Hi,
I'm looking for advice on the best way to go about clearing my credit card debt. I'll give a quick history of how I got myself where I am today and hopefully someone can advise me on the best options to clear my debts from here.
I got divorced around eight years ago and took around 7k in debt out of the marriage. I was working shifts at the time, so was managing fairly well paying my maintenance and paying off my debts. Fate took a turn for the worse shortly after however. My car suffered engine failure and was basically a write off, so I purchased a new car - again it was affordable, but extended what I owed to approximately 17k.
Shortly after things got worse as I was taken off shifts due to a downturn in production and started working dayshift. This constituted about a 1/3rd reduction in my weekly wage, so you can imagine things were started to get really tight. I took the decision to consolidate my debts into one loan which helped a little, but I was still stretched and started using credit cards as a stop gap when I needed to.
This went on for a couple of years and I soon found I was really struggling to service my loan and CC debt. So I consolidated again and took out a 20k loan over 7 years (approx 4 years ago).
Since then, I have struggled on much of the time relying on Credit Cards to keep afloat.
Finally, financial pressures have started to ease somewhat, my son is now 19 and I no longer pay maintenance for him so that has helped. But I now find myself with 10k in CC debt and around 9k still owing on my loan.
I am coping quite well at the moment servicing the debt, and find I am no longer reliant on Credit Cards to get by, in fact I have a small amount of extra cash each month which is steadily clearing a long term overdraft I have had with my bank (approx 500 atm). However, I'm not getting anywhere in clearing the CC debt and am simply blowing 250 per month on the interest.
So what to do...
I don't really want to consolidate the loan I have as I have 36 payments left and I have already payed all the interest on this. So it is decreasing nicely at 300 per month. I have tried applying for another loan for 10k to clear the CC debt, but each place I try refuses me mainly because my personal unsecured debt is over 15k.
I am thinking of trying to transfer the CC debt onto 0% cards, but am unsure of whether I could get a card with a 10k limit? Or should I try and get a loan and neglect to mention I already have a loan that still has 9k to pay on it? I've even thought of trying to get a loan at a higher rate of interest just so it is at least getting paid of each month and not just wasted in interest.
It is so frustrating, I already paying more a month in interest to the CC companies than I would pay for a loan to clear them off, but its such a waste cause it doesn't even make a dent!
Any thoughts on the best path to take greatly appreciated :o)
I'm looking for advice on the best way to go about clearing my credit card debt. I'll give a quick history of how I got myself where I am today and hopefully someone can advise me on the best options to clear my debts from here.
I got divorced around eight years ago and took around 7k in debt out of the marriage. I was working shifts at the time, so was managing fairly well paying my maintenance and paying off my debts. Fate took a turn for the worse shortly after however. My car suffered engine failure and was basically a write off, so I purchased a new car - again it was affordable, but extended what I owed to approximately 17k.
Shortly after things got worse as I was taken off shifts due to a downturn in production and started working dayshift. This constituted about a 1/3rd reduction in my weekly wage, so you can imagine things were started to get really tight. I took the decision to consolidate my debts into one loan which helped a little, but I was still stretched and started using credit cards as a stop gap when I needed to.
This went on for a couple of years and I soon found I was really struggling to service my loan and CC debt. So I consolidated again and took out a 20k loan over 7 years (approx 4 years ago).
Since then, I have struggled on much of the time relying on Credit Cards to keep afloat.
Finally, financial pressures have started to ease somewhat, my son is now 19 and I no longer pay maintenance for him so that has helped. But I now find myself with 10k in CC debt and around 9k still owing on my loan.
I am coping quite well at the moment servicing the debt, and find I am no longer reliant on Credit Cards to get by, in fact I have a small amount of extra cash each month which is steadily clearing a long term overdraft I have had with my bank (approx 500 atm). However, I'm not getting anywhere in clearing the CC debt and am simply blowing 250 per month on the interest.
So what to do...
I don't really want to consolidate the loan I have as I have 36 payments left and I have already payed all the interest on this. So it is decreasing nicely at 300 per month. I have tried applying for another loan for 10k to clear the CC debt, but each place I try refuses me mainly because my personal unsecured debt is over 15k.
I am thinking of trying to transfer the CC debt onto 0% cards, but am unsure of whether I could get a card with a 10k limit? Or should I try and get a loan and neglect to mention I already have a loan that still has 9k to pay on it? I've even thought of trying to get a loan at a higher rate of interest just so it is at least getting paid of each month and not just wasted in interest.
It is so frustrating, I already paying more a month in interest to the CC companies than I would pay for a loan to clear them off, but its such a waste cause it doesn't even make a dent!
Any thoughts on the best path to take greatly appreciated :o)
