I need your help.

A question about : I need your help.

Hello everyone.

I want to be debt free.

I have amassed just under Ј10,000 credit card debt over 4 different cards and its starting to be a real burden on me, though the problem is, I’m not technically struggling. I make the monthly payments and sometimes, where I can, I pay over the minimum requirement too.

My real issue has been spending; for a while now I have been spending on these credit cards, above my means. I have been a long time lurker here in this forum, often reading diaries etc, and have picked up many tips. Since the beginning of the year I have been using YNAB and My Supermarket among other things to really curb my spending. January has been the first month (for as long as I can remember) where I have not spent a penny on these cards.

The issue I’m faced with now is how to manage this debt. I can commit around Ј350 a month to this debt, however with three of the cards at between 20-30% APR the end is far, far away.

My credit score on Noodle is 1/5, mainly due to a settled default 4 years ago, though I assume the fact that I am close to my credit limit on the four cards doesn’t help. I don’t want to just plod along, I want to get it gone so that I can stop living payday to payday.

I could ramble on forever, however I will save you all the pain. I’d really appreciate suggestions or direction on how I can start to properly eat into this debt, and ensure old habits don’t return.

Thanks,

Safety

Best answers:

• Hi
  Have you worked out how long it will take to pay the cards off at the Ј350 a month? (sometime around 3-4years?)
  Does the 4th card have a much lower APR?
  Is there any unused room on that card? or on any of the cards?
  It might be useful if you could list the balances, APRs and limits on the cards.
  If you are not in a position to get new credit cards with lower APR/deals then sometimes its worth looking to see if you can move around debt within the existing cards to minimise interest.
  Are you snowballing payments, i.e. concentrating on paying off the most expensive card first?
• Hi! you know that you need to sort this and the first month without adding to your debt is great.
  When I started I could get a balance transfer card either, but when I started paying off my cards, got rid of one completely and got below 75% of the credit limit on the others I managed to get one.
  Or you could try the credit card likelyhood of acceptance on MSE and see if you can get the capital one card? I know that that my DH got that with a 0% BT for 12 months and that meant he could pay off a big chunk and save the interest.
  Good luck!
• Hi Tixy and Brightspark thank you for your responses, and sorry for the delay, I have been gathering all the information to answer the questions.
  The snowball calculator tells me that it will take 41 months to clear the debt (July 18) with an interest cost of Ј3679.
  The current situation in regards to the cards is as follows -
  CC1 BarclayCard – Ј7601.49 (Limit Ј8400) 18.9% APR
  CC2 BarclayCard - Ј1705.75(Limit Ј2000) 24.9% APR
  CC3 Natwest - Ј887.93 (Limit Ј1075 will rise to Ј1800 this month) 27.9% APR
  CC4 Natwest - Ј193.17 (limit Ј400 will rise to Ј600 this month) 24.9% APR.
  In better news, The likelihood acceptance tool mentioned by BrightSpark threw up some interesting results. I was 90% likely to be accepted on a few Barclaycards with 0% deals plus a CaptialOne card with 0% for 6 months. For which I have applied, And have apparently been successful. I also received an email from Barclaycard on Monday offering a 0% BT deal on CC2 till November.
  My initial thoughts are that I go with the capital one card and 0% BT as much from CC2 as possible, thus freeing this up to 0% BT the two Natwest Cards.
  What do you guys think?
  It’s so good to be able to discuss this without prejudice with people.
  Thanks again!
  Safety
• One you have B'd the Natwest cards, call them as well and ask about a 0% or low life of balance deal with them - if they offer you a lower rate,, shift as much as you can onto it. Then make all your minimum payments, pus Ј1 to each of the 0%/low cards, and throw every spare penny at the higher rate debts.
  Keep it all moving onto low rates for as long as you can, and you may find you get a low rate deal for longer than a 0% - some offer life-of-balance cards! Anything to reduce the interest rates.
  Best of luck
• Thanks BargainBetty.
  I think my main issue will be patience. I want it cleared now!
• I think you also need to look at the upfront charges - barclays tends to have a longer interest free period but a large initial charge.
  Huge congrats on getting this sorted though and you will get there....
• Morning All.
  Almost 20 days in and the budgeting (with the help of YNAB) has gone well. I think like many people I see it as a challenge; the allocating money to separate pots is almost exciting. One side effect is that I now spend almost double the time in the supermarket, forensically agonising over products, squeezing out the best value possible.
  I was also accepted for a Ј1500 0% Captial One CC, which as above has allowed me to BT Ј1400 from BarclayCard 2, in turn allowing me to 0% BT both the Natwest cards to the BarclayCard.
  The bank balance this morning, is a touch over Ј300 which will all be moved to credit card payment on Friday. This much money in the account this close to pay day is unheard of.
  However I fell off the no spend on the Credit Cards plan on Friday. The day to day credit card spend over the last two-three months has reached almost Ј3000 in total and I was determined not to add to it.
  I was due approx Ј600 of back pay in this months wages, which has now been delayed till March. My partner and I have managed to survive the last 4 months in our new place without a freezer, but our patience has come to an end and I purchased a new fridge freezer for Ј400 on Friday on the Credit Card.
  The logic behind the purchase is that we can now start to bulk buy and freeze food, which I hope you will agree works out cheaper over the month, rather than visiting a superstore every 3-4 days.
  Still, I feel very torn about this purchase. Part of me sees the common sense, and the savings I will make over the next few months, the other side of me sees the failure to stick to the plan.
• Ј400 for a freezer?!
  You undoubtedly could have gone one a lot cheaper than that...