credit card advice

pip10

Hi everyone. Just wanted to see if anyone could give me a bit of financial advice or opinion!

I currently have about £5000 of debt on 4 different credit cards. I'm managing payments on these and have been for about 2 years now since i've settled down a bit! i currently pay each month about double what the interest is and this is the maximum really that i can afford at the moment. The problem is the interest as they range from 16% up to about 25% apr on the worst one. Anyway i've tried a few different ways to improve my situation that i read about on this site but have had no success. The first thing i tried was transferring (some of the) debt onto a 0% card. My credit rating is currently fair so i tried applying for a card that was recommended for someone of my status - i was rejected!

The second thing i tried this morning was ringing up one of my existing c.card's (barclaycard) to ask if i could transfer a balance onto another of their cards. I read on here that you might be able to transfer a balance from another card and you get a rate of about 6% (as an existing customer). Anyway, the call lasted about 30 secs he said 'i'll see what offers we have on today', then basically said 'no' and that was that! I tried a consolidation loan as well about 6 months ago but the one they offered me was ridiculous, it was about a £1500 loan and i'd repay something like £4000 back, i laughed at the woman on the phone.

Really i want to know if anyone else has anymore ideas or advice, maybe youve been in the same situation.

Sally_Saver

Hi there,
I was wondering if your being rejected for a balance transfer because you may be trying to transfer the full £5k? Lenders may think it's too risky.

I owe nearly £2000 on my RBS credit card and I was only allowed to transfer £1250 of the debt to Halifax (0% for 12 months). I accepted the offer and it means i'm only paying interest on £750 now which is a lot more managable.

It sounds like the guy at Barclaycard was being lazy and couldn't be bothered helping you with the balance transfer. I think you can apply for a balance transfer as an existing customer on their website. I've posted the link below.

Hope this helps hun, and I wish you the best of luck

http://www.barclaycard.co.uk/personal-home/cards/balance-transfer/index.html

pip10

thanks for your advice sally saver.

When i applied for the 0% card - in the section 'do you want to do a balance transfer i clicked yes and listed 3 of the 4 cards, so maybe it did have an impact on it.

Thanks for the link to barclaycard, going to do that now, i'll see how it goes!

pip10

Just gone on that link and i can't apply because you need the last 3 digits off the back of the c.card! I've cut all my cards up! Think i'll apply for a new card so i can try it then i'll cut it up !!!

CannyJock

pip10 wrote: »

Just gone on that link and i can't apply because you need the last 3 digits off the back of the c.card! I've cut all my cards up! Think i'll apply for a new card so i can try it then i'll cut it up !!!

You could call them and ask for a replacement card. Won't happen overnight though.

Standard advice with 4 cards is to transfer all the balances down onto the lowest interest cards. Have a look at www.whatsthecost.com it does a "snowballing" calculation for you to show you how much you will save - basic idea is to put as much as possible onto the lowest possible interest, then pay the minimum from the low interest and the maximum from the higher interest.

Check your credit report make sure there's aren't any other cards lurking in the background (happens all the time, always worth checking).

Best not to cut up a card till it's cleared - you can cut the chip out of it if you want to make sure you don't take it out your wallet by accident