Teetering on the brink

EatingBeans

OK, so having slept on it (and actually managing to get some sleep last night for the first time in ages - I’m not telling dd2 but that might have had something to do with the camomile tea she practically forced me to drink before bed 🤣), I decided to take a look at the interest rates I am likely to be paying on all my balances going forward and then decide where to shift the last balance from. As much as I want to leave the balance on Barclaycard on principle, that might be cutting my nose off to spite my face and let’s be honest Barclaycard aren’t going to care or even notice either way.

Very roughly, (because there will no doubt be a payment or interest to be charged that I am not accounting for), my credit card balances and interest rates are now:

Fluid £200 29% (my plan for this card is to use it for fuel and pay it off in full every month to keep it active but not actually paying any interest)

Aqua £100 29% (this card will be used for shopping and paid off in full every month, same reasoning as Fluid card)

NatWest £6,500 - £1700 0%, £4,800 22% (this is the card that still has £5000 space for another 0% balance transfer)

MBNA £8200 - £1000 at 25%, £800 at 0%, £6400 at 5% (there are a mixture of 8 different balance transfers here but they all end around December this year so will bounce to 25%)

Barclaycard £7100 22%

Santander £4900 0%

Total credit card debt £27,000
plus ~£8000 owed to my brother 0%

Total debt now ~ £35,000

That’s the first time I’ve added it up for months and honestly, I am really surprised it is still so high. Maybe Barclaycard has a point! It is amazing how much of the payout has been sucked up just from paying regular bills, birthdays and tbh a few thousand has gone to get the car and van back up to speed plus vet bills, second hand clothes for work etc. The only real substantial ‘treat’ has been the power station for the van but I don’t regret that one bit as it has already proven it’s worth as without it I very much doubt I’d have been able to start my new job on time. I almost wished I’d have kept adding up the debt because I know it got higher than the £42,549 October total in my signature but it just got too scary. 😬

Still, now I know where the balance now sits and the 0% offers I’ve been given are long I have a chance to start paying it down again. Now all I need is to sort out the income side and I will finally be able to make a budget again. 🙂

The question remains, how to split the remaining balance transfer offer? MBNA will be the highest rate after the current balance transfers end but Barclaycard is the one having the wobble about me. Maybe just £2500 from each? What do you all think?

ellenvan

Personally if you have time over the weekend I would do a full SOA again.

Then you can see the full picture and how long it may take to pay off balances.

Remember just because you are currently getting nil percent offers doesn't mean you always will.

I would probably target Barclaycard, just because it isn't playing along and one less card to manage also if you manage to pay it off soon.

Good luck and hope you are feeling better now, especially after a good sleep.

Money saving, Olio, listing etc all take energy.

EatingBeans

Sadly, my one good night of sleep does not mean I am all better. I am back to getting no sleep again and being in lots of pain. 😢

Don’t worry, I do know that I wont always get 0% offers and I learnt a big lesson from this last time as it was when they all reverted that I really lost any chance of paying the debt down. It is my mission to avoid that ever again!

Sadly though, the SOA will have to wait. Sitting at my desk is very painful and I am reserving that for actually working to try and stay as well as possible. I am doing the little bits I can whenever I feel up to it - like shifting debt around onto the 0% offers - but detailing a full look at my finances and setting up a new spreadsheet isn’t a job I can do on my phone, so it will have to wait.

As I said before, I am just chipping away as best I can around the edges at the moment and probably see that being the case until October. My priority is helping dd1 feel loved and get a good send off to uni, supporting dd2 transition into the world of work/going back to college (both of which will impact my finances but a currently unknown amount), and managing my energy as best I can so I can get well and stay in work. Since I am still relying on handfuls of pills everyday just to do basic stuff, Olio and Vinted/ebay will have to wait. That said, I have actually been selling a few things in the background that were already listed (a great big wooden princess castle and soft toy about the size of an 8 yr old being notable recent sales - I was so glad to get the space back!), but listing new stuff takes too much energy and space to do right now. Once dd1 leaves in a few weeks the plan is still to turn her whole room into a selling space so it will make the whole process a lot easier. dd2 is very keen on this idea as all the extra stuff floating around the house is driving her nuts too, so she has offered to help get it all organised. It is just not possible to do it sooner and I am focusing I what I can do, rather than what I can’t. 🙂

ellenvan

That's a very good positive attitude, thinking of the things that you can do.

Sounds like the bedroom plan is a good one.

Enjoy your weekend.

Cherryfudge

Well done on the V1nted sales! Sorry that the pain is bad, it must make every victory so much more hard-won.

vampirotoothus

Morning, I would get rid of both Aqua and Fluid. I understand they are not considered "good cards" to have in the financial world hence, the high fees.

I would then get rid of the £1000 on MBNA.

Next I would look at when the 0% deals end on the others, as you may need to move money round to keep them on 0%.

Do you have a Lloyds card, as I have found it really useful for managing 0% deals coming off their offers and being able to move them. (Basically you can move on a 0% fee to a 5.9% deal, but you pay this back as soon as the card you are paying off offers another 0% deal. You then only pay the 5.9% for a few days, which is much less than a fixed fee).

Good luck V x

EatingBeans

Yes, getting rid of the Aqua and Fluid cards is definitely in my mid term plan. The only reason I am keeping them for now and keeping them active but paying them off every month is to keep my credit utilisation lower and hopefully give me a better chance of getting more 0% deals. I wont be paying interest on them this way so the rate is irrelevant. It will also help me keep track of fuel and food costs too because it will be the only thing going on each of the accounts.

I’ve decided to do a balance transfer for the £1000 on the MBNA (that is currently 25%), and move the only £4000 from Barclaycard. Rather than get annoyed at them I’ve decided the best approach to Barclaycard is to demonstrate that I will indeed pay them back. So as it stands I am going to focus on paying that card down first. The others either wont be running a balance or will be at least partly on a deal anyway so I guess it makes sense. I’ll probably switch to paying down MBNA when those deals revert as they are at a higher rate but I’ll cross that bridge when it comes to it.

EatingBeans

I will definitely look out for a Lloyds card next time I am shopping for a new card! I do something similar with my NatWest card as my standard balance transfer fee to them is 0%. Usually the actual interest rate is pretty rubbish but I find the 0% fee useful for bouncing debt off a credit and back on again to lower the total I am paying for holding the debt. 👍

EatingBeans

Last two balance transfers requested. ✅

Feeling very tired now as I have just come back from the hospital having had an endoscopic ultrasound to check out my gall bladder. Not sure how long the sedation is supposed to take to wear off but I’ve been given a whole list of things I am not allowed to do for 24hours so I think nap is in order.

Thanks to taking a whole bunch of pills, together with shear determination to make some progress with something at the weekend, I did a bit of a pen and paper redesign of my van yesterday and made some changes to what I have already built to make the fridge more accessible and give me a wider bed. It is a bit of a compromise on the space for the dogs, but I have made it in such a way that they can still stretch their legs out under the bed if they are laying down. Knowing my dogs they will both really like the bit under my bed and will probably squabble of it! They are weird like that.

EatingBeans

Tiredness is off the chart today. I am not sure how much is from the procedure from yesterday - they did give me A LOT of sedative - and how much is from pushing through on Sunday to make progress on the van, but I’ve not made it into work today. 😢 My TN is also playing up but I think that’s through missing some of my medication yesterday, along with being forced to lay on my left while they did the endoscopy. 😭

I have decided not to worry about it too much. Thankfully I have already told everyone about the TN and the important people knew I was going to the hospital yesterday so hopefully they wont be so surprised by me taking today. Plus on Friday I was able to provide solutions to two big challenges my team has been facing which I know they are very grateful for, so at least I have managed to add a bit of value before disappearing. That’s the best I can really hope for given my current health situation. 😕

I have to say it is quite nice to look at my Barclaycard balance and see that I owe just £3127.66 on it. I know the rest of debt is now just shifted elsewhere but even still a balance like that seems like a much more reasonable amount to tackle so I’ve decided to focus my attention on that one until it is paid off. Hopefully Barclaycard will appreciated the effort and stop lowering my limit but I guess I’ll just have to wait and see. 🤷‍♀️