Credit Card advice

py2006

Hiya,

Ok, here is my dilemma:

I have a credit card with a limit of €4600 which I am struggling with. It is currently at €4439. However, every time I make payment off it it shoots back up pretty quickly often hitting the limit. So I can't seem to make any inroads there. I have frozen the card, so I can't make any purchases.

I can afford to pay €4000 off it right now but it would leave me fairly broke. I was considering doing this and ringing them to reduce the limit. However, I have college fees of €2700 to pay in the next week or two.

So my options are:

A) Take €4000 of credit card which would bring it down to €439 and use the card to pay for college fees which would bring it back up to €3319 almost immediately.

Pay the college fees normally and keep trying to chip away at the card.


I am really not sure what to do here. I would love to clear the card and reduce limit as its just costing me money. But if I do that I am still left with the college fees.

Any ideas?

chris85

py2006 wrote: »

Hiya,

Ok, here is my dilemma:

I have a credit card with a limit of €4600 which I am struggling with. It is currently at €4439. However, every time I make payment off it it shoots back up pretty quickly often hitting the limit. So I can't seem to make any inroads there. I have frozen the card, so I can't make any purchases.

I can afford to pay €4000 off it right now but it would leave me fairly broke. I was considering doing this and ringing them to reduce the limit. However, I have college fees of €2700 to pay in the next week or two.

So my options are:

A) Take €4000 of credit card which would bring it down to €439 and use the card to pay for college fees which would bring it back up to €3319 almost immediately.

Pay the college fees normally and keep trying to chip away at the card.


I am really not sure what to do here. I would love to clear the card and reduce limit as its just costing me money. But if I do that I am still left with the college fees.

Any ideas?

Pay the €4k off your card and use it to pay the fees. Reason being is the college fees onto your credit card will have an interest free period of between 30-60 days before you start getting charged interest on it.

NuMarvel

On the face of it, and assuming you are at least meeting the minimum payments, my suggestion would be to pay the college fees and then use what you can afford of the balance to reduce your credit card balance.

That way, you still reduce your debt, while avoiding the temptation of using the credit card in the future and running up another debt. I'm sure your intention now would be to only use the card just this once for the college fees, but that's a slippery slope.

py2006

chris85 wrote: »

Pay the €4k off your card and use it to pay the fees. Reason being is the college fees onto your credit card will have an interest free period of between 30-60 days before you start getting charged interest on it.

How does the interest free work out? Surely the interest in is the entire card and not individual payments?

NuMarvel wrote: »

On the face of it, and assuming you are at least meeting the minimum payments, my suggestion would be to pay the college fees and then use what you can afford of the balance to reduce your credit card balance.

That way, you still reduce your debt, while avoiding the temptation of using the credit card in the future and running up another debt. I'm sure your intention now would be to only use the card just this once for the college fees, but that's a slippery slope.

Well, at times struggling to meet minimum payments. When I do make a payment it doesn't make a difference and jumps back up that much again.

giftgrub

I'd pay the fees and then lump the rest on the card.

Then ring them, put a block on the card and work out a fixed monthly payment.

My card was over 3000 at one stage, I worked out a deal with PTSB to pay off 150 per month. Its finally down to below 1000 for the first time in about 4 years.

Another option would be a credit union loan to clear the balance with a lower interest rate.

I'm never going near a credit card again once this one is paid off....too dangerous and easy to rack up debt

chris85

py2006 wrote: »

How does the interest free work out? Surely the interest in is the entire card and not individual payments?

The interest free period would be on individual purchases. You get charged interest on the balance however individual purchases are not included the balance that interest is applied on until a certain number of days after purchase. This differs for different credit cards.

For instance on my card i have 53 days interest free period on credit cards. So for each indivudal purchase there will not be interest calculated on them until 53 days after the purchase.

Hatch-it Man

Check your statement and see how much interest is applied each month and then make sure you are paying more than this each month.. take gift grubs advice and block the card..
or..If you have the CC through a bank ask them if you can convert the balance to a 4600eur personal loan.. at least you will have a repayment structure in place and some idea when the debt will be clear.