Phone credit card company

[MiddleClassPerm]

Hi all, can anyone offer advice please?

I have a credit card and the minimum repayments have become too much. I phoned them in November and they reduced my payments for 3 months. I'm due to go back to normal payments next month.

I checked my account today and my balance is now higher than it was before as although they reduced the interest it is still more than I was repaying. I am going to ring them tomorrow but I was hoping someone could help me with where I stand?

I was planning on asking them to freeze the interest and go on a payment plan of £20 a month. I was on the StepChange website and filled in their debt tool and I have £22 left each month after my expenses. Can i do this and will they accept it or can they force me to pay a higher amount and refuse to freeze the interest? I'm worried I'll get calls from them and I don't want them phoning my employer.

Tia

Do you have any other debts or just this one? How much do you owe in total?

I have another couple of credit cards but the balance is low and I can afford those. I owe just shy of £4000

Anyone?

I believe that if you use a service like stepchange, then you have to list all debts and treat them equally - ie all the accounts have to be offered reduced payments and available cash spread out ‘fairly’.

The credit card company don’t have to lower or freeze the interest, but they will have to look whether the debt is completely unmanageable or is likely to spiral out of control. As far as phoning you at work, I don’t think there’s anything to stop them doing that, but they wouldn’t be allowed to tell your colleagues details about your debt etc.

What about transferring the debt onto an interest free credit card through a balance transfer?
This would entirely depend on your credit rating but I have these cards and they're over 30 months, I pay more than the minimum payment though so that in 30 months the balance will be 0

My other cards have low limits so I can afford those it's just this one, I have no other debt. And the fact I had 3 months of reduced payments means my balance is now higher is so frustrating.

Thanks for the help, I'll just ring them and see what they say, I just don't think they'll help too much, they're very pushy so I wanted to get my facts straight first.

Sorry, just seen your reply. Tyrion is correct - in order to make a more formal arrangement you would need to include all of your debts not just that one.

You might be lucky though if you call the provider to ask them to freeze the interest so you can pay it off, however in my experience the only way to do this is with a debt management plan on all the cards.