How can i get rid of an expensive debt with egg?

basilseal

Hello, i was hoping someone could help me with my problem. I'm self employed and over the past two years i've suffered severe financial difficulties with my compnay, i've managed to just about keep afloat and hopefully from now on it appears that i might be turning a corner, but i have run up a number of debts that will take me some time to pay off, the most pressing is my egg credit card which was used i used to pay essential bills, which currently has a balance of £12,700, i'm paying the minimun amount every month because this is for the moment at least, all i can afford. egg have canceled my account and are charging me a whopping 26.9% apr, which amounts to the minimum repayment every month.

So the upshot is, the debt isn't getting any less despite it costing me £250 odd a month just to service it. This is the only card i have, and i've had a couple of default notices on it, though it is currently up to date with payments, i also have three CCJs which have been paid. So i can't see me being able to get further less expensive credit.

Any suggestions greatfully received.

basilseal

I've just looked at the interest snowball calculator linked on another thread, and it has told me that if i continue to pay the minimum payment of £250 on this account, by the year 2050 i will owe egg £98,148,570.78

weebit

I've had a similar problem with egg's minimum repayments. it seems like it's engineered so that the minimum payment is roughly equal to the interest added. perhaps you should try and pay a bit more than the minimum, even if it's just a few pounds. it might not sound like a lot in comparison to the overall debt but it will help the balence reduce month after month.

another thing to think about is the default notices. they may be willing to accept a DMP and may also freeze the interest. you could then agree to pay them the £250 a month without interest.

hepto1

Hi Basilseal,
Have you spoken to the CCCS? They will calculate what you can afford to pay and contact Egg on your behalf to arrange payments, and they have managed to get my Egg loan payments halved and the interest at 0% until I manage to get straighter. It's a charity and don't charge you for this, have a look on http://www.cccs.co.uk/

In_Search_Of_Me

welcome...as others have suggested I would ring one of the free debt charities for advice & see whether its worth doing a DMP - I'm unsure how it works if youre s/e though....Also agree with paying more than the min off if you can as otherwise you are just paying interest & none of the capital off plus I assume its compund interest so money just keeps adding....I have to say I've just moved money from egg as dont trust them any more (dont trust any of "them" mind you lol!!)...Have you posted your SOA etc so people can see where you could save dosh?

poorandindenial

The people from CCCS that post on here have mentioned that there is now a special team at CCCS who specialise in giving advice to people who are self employed.

basilseal

Thankyou for the advice, i noticed in another thread someone mentioning that their credit card company had agreed to freeze the interest payments, and i thought that this would sound like an excellent idea, though no doubt it impacts on one's credit rating, though i would imagine that mine is pretty much shot as it is. I really should have paid more attention to these matters and applied for a couple of other credit cards while i was still ok, so i could at least move the balance around until i can afford to make bigger payments, though it's too late for that now.

I have a loan with Alliance and leicster for a similar amount and that's nearly half paid off, payments for 10k over 5 years were £208 a month. I was hoping that when i'd got my account up to date with egg they might convert the amount to a loan, obviously i wouldn't get that kind of interest deal but payments under £300 with a 5 year repayment period at least the end would be in sight.

I haven't posted my SOA on here yet, i will have a look at your FAQ and when i know what it is i will see if i can do this. Though i think it might be a bit more complicated for me because i have all my business bills to pay which can vary from month to month as does my income.

lamarsi

i had a similar situation with my egg cards totaling £7000, i phonned egg and they OFFERED to make the money i owed into a loan at 7.5% no credit checks etc cause i already owed them the money, i did this but still stuggled to repay and they defaulted and sent the debt to crapquest, i arranged to pay them the same as what i was paying on the loan £135 a month but get this.... there's no interest!?! alright i have a default against my name but i was in the mire anyhows so !!!! it! every month my payment goes straight of the balance and as long as i don't miss a payment its fine!

P.S. sorry forgot to mention i'm self employed 2

basilseal

That's interesting lamarsi, thanks for that. I can afford about 2 to 3 hundred pounds per month to repay them, possibly more in about 6 months when my business *should* be doing a bit better again, however, if i could get the debt on 7.5% i would probably be better sticking to paying £300 and knocking some more expensive debts off first.

I think contacting them and asking for a loan conversion would be the best course of action in the first instance anyway.

bank_of_slate

Lamarsi....

if 8 out of 10 cats prefer whiskas mine must be one of the other 2... he's currently favouring neto cheepo own brand- big up the feline saver of the week... can your pets do better?? can they?? i doubt it!

I can better that, my cats nip round to my neighbour's for lunch!
...Linda xx