getting extra hours at work or a part time job to supplement your earnings?