Help with credit card debts pls

lou777

Hi. I need to pay off £30k and can afford the minimum repayments on the credit cards but am swamped by interest rates. I very much doubt I would get another card due to my debts (although I don't miss payments etc), and the fact that part of my income is unproven as I get a salary and earn rest from running a small business.
I pay off £660 a month min payments, and from now on will be able to pay off at least £850 a month, yet £440 is going on interest so I am going to really struggle to pay off even one credit card with a £4k balance by the end of the year. At that point, I can start to swap balances and hopefully start to save at least some of the interest, but I want to know if there are any options I can consider to help speed up that process.
I talked to Payplan and they couldn't help me as I can afford the minimum repayments, and I wouldn't want to wreck my credit rating by going down the IVA route, nor do I want a consolidation plan. I do plan to call CAB and National Debt Line but am not sure if there is anything I can do at all except brace myself for living like this for years.
Any advice would be much appreciated.

Bismarck

HI,

well done for posting...I'm a huge card-shuffle fan...let us know what cards you've got, balances, limits and interest rates etc and I'll give it a shot....I was in the same boat to you (more debt actually) and it can just need one change to start a shuffle rolling and halve the amount of interest you're paying....let us know more and I'll try to help.

lou777

That's very sweet of you. Thanks.
£4050 on Capital One with 24.9% APR
£9750 on Halifax with 23.5% APR
£3000 on Egg with 21.9% APR
£5000 on Cahoot with 19.9% APR
£6500 on Sainsburys with 18.9% APR

All cards are virtually at limit.I plan to pay off Capital One first, but this will take me until the end of the year, by which time I ill have paid out another £3520 interest, which is the issue and whole reason why I am going to struggle. I can pay off about £850 a month at the moment, of which £660 is min payments. Min payment on C1 is £121, with about £90 interest going back on once I have done that. Therefore, I can now afford to pay off about £310 a month on C1, with about £90 going back on interest per month.
I didn't know whether it would be more useful to pay off Egg first, so I can use it for stoozing. This would be quicker as it is a smaller balance, but I can't work out whether it is the best move or not, as it is one of those with a lower interest rate.

Bismarck

firstly, have you seen the snowball calculator at whatsthecost.com :

http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx?country=uk

this will give you something to think about....please bear in mind the offers that you receive from the card companies as this should influence which to pay off first and may contradict what the calculator says....I was fortunate to have a large business overdraft facility which I used to clear a card and then started transferring from there....then I have a couple of cards that I can do small transfers to at no fee which covers the monthly repayments on the other cards...unfortunately, I only have a Cap one card in common with you but my hope is that one of the cards you have would give you a good offer once you started to clear some space on the credit limit.

I do hope there's a way through this..I remember the pain bitterly...try the snowball calculator first though...and remember the offers they send you in the post...I knew my cards "characters" well so that if I paid off a balance I had a good idea what they would then offer me to "keep my debt". People don't often think about debt as an asset....I digress.. good luck

TurnaroundSue

Hi and well done for posting! Have you tried to get a card with 0% interest? If you can get one then put the one with the highest interest on it and pay that one off first (remembering to cancel the card and cut up both the new card and the one you have transferred from). Then once that is paid off, try for another 0% card, again transferring another balance to it. Slowly but surely this will get the debt down and hopefully you will be able to get out of it.

If people disagree with me and say put another balance on (ie, the one with smallest balance first rather than highest interest) then please advise as am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination!!!:D

Good luck with your debt free journey

lou777

Thanks a lot. You have given me some ideas I hadn't thought of, and the snowball calculator was brilliant. I now see that it will take me until June 2012 to pay them off IF I don't get any interest deals, so know I now that I can pay them off in under 4 years.
I do get sent cheques with promotional rates on, so I will dig those out and have a look at them to see if any are still valid and if that affects which one I should start paying off first. I will start a new thread on the benefits of stoozing to see if anyone can help me work out whether paying off Egg first would be more useful.
My Halifax card has started charging for transferring balances onto it as I got caught out by that once, but I am sure once I start paying then I will get some offers. Perhaps I can see who has made some offers and target them to pay off first.
Yes, it is bitter pain and all caused by a long-term illness that stopped me working for a few years. I am still not better so am trying to look after my health whilst working every hour I can, which is not a good position to be in, but I have no choice.
Thanks again for your advice.