Another Person In Need Of Help

roversbabe

southernscouser wrote:

OK, I've just transferred £2,650 from my Egg CC on to my Tesco CC for 7.9% for the life of the balance.

So remaining on my Egg card is £283.02 which I will be able to pay off at the beginning of the month with my work bonus.

I know it's not much but it feels well good to know one of my cards is going to be at zero!

My next question is, should I then go back to Egg and see what rate they can offer me? Or close the account? Or, perhaps reduce the credit limit on it, because I use the Egg money manager as it's quite useful for a snapshot of what I owe?

Hi SouthernScouser,

When's your anniversary date with egg? If its soon, you can transfer another balance to the egg card for 5 months @ 0% interest - clear the £283.02 1st though. After the 5 month 0% period, you can transfer whatevers left to your life of balance card (sorry, can't remember which one that was). Should save you a bit in interest there.

Have a look at the credit card shuffle article on here and have a look at snowballing. I'll have a scoot round and see if I can find links for these and Rochdale_guy's thread about how he cleared his credit card debt by moving the debt to existing cards at a lower APR.

Good luck and you've made the hardest step. Facing up to my own debt and dealing with it was one of the hardest things I've done. Also, I'd agree with others on here, tell you g/f as a problem shared is definitely a problem halved. She'll have an idea that something is wrong and once you tell her, you can work together on solving it.

rb x

Found the links

The Credit card shuffle http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1102335753,51771,

Rochdale guy http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=76

mountainofdebt

Please don't take this as a criticism but in your list of debts you've forgotten your overdraft....and I guess on that debt you're paying about 16%.

The only way I've found to clear an overdraft is literally not to use the account and to pay in some money each money in order to clear it.

As for the credit limits as you lower the balance lower the credit limit...this will make you more attractive to new deals out there. The only exception to this rule is the egg card for the very reason roversbabe has given you.

southernscouser

My aniversary date with Egg was about 3 months ago. I'm wary of transferring over to that because it only gives me a vouple of months to free some space on other cards to transfer back.

No offence taken mountainofdebt. The reason I didn't include my O/D is that when I get paid I'm back in the black and only ever in the red for a week or so! I'm trying hard to reduce the ammount I'm over drawn each month and am getting there very slowly!

southernscouser

mountainofdebt wrote:

As for the credit limits as you lower the balance lower the credit limit...this will make you more attractive to new deals out there. The only exception to this rule is the egg card for the very reason roversbabe has given you.

But for example my Tesco card have given me 7.9% for life of balance. Although there are better deals out there I can't be sure I will get one so is it worth perhaps keeping that limit so I can transfer any higher APR's on to that?

I really do appreciate everyones help so please keep all the advice coming. :beer:

Callisto

I suggest that you:

1) - Tell your girlfriend, it's not very fair keeping her in the dark. So she may be annoyed or upset for a short while, but she will get over it and may even come up with some helpful ideas! The house may still be feasible in a few years as surely she will be working full time as well by then?

2) - Seriously consider downgrading your car. It's depreciating in value all the time anyway. Why not sell that one and buy a second hand reliable car, then you will have £5k or so to throw at the highest apr debt.

3) - Shop around for a better internet deal.

4) - Is your mobile contract or pay as you go? If it's on contract, then end it as soon as you can and switch to PAYG. I use less than £10 a month on mine. Text instead of phone people wherever possible.

5) - Do you have anything else to sell on Ebay? If so, get it listed!

Just a few ideas for saving/raising money. Hope it helps...

Bargain_Rzl

southernscouser wrote:

My aniversary date with Egg was about 3 months ago. I'm wary of transferring over to that because it only gives me a vouple of months to free some space on other cards to transfer back.

Southernscouser, you seem to have misunderstood Egg's T&Cs, and even though you're not planning to take the course of action you just outlined, I feel I must clarify this just in case you change your mind, as it would end up costing you money if you did.

The Egg anniversary offer only applies if you transfer the money DURING THE ANNIVERSARY MONTH. You then get up to 5 months interest free from the date of the transfer, but the transfer HAS to have been made in that month. Their normal interest rates will apply if the transfer is made after this time. So you have missed your chance with Egg 0% credit this time around.

southernscouser

The girlfriend issue aside, can anyone offer any other advice as to how to get my debts down?

Should I apply for more 0% cards or life balance cards or should I be avoiding more cards?

What about CCCS? Should I give them a bell?

moneysavingplumber

I've read this thread and can't help thinking about this car. How far do you travel to work? If it would sell for £7,000 you could get something reasonable as a replacement for a grand, insurance would go down, and road tax if you get something small, that'll free up £6000 to pay off some of your costliest debt with. Ok, you might end up with your head under the bonnet every now and then with an older car, since I got into debt I've learnt huge amounts about car mechanics and regularly save myself a fortune! I've had Vauxhall Novas and Astras now for the last 10 years, the parts are dead cheap and they're relatively easy to work on. I'm having a reclaimed power-steering pump fitted to the van tommorrow, it cost me £25 at the breakers and will cost about £80 to have fitted. I could have paid around £300 for new supplied and fitted, but what's the point on a van worth £1200?

I need a reliable van for work but I only paid £2000 18 months ago for mine and she took me to Spain and back earlier this year. You can then take out cheap breakdown cover just in case. Even if it costs you £300 a year in running repairs over the next two years, it's not as costly as the depreciation previously mentioned.

CCCS are worth a call for advice, but at the moment you are servicing the debt, just. With £38k of unsecured debt and a salary of around 20k I would not be thinking of more cards.

Tell your girlfriend, it'll eat away at you otherwise. You may need her help if it goes tits-up, when my bank pulled the plug on me a few years ago, owing them about £9000 and I was waiting for a new account, I managed to get my customers to make cheques out to my then girlfriend (now wife) and processed them through her bank.

mountainofdebt

southernscouser wrote:

But for example my Tesco card have given me 7.9% for life of balance. Although there are better deals out there I can't be sure I will get one so is it worth perhaps keeping that limit so I can transfer any higher APR's on to that?

that's a gamble BUT I guess you were lucky with Tesco and that deal......for months I was trying to get a promotional balance transfer rate with one of my cards and until the computer had 'selected' me all they would offer was the normal BT rate.

By keeping your nose clean (ie making payments on time, not going our limit etc) and keeping your credit limits as low as possible you will make yourself more attractive to the numerous 0% deals that are out there as you reduce the amount of potential credit available to you.

southernscouser

By keeping your nose clean (ie making payments on time, not going our limit etc) and keeping your credit limits as low as possible you will make yourself more attractive to the numerous 0% deals that are out there as you reduce the amount of potential credit available to you.[/QUOTE]

OK, my Amazon card arrive this morning with a limit of £5,300 and 0% for 6 months. The dilema I have is I could max it out from another card and say pay of £50 a month for example. But at the end of that 6 months I will start paying 12.9% on £5,000 as oppossed to say paying 7.9% on my Tesco card from now instead of 6 months time!

If I'm refused another 0% card I will be worse off!

Can anyone suggest anything?