Loan options or lack of…

stelee844

Hello all,
Ive currently got a series of credit cards which I’m paying more than the monthly repayments on, unfortunately some of those cards are sitting with a 49.9% APR.  Unfortunately despite not missing any payments and paying more than the minimum my credit score doesn’t seem to be rebuilding and I do use these cards from time to time (I know I shouldn’t) I’ve been looking to get a loan to consolidate these, however the only mainstream place that seems to want to offer me anything is 118118 money at a very unwelcome 79.9% APR interest rate that defeats the point. Does anyone have any suggestions? I’m a private tenant so can’t secure a loan against my home. Is it just a case of stop using the cards completely and continue as I am or am I missing an alternative?

Brie

first off - a credit score is meaningless.  It's the credit history that banks look at.  They're linked possibly but you need to think about what the history is telling creditors as you're the only one that sees the credit rating.

secondly - don't get a loan.  Chances are if your credit is in the pits you won't get one because you'll need to be able to prove you pay back the loan and all the rest.  The bank won't know for sure you'll use the loan to do anything more than go out an buy a Ferrari or whatever.

So what I'm going to do is move this over to debt free wannabee and see what help is available there.  No doubt someone (including me) will suggest you fill out a statement of accounts (SOA) that's on one of the top stickies.

Best of luck getting it sorted - we've all been there and likely been worse so there's always hope!!!!

fatbelly

Yes a soa would help us to see the whole picture.

https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/financecalculators/soa.php

Assuming you can meet the card's minimum payments, and it sounds like you can, then reducing the interest paid on the cards by 0% balance transfer will help

See what offers you get on this checker

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/eligibility/credit-cards/search/?goal=CC_BALTRANSFERV2

twiggy86

I would STRONGLY advise against any type of "quick fix" - i.e. moving the debt from A to B without really achieving anything!

I have been "snowballing" my debts, meaning that I pay the minimum of all debts and anything extra gets thrown at the smallest balance. This way I have been able to see (what feels like) real progress as the number of debts go down. Of course, as you've said that some of yours are on high interest, you may instead choose to prioritise the highest interest rate. But either way, I would suggest that you pick a specific debt to tackle. I've been around a while and the key thing to maintaining my motivation to debt busting is the feeling of making progress - if you overpay a bit on all debts, whilst the overall debt will decrease, the feeling of progress isn't the same.