Paying off a credit card -advice please?

[saffyronron]

Hi all, I've managed to get myself a bigger credit card bill than I'd hoped. It's not entirely insurmountable. Around £1670. I hate having to pay all the interest. I have calculated my income and outgoings and actually wonder if it would be worth my while:
keeping the exact amount (with a little contingency) in my current account where my bills come out and
take out the rest to pay to my credit card and pay for life generally (very frugally)using the credit card, e.g. food, petrol etc. and hope that the payments come down in this way or
will this increase the interest rather than pay it off?
I'm so crap with these things! I hope you can see what I'm trying to do and I don't come across too dense. Any advice
anyone?

Im not sure exactly what you mean from your OP?

Usually the first month on a credit card is interest free - ie if you pay the statement amount in full then you dont have to pay any interest.

What I do is to use a credit card for all my spending, and then I pay that off in full each month. This works out for me as the most economical way to do things as I never pay interest, I benefit from the points gained on my credit card, and because it creates a delay by around a month between buying something and paying for it it also means that I pay less interest on my curent account mortgage.

Is that the kind of thing you meant?

No. If you've got the money then pay this bill off straight away.

If you haven't got all the money, then work out how much a month you can afford to pay, and pay it off in installments (allowing for the interest as well).

And then don't use your credit card for anything else!

If you keep running up bills like this (and you don't like paying the interest) then why are you using your credit card for buying food and petrol? You should be using your debit card so that the money comes straight out of your current account.

Why are you not doing that? Are you living within your means?

Pay it off if you have the money or save up until you can. inetreets on a cc will far exceed anything paid on savings atm. Then try to only spend on cc what you can clear at the end of the month, and ideally keep a buffer.

Thanks everyone. Yes, I'm living beyond my means. I had the cc as a buffer but ended up using it when I shouldn't have. To be fair my circumstances have changed hence the reason it's become more difficult to pay off. Thanks BIWI, I thought I would have to go with the paying off in instalments idea. There just always seems to be something else to pay for. For example, I have 3 'special' birthdays to manage this month, it was the car last month -and it goes on and on. I do have a good salary but my outgoings are immense. Honestly, I'm considering selling my house and not having a mortgage and loan - it's crippling me but suspect I'm make a massive loss on my property if I do this and still end up paying the loan. My mortgage and loan take half my income!

I think you need to look at everything very objectively. If you're struggling to meet day to day expenses and manage your debts at the same time then it could be worth talking to a free debt advice service such as CAB or National Debtline.

Otherwise, sit down and work out exactly what you have coming in, what your essential expenses are each month, how much you should set aside for 'rainy days' (car repairs etc.) and then see exactly what's left. Be quite brutal about your definition of 'essential', try to reduce your bills as much as possible by using comparison sites for utilities/insurance etc., and dispense with everything else.

You may be able to renegotiate your mortgage to be interest only for a while, if that would help you get back on your feet. If your home is too large or too expensive, selling may be the sensible option. But look at it all very critically rather than panic or do anything in haste

Time, then, to sit down and look at why those outgoings are so immense!

As Chil1234 says, you need to be really brutal about what you're spending.

Get your last 2-3 months' worth of bank/credit card statements and look at what you've been spending your money on.

If you take out cash and use that, try and itemise what you spent that cash on each week.

You will probably find that there are lots of things that you can cut down/out without much difficulty. For example - buying magazines, take-away coffees, lunch from M&S, etc - will all be costing you a fortune and you could easily cut these out.

Are you buying your food at Waitrose/M&S? Are you buying daily rather than weekly? This will be adding a lot of money to your outgoings. If you start meal planning and going to cheaper supermarkets, and start buying own brand goods rather than branded ones (and the quality is sometimes better if you do this - honest!), you will also save shedloads.

The special birthdays that are coming up - how much are you expecting to spend? Just because it's a special birthday doesn't always mean lots of money.

I would definitely agree that you should consider talking to someone who deals with debt - if you have a large mortgage, a loan and have had to take out a credit card as a buffer (which you're then using) it could be a good idea to look at how you can sort this out with finance.

But the priority will be to sort out your spending.

BTW - I know how changes in circumstances can affect you, as it's happened to me over the last year as well, so you do have my sympathy!

I have been made redundant 5 times so I know how to be frugal when I need to be!

Special Birthdays = Thoughtful gift (not expensive)

Out comes the excel spreadsheet and I list my income and outgoings and then look at where I can cut corners (eating out/bought sandwich at lunch/anything I want instead of need)

It is horrible to have to be so brutal, but it feels better when you start paying the debt off and can see some savings creeping in.

Me xx

We took out a 'much cheaper on the interest' bank loan to pay off our £3500 credit card bill and we set up a direct debit to pay it off. We then cut the card up and have never had one since.
Only downside is we have a lower credit rating than when we were in debt!!!

I have had a massive CC bill once, thanks to helping out an ungrateful bastard who was supposed to be paying it off as he went (ha!)

The interest gave me near heart failure, but I just had to bite the bullet and pay off as much as I could every month, not use the CC in between except for essentials like food and petrol (I used it as part of my accounting system, being self-employed at the time). So all my money that wasn't already accounted for went to the credit card and after a few months I had paid it all off. Yes, I ended up having to pay interest but it was all a salutary lesson for me in not lending money to anyone, whoever they are and however plausible they appear.

Pay as much as you can; the interest will come down every month as the balance comes down, the more you pay off the faster it will all reduce (I know that's kind of obvious but still.)

Can you balance transfer to a lower interest rate for while you pay it off? Close the current one & chop up the new card when it comes