My credit card debt situation...

System

the posting does read " The first 8 who are happy to send £1.50 to cover postage will have a form sent to them via recorded delivery". Now to me this implies eight individual amounts perhaps the Author could clarify

That does sound to me like the OP id aoffering to send the by recorded delivery to anyone who's prepared to pay for it, which is fair enough.

On a related point - do these forms not have a use-by date on them? I get a lot of CC offers in the post and most of the forms specify when you have to apply. At some point won't these forms simply be declared obsolete by Barclays? They surely don't have to honour them either - they could just reject the application?

Rochdale_Guy

[glow=green,2,300]Hey, no fighting please over these 0% Barclaycard forms - thankyou[/glow].

Thanks for the continued support by the way and for Martins reply.

Rochdale_Guy

[glow=yellow,2,300]Great news ![/glow]

Just phoned American Express about a balance transfer and was told I could transfer £500 off my Barclaycard Gold Visa onto my American Express Blue @ 4.9% until paid off  :) ;D

It would take upto 30 days he told me, but he assured me it would be @ 4.9% until paid off !!!!

So, update is now:

Barclaycard Gold Visa  = £148 @ 6.9% APR FIXED until paid off
Amex Blue = £1,500 @ 4.9% APR FIXED until paid off

;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

RochdaleGuy  ;)

N.B. Only worry is I'm convinced I've gone over the initial 6 month balance transfer period but he went off and checked and said it was okay as I was accepted in March 2003 - that's more than 6 months gone.... anyway, let's see my new statement when it comes !!!!

Two fingers to Barclaycard eh ?!  ;)

Thankyou all - I LOVE YA !

Rochdale_Guy

Your A&L balance is going to get expensive again in 6 months' time, so try to clear that one within those 6 months. If you manage to do that, start on the Barclaycard. When you've cleared that, move on to the NatWest.

Are you saying that I should now make the £225 owed on the ALLIANCE & LEICESTER card @ 3.9% until March 2004 my priority in paying off then ? I thought that was to always pay off the highest APR card which is still the 6.9% fixed APR Barclaycard ? ~ confused ~
???

Incidentally, have you tried enrolling in https://www.mbnanetaccess.co.uk? If you sign up to run your MBNA account online you may find there are some online offers. I transferred a balance to MBNA a while back after they rang me up and offered it, but all the time it was right there on the website had I bothered to go look.  

I tried but keep getting the annoying "Page cannot be displayed" error message so gave up. I tried it 10 times over the weekend too >:(

[glow=red,2,300]Rochdale_Guy[/glow]

MSE_Martin

The point WP is correctly making is while 3.9% is currently cheap, you need to ensure it is paid off before you're moved back to the standard rate. So the priority is working out how much you need to pay it in the meantime. The best thing to do would be focus on paying BC off now, providing you could pay off the 3.9% debt in the month before it gets expensive. The big key is dont let the cost of the debt rocket at the end of the cheap interest period

martin

Rochdale_Guy

Hi again Martin !

Thanks for clarifying that. I will make sure the £148 owing on the Barclaycard @ 6.9% gets paid off within the next 6 weeks, then throw all I can at the £225 owed on the Alliance & Leicester card before the low rate offer runs out.

I just needed to hear someone else clarify it, thanks again.



Rochdale_Guy

System

Thanks for clarifying that. I will make sure the £148 owing on the Barclaycard @ 6.9% gets paid off within the next 6 weeks, then throw all I can at the £225 owed on the Alliance & Leicester card before the low rate offer runs out.

That's the right thing to do, as long as you're confident you can meet that schedule and eliminate the A & L balance before they put the rate back up.

If there's a chance you won't be able to meet that schedule, then repay the A & L first and to the BC second - because after the promo period expires, the A&L will get expensive again. If you fail to clear the A&L debt it goes up to 15% or something, so ideally you want to avoid that by paying it all off before that happens.

Rochdale_Guy

Hi !

Paid £100 off the Barclaycard Gold, so now owe £48 @ 6.9% fixed.

Also, the A&L statement has come showing the new balance of £225 @ 3.9% APR until March next year !

I'm getting there.... slowly !

westernpromise

RG,

On the back of an envelope, I make it that through juggling your balances you've got your average APR down from about 6.5% to just over 5%.

That's worth about £30 to £40 a year. Better in your pocket than theirs.

Your postcode probably limits your ability to improve on those rates. Congratulate yourself, though, on having engineered your borrowing rate down so that it's a full percentage point cheaper than the the cheapest-available personal loan (Northern Rock at 6%).

WP

biwm99

Rochdale Guy.

Hope this helps.
I notice you have an MBNA card with zero balance.
I would not cancel this card, but apply for another 0% card backed by MBNA (Virgin etc.).
They will probably give you a credit limit, but state something like
'... to give you the best terms, we have reduced your existing card limit by x...'.
Once you get this, phone MBNA and say
"can I cancel my MBNA and transfer the whole credit limit over to my new card"
MBNA will gladly do this and hey presto, you have you full credit limit back and another 6 months 0%.
I have done this a number of times and saved a fortune
(See my 0% mortgage thread)
Also, the First Direct advice might help.
Good luck

biwm99