my SOA

amanndajane

Tiglet wrote: »

What will matter to a credit card company isn't so much the £2194 balance you've got now but the £7710 that you could borrow in future. So yes - you may find it easier to get a new card with a 0% rate if you reduce your existing credit limit.

You might be able to save money without getting new cards, though. The credit card shuffle article gives a lot of very good advice about how to manage balances spread across several cards.

cheers tiglet
i shall ring nationwide tomorrow and ask them to reduce my limit ! i thought that when i came to transfer they`d see i`d paid off alot and see me as a good customer ! how naive am i lol !!!!!!

amanndajane

right ok, i`ve just got off the phone from nationwide, i asked if they were willing to drop the apr seeing as i`d banked with them since i was 17, they were unwilling to do so, so i`ve asked them to reduced my credit limit instead, it is now set at £3000 instead of £7110, the operator was quite indignant about it and stressed several times that my limit wouldnt be able to be increased agin for 6 months! i just laughed and said "hey ho never mind "
The Abbey couldnt reduce my limit due to technical problems , have told me to try again in a month.. dont know if this was a ploy to keep it higher !!

Tiglet

Well done for having a stab at that one.:beer:

I've just had a look at this page, which lists the special offers you can get on balance transfers to existing cards. It seems there's a good chance you can get 0% for 6 months on your Abbey card. With around £600 of your credit limit left, you might be able to move that amount off your Nationwide card (if that's the one with the highest APR) to the Abbey card to cut your interest charges in the short term. Then, if you have any extra cash to pay off your cards, put all of it into paying off the Nationwide card.

It might also be worth looking at the "advanced" section on that page. What you would do is transfer money from the Abbey card to the Nationwide card, then transfer it back to the Abbey card, so that some of your Abbey card balance gets the 0% rate as well. I said "might", as you'll need to make sure that
1) you get the 0% rate on the Abbey card
2) you don't get charged too much for transferring the balance to the Nationwide card
3) you can transfer it back to the Abbey card afterwards

All of that is on the page I linked to.

frosty

Hi,if your in credit with the electric £200++,can you ask them to send you a cheque?
Then put it towards a debt.

tyllwyd

About the insurance - buildings and contents at £35 per month seems pretty high - couldn't hurt to shop around to see if there is a better deal out there.

belfastgirl23

I agree with tyllwyd - I just renewed contents and buildings insurance for a 4 bed house for £236 overall (£24 a month for 10 months). Yours def looks high. The only other insurance it's probably worth having at this stage is life (ie death) insurance and you should be able to get this reasonably cheaply. Even if you do find out that one of the other insurances you have is worth keeping you should still shop around to find a better price. And use quidco.com if possible.

Good luck!

Tiglet

Regarding the credit cards, I think it could be worthwhile to take a day or so to plan exactly what to do. The links I've posted give quite a few options that could all be helpful, and there are so many possibilities that it would help to get it really clear in your mind which one you're aiming for before you start.

For example, you might want to increase your credit limit on the Abbey card so that you can transfer the whole of your Nationwide balance on to it, and then close your Nationwide account altogether. You would only need to increase it by about £1600 to take the whole of the £2200, and you'd be getting rid of £3000 worth of credit. That would make it easier to get a good deal at the end of the 6 months.

Or, if you can get a good deal now, you may be better off getting a new card straight away, transferring everything on to that and cancelling your existing cards.

Whatever strategy you decide to go for, it has to be something that you're comfortable with, that you understand, and that you're sure you can manage. In particular, if you're going to start moving balances around, then you need to make sure that you don't go over the limit on any of your cards (including interest!) or you will get charged a fortune for the privilege.

amanndajane

Tiglet wrote: »

Regarding the credit cards, I think it could be worthwhile to take a day or so to plan exactly what to do. The links I've posted give quite a few options that could all be helpful, and there are so many possibilities that it would help to get it really clear in your mind which one you're aiming for before you start.

For example, you might want to increase your credit limit on the Abbey card so that you can transfer the whole of your Nationwide balance on to it, and then close your Nationwide account altogether. You would only need to increase it by about £1600 to take the whole of the £2200, and you'd be getting rid of £3000 worth of credit. That would make it easier to get a good deal at the end of the 6 months.

Or, if you can get a good deal now, you may be better off getting a new card straight away, transferring everything on to that and cancelling your existing cards.

Whatever strategy you decide to go for, it has to be something that you're comfortable with, that you understand, and that you're sure you can manage. In particular, if you're going to start moving balances around, then you need to make sure that you don't go over the limit on any of your cards (including interest!) or you will get charged a fortune for the privilege.

thanks Tiglet, yr brill at all this, i find it so scarey, i just dont understand it, i`m one of these stupid people that just smile and say where do i sign ??!!
i really need to get my head around this stuff now.
So are you saying that even though my abbey card is at say for instance 15.9% i could ring them and ask if they will balance transfer an amount from another card but do it at 0% ???? or have i totally lost the plot now ?? lol

Tiglet

amanndajane wrote: »

thanks Tiglet, yr brill at all this, i find it so scarey, i just dont understand it, i`m one of these stupid people that just smile and say where do i sign ??!!
i really need to get my head around this stuff now.
So are you saying that even though my abbey card is at say for instance 15.9% i could ring them and ask if they will balance transfer an amount from another card but do it at 0% ???? or have i totally lost the plot now ?? lol

Hi AJ, and sorry for taking so long to get back to you.:o

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. I found this article that Martin has done. It lists the offers that you're likely to get if you ask to transfer a balance from another card. According to this, you could get 0% for 6 months from either Abbey or A&L. As you're already on 0% on the A&L card, I thought the Abbey one sounded the most likely, although you could try either one.

What I would do is to tell Abbey that you've got another card with a balance outstanding, and that it would help you keep control of your finances if you were to transfer it on to your Abbey card. Tell them you've heard that they do a 0% balance transfer rate, and ask how long it's for.

Assuming that they say you can have the 0% rate, tell them that you've got a credit limit of £3000 on your Nationwide card but that you would like to transfer the whole of your existing balance to the Abbey card so that you can close it. Tell them you only want to increase your credit limit on the Abbey card by £1500. Then you can transfer the whole of the balance of the Nationwide card on to the Abbey card and close it.

After all that, you'll have an extra £2200 interest-free for the next 6 months (you might well have to pay 2.5% or so transfer fee but that's much less than the interest). Also, your total credit limit will have come down by £1500, so you're giving yourself the best possible chance of getting a good deal when the 0% deals run out.

There's a slightly more advanced variation of this method that will save you the interest on another £700 or so, but I'll leave that 'til later if you're interested.


I hope all that makes sense - any questions, just ask.