My credit card debt situation...

Rochdale_Guy

Just made a £10 payment off the NatWest card too (min. they wanted was £8 ).

So............

A&L : *** ZERO !!! ***
MBNA: *** ZERO !!! ***
Cap1: £202 @ 1.9% until 15th May 04.
NatW: £380 @ 5.9% until cleared.
Amex: £1,324 @ 4.9% until cleared = @ £41 month D/D.

Don't know when the £15 annual charge will kick in on the AMEX BLUE card account though :-/

MSE_Martin

I find this thread quite inspiring. Go RG. Well done on the new empty card. Role on 15 May when the next one should be debt free too.

Rochdale_Guy

Ta Martin

Just noticed by checking my Capital One account balance online that they've increased my paltry £800 credit limit to £2,800

Shame I'm going to be closing this account also when it's cleared - unless they can offer me a decent 0% APR offer or lower my APR to 3.9% for life an a future balance transfer !

westernpromise

Now that you've cleared your A & L and MBNA balances you might want to ring them up and cancel the accounts.

The MBNA could be useful for future balance transfers into your current account, but the A & L is unlikely to be.

You've definitely made a big dent in these borrowings over the last few months.

Rochdale_Guy

Thanks westernpromise.

...You've definitely made a big dent in these borrowings over the last few months.

Maybe, but I'm miserable as can be. I live for pay day on the 15th of each month, pay a big chunk of my wage on the cards, then live like a total hermit until pay day again. It's a really depressing existance, but if I don't pay the bills as soon as they come in the post, I'd never do it. Bill arrives, pay big amount off, regret it later - well, in that I am skint then until the 15th comes around once more.

Oh yeah, guess what I got in the post today ? Another Barclaycard GOLD statement >:( >:( >:(
- albeit finally showing a ZERO £0 balance. Better be the last one I get from them.

Rochdale_Guy

I also finally got round to phoning up Natwest - on a rip off 0870 number >:( - to get them to send me a minimum monthly direct debit application form as this is the only card I don't have a DD set up on :-[

Took like 4 minutes of press "1", then "2", then "hold for a Customer Service operator" to answer, only to be told it takes 6 weeks to set this up once we receive your completed form back"... bah humbug

zcaprd7

Rochdale Guy...

Re: the capital one card, when did you get it?

You can do a balance transfer for 3.9% for the lifetime any time up to 6 months after you received the card.

Therefore you may as well transfer the amex and Natwest to the Cap one and get it all on 3.9% for ever?

If not, worth a phone call asking if they can beat/match amex, put £1624 on the amex and then move the credit onto the Natwest? (Kill off the amex before you get charged £15)

Rochdale_Guy

£75 just paid off the Capital One card, so...

March 17th

A&L : *** ZERO !!! ***
MBNA: *** ZERO !!! ***
Cap1: £127@ 1.9% until 15th May 04.
NatW: £380 @ 5.9% until cleared.
Amex: £1,324 @ 4.9% until cleared @ £41 month D/D.

;D

P.S. zcaprd7 - will reply to you later, gotta go out (and am late!!!).

westernpromise

Maybe, but I'm miserable as can be. I live for pay day on the 15th of each month, pay a big chunk of my wage on the cards, then live like a total hermit until pay day again.

Someone once gave me a really good piece of advice about dieting. If you're trying to lose 2lb a week and one week you do really well and manage to lose 4lb - backslide a bit next week. Eat a Mars bar, have a few beers, a curry, whatever.

OK, you won't lose any weight that week. But so what? You don't need to. You lost 4lb the week before. You're still on target. Meanwhile you get a bit of a rest from all the rabbit food and the week after you're raring to get back to losing weight.

Same with debt. A diet that's boring and leaves you hungry will fail. Likewise, living like a hermit is all very well, but you don't want to pay it all off, then heave a sigh of relief that the months of agony are over, and fall straight back into debt.

Once you've eliminated the Capital One balance, you'll have reduced your debt to about £1,700 at reasonable interest rates. Maybe at that point you deserve a holiday from debt repayment for a month? Treat yourself a bit to celebrate the fact that you've cleared and cancelled another card.

It'll cost you about £8 in interest to skip payments for a month. You've saved yourself way more than that already just by switching it around.

If you're paying off £100 a month, in May spend £92 on some fun instead. Spend the other £8 on a month's interest. Pay it all off, and then go back to attacking the debt next month.

Or you could taper off your repayment rate. Start to relax a bit. Instead of paying off £100 a month, pay off £70 and take the wife out for a movie and a pizza. Yes, it'll cost you interest, but at the very low rates you've sorted, not too much....and you ease back into 'normal' spending again.

Works for me.

I'm doing this with about £11,000 of debt. I bought a classic car - which I intend to keep for a very, very long time - using remortgage dosh. I then stuck the remortgage money in ISAs and stuff and paid the car bill using credit cards instead of that cash.

I've been swapping the debt from card to card for a couple of years. The idea is that eventually I'll have both the £11k in the bank and nothing left owing on cards. If the great 0% scam comes to an end, I'll have to raid the piggy bank to pay off the cards. But I'm anxious not to do that.

So every spare penny goes to reduce the debt. It's a form of saving. But we can't live like hermits so now and then we do treats - weekends away, meals out...stuff. It's an investment in staying disciplined.

Rochdale_Guy

Thanks for that sensible advice

I'll try to take heed !

Just been on the phone to Alliance & Leicester and the guy finally agreed to terminate my account after spending ages to try and find me a suitable balance transfer APR - he couldn't offer anything lower than the 6.9% for six months I was already on, oh well !

So, the A&L account is now closed for good. He said seeing as I also have a ZERO balance MBNA card (MBNA run the A&L accounts for those who didn't know!) he'll transfer over some of my available credit to that account ?!?!

Anyway, new totals are:

A&L : * Account terminated / closed *
MBNA: * ZERO balance *
Cap1: £127@ 1.9% until 15th May 04.
NatW: £380 @ 5.9% until cleared.
Amex: £1,324 @ 4.9% until cleared @ £41 month D/D.

Thanks again to all of you for your support, you are wonderful, caring people !

:-* :-* :-* ;D