My credit card debt situation...

zcaprd7

Hmm, at the rate your going it might almost be worth getting 0% for five months deal and transferring say £500-800 onto it (whatever you feel you can do in that time).

Just another thought to optimise the process?

westernpromise

Indeed, except that Rochdale_Guy was having trouble getting those sorts of deals, and was paying excessive rates as a result.

We discussed it at the time, a few months ago, and it looks like the combination of his employment (irregular contracts) and postcode (he's got a Lidl nearby) was knackering his credit rating - even though he'd never missed a payment and pays everything to terms.

So what he's done, as documented in this thread, is gradually transfer everything onto the cheapest rates available to him. He's now eliminating each in turn starting with the most expensive.

This is a textbook example of exactly how you optimise and address debt...which I suspect few people are disciplined enough to copy, hence the ghastly UK credit bubble getting ready to pop...

westernpromise

Wednesday 31st March 2004 standings:

A&L:    £0 owed, * Account terminated 18/3/04 *  ;D  
MBNA: £0 owed, * Zero balance *  ;D  
Cap1:  £0 owed, * Zero balance *  ;D  
NatW: £30 owed @ 5.9% until clear  :D  
Amex: £1,324 @ 4.9% until clear = £41 month D/D.   :-/

Their is light at the end of the tunnel  :D

Indeed there is!

Well done.

Have you started thinking about which cards you're going to bin once you're in the clear?

Your Amex Blue is worth hanging on to for the 1% cashback. Ditto your Capital One, if that's a Circle Rebate 1% cashback card. Your MBNA is worth keeping because you can use it to do BTs into your current account.

You could probably ditch the NatWest card and just have the other three.

Rochdale_Guy

Thanks westernpromise, sound words again.

I have as you know, already terminated my Alliance & Leicester card account. They recredited my bank account with the £5 that was wrongly deducted by Direct Debit too

My CAPITAL ONE card is just a Premier Visa card, so I was gonna close, sorry, terminate that one too.

And, I was also gone terminate the NatWest Visa also.

Rochdale_Guy

Of course, I must confess that I only managed to clear the MBNA card and the Capital One card debts by blowing all my £500 ING Direct a/c savings on these 2 cards, just thought it's best to be as debt free as possible, then I can start re-saving, kinda :-/

nh

Well done! You must feel really pleased with yourself, and even more so after you pay the last of that Natwest card. I think it was a good idea to spend your savings. A lot of people live without savings or they have savings and that 'rainy day' never arrives. I know I would rather get rid of the debt as you have.

Are you now channelling the money you were paying to other cards to your Amex or are you just paying the £41 a month?

You must be feeling much better off come pay day!

Rochdale_Guy

Thanks nh :-*

I'm going to do a cartwheel when the Natwest card is cleared come payday on the 15th ;D

As for the £1,000 plus owed on the American Express Blue card, I was gonna pay an extra £9 a month on top of the £41 a month being paid by Direct Debit, totalling £50 a month payments.

Need to rebuild my savings in my ING account really. Need to replace the £500 I just withdrew by July 15th, when I'm having a well earned break with my other half in Wales

Thanks for the interest :-*

Rochdale_Guy

Quick maths time....

£1200 owed divided by £50 a month = 24 months to clear this debt

But, once I've replaced the £500 in my ING a/c, I'll throw more at the AMEX BLUE debt....

Wish me luck :-/

Pal

Just a thought but you would be better off paying as much off the cards as possible, reducing the debt by £500, then paying for everything on your holiday by credit card to run up the £500 again.

This reduces your CC interest in the meantime and also gets you a month interest free on the £500 you spend on holiday.

bexs_2

i am really encourage to read you biography of you paying off all of your debt now you can perhaps give some sound advice to me.!!!!!

Q. did you tell the banks to set up the monthly direct debit on the same date??? if so how did you manage this?

i am 6k in debt with just credit cards and me and my fiance wish to pay them off so that we can start to save for a deposit for a mortgage.
below are the cards i have and they are all up to the limit and i have not discussed anything with the banks, with how to tackle this issue.

captial one 22% apr at £200
barclays 17.9% at £3500
halifax visa 17.9% at £1800
barclays 14.9% at £1400
marbles 12.95 at £4200

currently i pay the minimum on all of them and starting next month once i get sorted then we will pay the minimum on all and extra to the highest card first. i think that we coul possible pay an extra £100 per month to the highest card.

if you have got any advice i would be extremely grateful as i cannot wait to get to the same stage that you are in.

once again well done and thanks for taking time to read this.