Page 1 of I need to consolidate my debts. Help?

I owe just short over a grand, on two seperate credit cards (Barclaycard & Capital One). Recently I`ve been getting my ass kicked pretty damn hard, as I`ve slacked off on payments, and the penalties have been rather stiff. I`m over the limit on both cards, and am getting a beating with additional costs. I`m in big trouble.

I`m in & out of jobs (currently out) on agencies & such, and my credit rating isn`t too clever. WHAT THE HELL AM I GOING TO DO?!

I really need some help! =(

Your first port of call should be the CC Company, advised them of the problems you are having.
Once they know, they will normally come to some arrangement with you of how you are going to repay them as it is in their best intrest to recover what you owe rather than sell the debt on losing some of its value.

This is basicly what a debt consolidation company will do but charge you for it thus making the debt bigger but the repayments smaller over alonger time.

So get on the phone to the CC comps and sort it your self saving a few bob to hat.

Get in touch with the CCCS (Consumer Credit Counselling Service) straight away - check out there website at www.cccs.co.uk

Tell them your situation ans see what they say...

If you`re able to - go to your bank and get a loan fot the grand way cheaper than CCs - or have a look at moneysupermarket for the cheapest loan.

Regards,
Peter

Once u pay it off, just cut up the cards.

Especially if you don`t have a steady paying job.

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I`ll look into them. I just had a loan from Intelligent Finace rejected online. Those b[at].sdrats

It`s usually better to go into a branch and talk to them about a loan, rather than using an online application form.

Usually the online application has "specifics" that can`t be bent or changed. Where as going into a branch they can usually change things (ie defering payment for x months, or for a mortgage going over 3x your earnings)

One thing you could look at is 0% interest cards, at least to give you breathing space (of course cut up the cards you don`t use, and don`t use the new one for any reason other than being a holder for your credit)

*sigh* I just wish I had never got a credit card, ever. It`s too easy to run up debts that I`m still paying off 6 years later. God know how much money I`ve wasted on interest payments.

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Get yourself a 0% CC.. loads of them about
MBNA, marbles, Goldfish RBS they usually only want to see 3 things
that you are on the electral roll, dont have any CCJ outstanding and have no history of defalting on a Direct debit payment if you can fill all 3 of these you should ok.
I am a temp only been working in this job for 2 months still managed to get 8000gbp on 0%, the the good thing is after paying off the CC i transfered the balance to my current A.c and have bgt premiun bonds so hopefully i will win on those and pay the debt with teh winnings
if i dont win i ill cash in on thebonds and re pay the CC in 6 months its a free gamble.

The only other suggestion i can thing of is to get an authorised overdraft from your bank rates are about 8-12% better than most CC

While we`re on about debts - anyone know about what happens when you default on a debt?? What does it do to your credit rating etc...

All loan/banks/cc companies operate their own `Credit Score`. There really no such thing as a `credit rating`.

They extract the information about the customer from the Experian or Equifax database and then make their decision based upon that.

They main things they look at are:

Voters Roll (to confirm you live where you say you live)
Defaults, CCJs, Missed payments on loans and CC`s.
Mortgage arrears.

If you have a CCJ or Default it will remain on the database for 6 years. The individual companies have their own underwriting criteria ie, if you have £16 CCJ from a catalogue company in 1999 they MAY overlook it if your payments have largely been up to date. If you have a £10k CCJ or defualt from say, last year, then your gonna be stitched.

If you`ve been late on your recent payments on your CC`s and you are currently over your limit, unfortunatly you dont have much chance to get another CC, and to be brutally honest i`ll be very surprised if you can get one now.

These are the biggest things they look for, and they WILL find this information out from the said reference agencies.

Hope this helps,

Neil