Wife Confesses £10,000 CC debt, help please.

shocked_2

kcmatt79 wrote: »

Difficult to tell from this, as this is just standard bumph telling you the charges for every customer. If you can't find the APR anywhere, write down how much the interest is on each card.

The biggest one, Nationwide, says £5,697 bal with £73.59 interest. Does that help?

squirrel_pigeon

lpf is Littlewoods Personal finance. Run by Barclays unless I'm mistaken...

Buffythedebtslayer

card statements don't always put the APR in the most obvious way, I have always worked it out the way I did in my previous post?

xx

kcmatt79

If I've done my sums properly, it works out as APR of about 16%. Pretty high, you can get that to 0% and pay no interest!

Merlot

shocked wrote: »

[/list]In the same order.....

We have a joint current account that both salaries go in to, and we have a joint mortgage.

She has been paying "the minimum", she says, the statements do not have APR written anywhere, but I have posted the %s I do see in the post above. They are not defaulted, just at the limit from what I can see.

If I can transfer the whole lot to a zero percent I suppose that would make sense.

What has the money been spent on? Beats me, all I can get out of her right now is "clothes" and nights out. However, she has not had much of either from what I can see so goodness only knows. I'll get to the bottom of that and steps will be taken to address the spending, but it is clearing £10,000 now that is on my mind.

Until I heard of this CC debacle, the only loan we have is the mortgage, I do not believe in spending money I don't have so even though I am 40, I have never had a credit card. How ironic is this.

Shocked, I would transfer the whole lot to a 0% card and keep your life savings, but you are young enough to rebuild your savings, its your call really.

Please don't be too harsh on Mrs Shocked, we have all done things in the past we have regretted and at least she has spoken to you about this b4 it got out of hand.

Just remember, not all debt is bad, not even credit cards if you are wise, I know alot of DFW won't neccesarily agree with me on that one but I have a little debt on a credit card (0%) just to keep up my good credit rating, (I can pay it back, I have saving to cover it) but it helps when I re-mortgage the house for a lower rate - credit scoring etc.

kcmatt79

Agree with above. Do you bit of helping her out by getting her help wtih 0% deals, then tell her it's up to her. Sounds cruel, but she has run up this debt, and sometimes the only way to stop doing it again is to face up to the consequences. Might sound a bit hypocritical coming from someone with debt themselves, but I've been through the whole facing up to it bit. Having someone bail you out isn't really the answer!

kammyk

shocked wrote: »

So my wife just revealed that over the last two years, using 3 credit cards she has ran up over £9,000 of debt.

I do not understand CC's or debt, because I have never had any of either, so I need advice badly.

My life savings cover the debt, just, so, is my best idea to simply empty my saving and pay off these cards?

I just want the whole thing to go away, even if that means losing the £10,000 I have saved up over the last 20 years.

What should I do?

Thanks.

There is obviously a lot of trust in your marriage

shocked_2

I don't grasp the theory behind transferring to a zero percent card. Why would another CC company want to take on £10,000 of debt on 0%?

You mean I could transfer all this money to a zero percent account, and it would just sit there with the debt diminishing as payments are made against it over time?

Buffythedebtslayer

yep, you could cos they think - as in the CC companies that we are all stupid and will run up huge debts again or never manage to it off and then they go back to charging 29 % interest.

they need customers, I got through Uni on 0% cards.

kcmatt79

Basically, yes. As long as your wife's credit rating is OK. Basically, the 0% deals are there to intice people. Once they've done that, a lot of people won't bother keep moving their balances, so after the offer is up, the company start getting their money. Also, they will assume that the customer will spend on the card too (which usually isn't at 0% therefore they make money there).

I think the best balance transfer deal at the moment is HSBC. You might have to apply for a few though, to get the whole lot at 0% (unless they give you a massive limit).

I've currently got £12k on 0% but some have just run out. You can get lots of them, but it's not necessarily good news for your credit score.