Credit card trap

I'm one to put my hands up and say I've been in this situation, still paying it off but all is now set up in a far cheaper method by means of debt consolidation.

Being young and stupid led me to not consider repaying cards, this combined with not regularly keeping check of balances and payments meant I effectively ignored the issue.

Good on the op for seeing the problem and looking to resolve it, it's a bad situation and can really get you down, but keep at it.
 
Jean-F said:
I feel as if I'm walking into the lions den here, try to go easy on me, but I'm struggling a bit with this.
All my life I've been a blue collar worker, always with a reasonable job, but never pulling down bundles, although I didn't do bad when I drove my own Black Cab, and I've never denied myself, nor my family, anything, if we needed it, I bought it, and at the end of the month, I paid my bill in full.
I've always had credit and debit cards, starting off back in the 70s or 80s with an ACCESS card, graduating through AMEX, DINERS CLUB, never had a BARCLAY Card, and right now I have a Halifax Clarity credit card, and a Halifax debit card, and both a credit and a debit card with Santander.
What I'm having difficulty with, is the fact that in around 50 years of having and using credit cards, I've NEVER paid one thin dime in interest, and I've never gone short of anything, how did the OP get into that kind of debt, did he buy a diamond ring every month, or fly first class everywhere he went, with a fly now, pay later outlook?
No doubt there's something glaringly obvious, and I'm not seeing it, as I say, take it easy with me.
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You are a sensible and patient man. OP is not. The credit card industry makes millions of pounds out of people like OP. People like you enjoy the benefit of a month of free credit, purchase protection and if you find a good card, some benefits. OP essentially pays for the service you get for free.
 
The issue nowdays (someone alluded to it earlier in the thread) is that no-one is taught life skills in schools (instead we do useless things like trigonometry and Religious Education) and everything is being advertised as a per month charge and not an all out purchase price, I was looking at an iPhone X in apple shops in the States recently and it was very difficult to find the actually cost (it was right at the bottom after 2 lots of per month costs).

We are currently advancing to a society where everything is going to be on the tick rather than purchased (obviously large purchases like cars and houses have normally been on credit for the majority) as most TV adverts show a huge per month cost and a tiny retail price (Oak Furniture Land and SCS are 2 that sprint to mind).
 
Lol @ trigonometry being useless...

I do agree that there needs to be some kind of "life skills" teaching, although arguably that should come from the parents!
 
Haggisman said:
Lol @ trigonometry being useless...

I do agree that there needs to be some kind of "life skills" teaching, although arguably that should come from the parents!
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Usually it's the parents who have lived their life in debt so the kids tend to follow suit. My brother in law's family is like this. Luckily my parents have talked sense into him after some of the terrible advice from his family.
 
Jean-F said:
I feel as if I'm walking into the lions den here, try to go easy on me, but I'm struggling a bit with this.
All my life I've been a blue collar worker, always with a reasonable job, but never pulling down bundles, although I didn't do bad when I drove my own Black Cab, and I've never denied myself, nor my family, anything, if we needed it, I bought it, and at the end of the month, I paid my bill in full.
I've always had credit and debit cards, starting off back in the 70s or 80s with an ACCESS card, graduating through AMEX, DINERS CLUB, never had a BARCLAY Card, and right now I have a Halifax Clarity credit card, and a Halifax debit card, and both a credit and a debit card with Santander.
What I'm having difficulty with, is the fact that in around 50 years of having and using credit cards, I've NEVER paid one thin dime in interest, and I've never gone short of anything, how did the OP get into that kind of debt, did he buy a diamond ring every month, or fly first class everywhere he went, with a fly now, pay later outlook?
No doubt there's something glaringly obvious, and I'm not seeing it, as I say, take it easy with me.
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I had the card for a while, and used it towards the end of the month when it was getting close to payday and money was short. Sometimes I paid off the full balance, sometimes a little of the debt rolled over to the next month. Then the timing belt on my car snapped while driving on the motorway and I needed a replacement urgently to get to work. So I bought a used one using the credit card, planning to pay it off over the next few months or so. then the new car needed some repairs, so again that went on the card and the balance grew a bit more and the amount of time it would take to repay also grew. At that stage though it was still manageable. I did the calculations and set up a standing order to pay off some of the card debt each month.

Then there was a month when money was particularly tight so I gave my wife the card to pay for the week's shopping online. That payday, I put a little extra on the card to cover the cost of that shopping, then left it to revert to my standing order and acted like the credit card didn't exist for 6 months or so. I should point out that I rarely received paper statements for this card, and I didn't bother going online to check it since I wasn't spending on it - or so I thought. The next thing I knew I was receiving a call from the bank to say the card had gone over it's limit and I was being charged for that, along with not making the required minimum payment. It turns out that the weekly shopping bills were continuing to be charged to the credit card as my wife had forgotten to change the payment details back to her current account.

That pretty much brings us up to date. I've increased my repayments so I'm at least paying off the minimum now, but the interest rate means I'm making very little dent in the capital balance and that missed payment and little trip over the limit has played havoc with my credit score.
 
but surely the extra weekly shopping bill money was available and saved instead? If not, then your wife would have noticed this and where did that money go?
 
Ace Modder said:
but surely the extra weekly shopping bill money was available and saved instead? If not, then your wife would have noticed this and where did that money go?
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You'd think so, but my wife is even worse with money than I am. I won't go into that here though since it's her story to tell. Suffice to say I'm glad we don't have any joint accounts or my credit rating would be in negative numbers
 
I've had a couple of thoughts about how to improve my situation, but I'd welcome input on whether it's practical or would even work.

If I significantly increase the money that goes onto the credit card each payday, by £400 or so, and then use the card to pay for the weekly shopping, petrol and train fares etc. then wouldn't it mean that I don't get charged interest on that £400 for at least a month meaning more of my regular repayment then goes towards the balance rather than being eaten up in interest.
The obvious danger there is if I end up spending more than the additional amount I pay in the balance would increase and make the situation worse. I'm also wondering whether that level of activity would have an adverse effect on my credit score, making it even harder to get a new card that I could transfer to at 0%.

The other alternative I can see is to struggle on as I am for now, making more than the minimum payments so that in a couple of months my score improves to the point where I can expect to be accepted for a balance transfer
 
LeeUK said:
Probably Capital One, they did this to me when I was young and stupid. Initial limit of £250 then raised a few times until eventually I had £2000 but the interest rate never dropped.
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It's actually Santander, although when I took the account out they were still known as Abbey National
 
trigg_27 said:
I've had a couple of thoughts about how to improve my situation, but I'd welcome input on whether it's practical or would even work.

If I significantly increase the money that goes onto the credit card each payday, by £400 or so, and then use the card to pay for the weekly shopping, petrol and train fares etc. then wouldn't it mean that I don't get charged interest on that £400 for at least a month meaning more of my regular repayment then goes towards the balance rather than being eaten up in interest.
The obvious danger there is if I end up spending more than the additional amount I pay in the balance would increase and make the situation worse. I'm also wondering whether that level of activity would have an adverse effect on my credit score, making it even harder to get a new card that I could transfer to at 0%.

The other alternative I can see is to struggle on as I am for now, making more than the minimum payments so that in a couple of months my score improves to the point where I can expect to be accepted for a balance transfer
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Ring them up and at least get the interest frozen ,follow the link Ace has provided, forget about your credit score, right now the most important thing is getting that interest frozen and paying the debt off, your credit rating will improve again, don't wait around thinking, ring them.
 
I'm in the situation now myself, been chased from a few companies. I sat and wrote all the outgoings down and what's owed. Tried to get a consolidation loan and Barclays doesn't want to know. Other Consolidation firms online don't want to know either. One reason my credit score is too low.

Bare in mind all I have is about 1600 in debt and a mortgage of 65k.

It is all 100% down to credit score! If this is too low they don't want to know. It's all down too missed payments and not paying back when you promised.

I'm currently working through mine now as I'm going through this thread. Once you are in a circle it's hard to get out of. nobody wants to know me now when once upon a time banks where throwing themselves at me offering 35k e.t.c.

Broken Hope said:
For those saying consolidation loan, unless he closes the card after paying it off he’ll just end up with 2 lots of debt instead of 1.
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Does anyone know if you can find out what you have still left open on any accounts e.t.c? Is there any way to know this info? I would love to close everything what I have had open in the past but don't have any stored letters or anything to find this info out.
 
mrbell1984 said:
Does anyone know if you can find out what you have still left open on any accounts e.t.c? Is there any way to know this info? I would love to close everything what I have had open in the past but don't have any stored letters or anything to find this info out.
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All of that should be on your credit report.

You say you have a mortgage and only £1600 debt - have you considered looking at adding the debt to the mortgage? You would probably end up paying more over the term, but if it makes the payments affordable and stops things getting worse then maybe something to consider?

Please note I'm not advising you to do this without serious consideration and possibly speaking to a professional, as obviously it increases the risk of negative equity and also if you default then you risk your home, not just your credit history
 
Haggisman said:
All of that should be on your credit report.

You say you have a mortgage and only £1600 debt - have you considered looking at adding the debt to the mortgage? You would probably end up paying more over the term, but if it makes the payments affordable and stops things getting worse then maybe something to consider?

Please note I'm not advising you to do this without serious consideration and possibly speaking to a professional, as obviously it increases the risk of negative equity and also if you default then you risk your home, not just your credit history
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I thought about that yeh. Just reading up on it. I looked at my credit report but wanted me to pay on Experian to view more info and I’m not paying.
 
mrbell1984 said:
I'm in the situation now myself, been chased from a few companies. I sat and wrote all the outgoings down and what's owed. Tried to get a consolidation loan and Barclays doesn't want to know. Other Consolidation firms online don't want to know either. One reason my credit score is too low.

Bare in mind all I have is about 1600 in debt and a mortgage of 65k.

It is all 100% down to credit score! If this is too low they don't want to know. It's all down too missed payments and not paying back when you promised.

I'm currently working through mine now as I'm going through this thread. Once you are in a circle it's hard to get out of. nobody wants to know me now when once upon a time banks where throwing themselves at me offering 35k e.t.c.

Does anyone know if you can find out what you have still left open on any accounts e.t.c? Is there any way to know this info? I would love to close everything what I have had open in the past but don't have any stored letters or anything to find this info out.
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£1600 is nothing really when it comes to debt. I'd probably look at getting a bar job or something part time for a couple of evenings a week to get that paid off in a year.

Get registered on ClearScore. It'll show you everything you need about your accounts etc
 
I’ll take a look at clearscore. Thanks.

It’s very easy to get in a circle of never ending outgoings though. You think there’s never an end too it all. After Ive sorted all this out I’ll never ever get credit again for as long as I live. I’m only 33 as well. It’s all due too been thrown money when been younger.
 
Wow! Clear Score has told me exactly what’s caused it!!! It was an EON late payments. There was 6 of them on my account back in 2015! That’s when I had my solar panels installed and my meter was going backwards! The little tinkers!
 
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