yet another sleepless night :o(

skintmam

skintmam wrote: »

question to everybody/anybody? I have a £500 limit on my asda card current balance is £485ish and apr is 15% (a lot lower than mint/argos) if I snowball correctly then I should tackle the mint card first - but... if I clear the Asda card I will then be able to move £500 of the Mint debt onto it at a lower apr... or am I just complicating things?

can anyone give me some advise re above? ta x

Seaxwyn

I would just pay the Mint off as fast as you can - clearing the Asda one first will only slow you down.

klane

Pay Mint. Otherwise, while you're paying Asda, you'll still be paying the whole amount interest on Mint. Pay the most off the highest interest rate first, I say.

Although, as you gradually pay down Asda (via minimum payments etc) and your balance gets lower, you should think about transferring Mint bit by bit - topping up Asda, so to speak. Basically you should try to keep Asda "full" from Mint, while making the payments to each. If you can manage a bit more above a minimum and have to choose which to pay it off, choose Mint (highest interest).

You want to have the most debt on the lowest interest you can get. Have you tried to see if you can get any 0% balance transfer card? If you had one, I'd fill that one up, cut up the card, and that'd be even better (obviously, as soon as you can get rid of the highest interest card account then you do - you dont keep that one as well).

Just to say, that is what I am doing at the moment - I am getting a new 0% card for 15 months on balance transfers, and I will transfer the balance from my Natwest & Co-op cards onto it as their previous 0% period has lapsed and they are now on horrible 20+ % interest. At least then my debt won't increase any more while I try to pay it off from them sticking a ton of interest on every month!!

Seaxwyn

Why not apply for a 0% BT card anyway - you may get one even despite the late payment on your CC. Just this week I applied for and got a Virgin card with 0% for 15 months - even though I have five other cards already.

skintmam

ok, i will plough along paying the mint one first, that was my original plan anyway. not sure about applying for a 0% card - If I get turned down I know it will make me feel like c**p and make me start panicking again about how much debt i'm in. think I'll just stay as I am for the time being until the figures start to come down.

feeling really proud of myself today - had an e mail from one of my friends to say that my old workplace were having a reunion next friday and am i going? I promplly replied "nope, I'm skint and can't even afford the train fare into town never mind a couple of beers, so say hello to everyone for me!" a few months ago I would've begged, borrowed or stolen to make sure I went - how times have changed.

went to tesco - spent a grand total of £19.50 which is basically essentials to get us through the week, bread, milk, baby formula etc and a few bits to make evening meals for the week. also put £10 in the car - just enough to get OH into work for the next few days. he's off then for almost 2 weeks so we will save a fortune there.

just got the baby to bed, DS is out playing (in the rain, does that make me a bad mother?!) so I'm going to have a little mooch around here, and try and list some more things for ebay. got 11 auctions finishing tonight & 6 have already got bids on them only need another £8 to go into paypal and I can withdraw £50, that's half my council tax arrears for last year, will sleep better when that get paid.

Jelly_Babies

Hi

Well done on your ebay selling and glad it will make you sleep easier, lot better when you are being so proactive.

Have you checked your credit rating? Think you can get a 30 day free trial via Quidco, but you have to make sure you cancel after 30 days (I think anyway, might be worth checking it out).

Good luck

skintmam

yeah checked my credit file and it all looks ok apart from the mint - I've been late paying for the last 4 months, i get paid weekly (which is a nightmare) and can't always pay it in time due to other priorities. managed to get on top of it now though so credit file should look better in a few months time.

I haven't checked my credit score though.. is that worth doing?

DebbieMids72

I've just found this thread, and I'd like to say well done, you seem to be doing really well. Keep it up

skintmam

thanks DebbieMids72! wish I'd joined this site years ago, it has definately helped me get on the straight and narrow and will hopefully keep me there too!

just checked my ebay - made £37 tonight who hoo!!:D

skintmam

morning, going to be another good day today - checked my online banking and my pay has gone in a day early :j , should get paid every friday but more often than no goes in the following tuesday:mad: . so have paid my ikea card (just the minimum) but only had the bill last week so i'm really early - such a nice feeling! :j

also checked paypal - it's gone over the £50 so have transferred that into my account as well. still waiting for about £30 worth of payments on e bay but didn't want to leave it paypal any longer than I had to as it takes forever to transfer into my bank account. no auctions ending until sunday though, so will give me plenty of time to list, list and list some more!