Given the choice between being the kind of person who ran up a 34.9% credit, and the kind of person who feels the need to post a snooty post about someone else having done so, I think I'd choose the former.
Credit card trap
- Thread starter trigg_27
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Given the choice between being the kind of person who ran up a 34.9% credit, and the kind of person who feels the need to post a snooty post about someone else having done so, I think I'd choose the former.
Soldato
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I'll take being in debt at 34.9% any day rather than being someone like you, and I mean that.
Your own fortunate circumstances have blinded you to something that should be obvious to you even though you've never been in the situation yourself - people rarely if ever choose to pay 35% interest if they could get credit at a lower rate of interest.
By the way, the highest interest I've paid in the last 10 years is on my home insurance because I pay it by direct debit. I don't know what the interest rate is because it adds such a trivial amount to my home insurance payments that I don't care enough to look. The only other interest I pay is on my mortgage and that's so small I neither know nor care what the interest is on that either. I did some comparisons last year to see the lowest I could get...it would have reduced my monthly mortgage payment by £6.
But I have enough financial knowledge to be able to understand the existence of other circumstances. You clearly don't.
Whilst he probably didn't word it very eloquently taking out credit at 35% is unbelievably stupid.
The phrase if you can't afford it springs to mind. I mean he is paying 35% interest and was contimplating spending £500 on a PC for gods sake. He obviously isn't scraping pennies off the floor.
What Sonny is saying about finances being taught is true. It makes my head hurt when thinking about paying that sort of interest rate.
I pay a representative 76% on one of my credit cards, care to cast your expert opinion on that?
Caporegime
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it's pretty obvious what he needs to do also.
1. take out a cheaper loan to pay credit card off.
2. pay off cheap loan
all it takes is 10 minutes on zopa and he would be sorted out. seriously there are shows on tv helping people like this. there is also a website with a whole section dedicated to it formerly owned by martin lewis. he should at least of heard of that name. so i don't really see the need to ask on here when the info is all out there.
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/debt-help-plan
there you go. every piece of info available in one place to solve this problem.
people like this never learn if you are nice to them i've found from past experience. girl at work like around 10K on credit cards whilst living at home with her mum (just lol). she also has a car on finance. decides to move out with bf. has to take on a second job because she is struggling. her friend buys a new car on finance. so what does she do when her finance is finally paid on her car? start looking at financing a better/newer car.
they never learn. she also talked about her debt on at least a weekly basis. she was given advice the nice way for years. and i do mean years. some people just can't be helped.
if me being a **** helps him get his act together then he will thank me later on. some people need to be told it straight. the anger will help motivate them.
1. take out a cheaper loan to pay credit card off.
2. pay off cheap loan
all it takes is 10 minutes on zopa and he would be sorted out. seriously there are shows on tv helping people like this. there is also a website with a whole section dedicated to it formerly owned by martin lewis. he should at least of heard of that name. so i don't really see the need to ask on here when the info is all out there.
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/debt-help-plan
there you go. every piece of info available in one place to solve this problem.
people like this never learn if you are nice to them i've found from past experience. girl at work like around 10K on credit cards whilst living at home with her mum (just lol). she also has a car on finance. decides to move out with bf. has to take on a second job because she is struggling. her friend buys a new car on finance. so what does she do when her finance is finally paid on her car? start looking at financing a better/newer car.
they never learn. she also talked about her debt on at least a weekly basis. she was given advice the nice way for years. and i do mean years. some people just can't be helped.
if me being a **** helps him get his act together then he will thank me later on. some people need to be told it straight. the anger will help motivate them.
Associate
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- 3 May 2007
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He probably can't get a loan to pay them off, I'm sure that was op's first thought.
That surely depends on what that credit is for?
If the choice is between fixing your car to get to work or losing your job, then if 35% is the only option, it's a bit of a no brainer
This I do agree with, and hopefully the helpful posts in here have made it clear that he needs to prioritise paying this off rather than luxuries!
You're assuming he could actually get another loan (at a lower rate).
Considering you know absolutely nothing about the OP or why he's in the situation he's in except for the few paragraphs he's posted in here, that's an extremely arrogant statement to make.
The "advice" you're offering is useless at best, and maybe you should consider the OP's situation rather than your own before embarrassing yourself further.
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Soldato
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The solution is simple, ring them up, tell them you can't afford to pay it off and have the interest frozen and then agree a monthly repayment plan, creditors will work with you.
Once it's paid off start building your credit up again, which is easy to do, I started with high interest credit cards using them for shopping and daily expensive and paying the balance in full each month, before you know creditors are begging you to take credit with them.
Once it's paid off start building your credit up again, which is easy to do, I started with high interest credit cards using them for shopping and daily expensive and paying the balance in full each month, before you know creditors are begging you to take credit with them.
Soldato
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Probably one of the amex avios cards, dual mastercard/amex cards, normal amex is a chargecard, so Loyds as it has no fee?
Your ivory tower is a wonderful place....
My amex platinum card has a 30% interest rate, FTR I took maths at A level
Caporegime
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Your ivory tower is a wonderful place....
My amex platinum card has a 30% interest rate, FTR I took maths at A level
I doubt he has only 1500 quid a year disposable income. If he does then he need to get a second job or better job. if he has more than 1500 a year disposable then his debt should be coming down by itself.
He also needs to cut down on the likely crap he is buying on a daily, weekly, monthly basis or find cheaper alternatives. I'd like to see him post up a 3 month bank statement for example, I bet there will be tons of **** on there he didn't need to buy. if he does that and it's clean i'll retract my statements. but without that you can bet he will be spending money willy nilly. it's what got him in this situation in the first place.
Soldato
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Was in a similar situation to OP many years ago, I think with around 10,000 in debt total. Now I have no debt and perfect credit score.
Heres what I did:
1. Call them up and fight for an interest freeze, they will likely want a commitment that you will pay it off by a certain date.
2. Look closely at your monthly spend what can be sacrificed? have a nice sports car drinking petrol then downgrade etc etc.
3. Your efforts should be focused on paying the cards off as quickly as possible. Your brain will tell you its bad to do so, but the relief of having zero debt is honestly the better way of living. It may take years but its well worth it.
If your credit score has tanked, you wont get a lone elsewhere and honestly consolidating debts is a slippery road where you may end up with more debt if you dont fix the root of the issue with your spending.
Dont use any company to consolidate, most are scams out to make money from vunerable people.
It was only in January you were asking about upgrading your pc, budget £100 per month - its that sort of money that needs to go to paying it off, not spanking it on new pc equipment.
Heres what I did:
1. Call them up and fight for an interest freeze, they will likely want a commitment that you will pay it off by a certain date.
2. Look closely at your monthly spend what can be sacrificed? have a nice sports car drinking petrol then downgrade etc etc.
3. Your efforts should be focused on paying the cards off as quickly as possible. Your brain will tell you its bad to do so, but the relief of having zero debt is honestly the better way of living. It may take years but its well worth it.
If your credit score has tanked, you wont get a lone elsewhere and honestly consolidating debts is a slippery road where you may end up with more debt if you dont fix the root of the issue with your spending.
Dont use any company to consolidate, most are scams out to make money from vunerable people.
It was only in January you were asking about upgrading your pc, budget £100 per month - its that sort of money that needs to go to paying it off, not spanking it on new pc equipment.
You know what they say about assumption
Soldato
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Perhaps along with the financial education they can also teach the difference between "have" and "of".
Does having 3* 0% int credit cards make it hard to get further borrowing or consolidate onto 1 single 0%? I'm in a situation where in about 1-2 years my 0% will end, there will be about 2.5-3k on them, and I have 1500 on a 3.9% APR money transfer. My GF wants me to get a debt consolidation LOAN as she wants us to get a mortgage in 1-2 years, will this debt, on a LOAN or left as is make getting a mortgage impossible?