by: Sean Spurr

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With consumer debt in the UK at historically high levels, there are greater and greater numbers of us getting into debt, and trying to escape it. While the recession is hurting our pockets – wage freezes, redundencies and no available overtime make it hard to earn that little extra we need to pay off our debts – we can at least try to reduce or even remove our interest payments until we are in a better position to pay off our debts.

Many of the solutions we list below will depend on your credit rating. A good credit rating will enable you to reduce greatly the interest you are paying on most small and medium sized debts. However even if you’re credit rating isn’t in the best shape you could still potentially reduce your APR and thus reduce your total outgoings on your debt, and have a little extra in your bank account to pay off the ‘base’ sum of the debt or get back a few luxuries you’ve had to sacrifice. Many of the typical APRs we mention below and you will see when looking are offered at what is called “Price for Risk” where your circumstances will affect the APR that is offered. This is not the case for all offers however, and someone with a mid-ranking credit rating perhaps would be better applying for those that don’t differentiate, while those with a low credit rating are less likely to be accepted by those who do not have variable APR offers.

Perhaps the best form of interest free borrowing if you plan well is interest-free credit cards. Several of the major credit card companies offer these, some for balance transfer and others for new payments. At the time we write this article at the start of Summer 2009, Virgin Money, Nat West, Barclaycard and MBMA are all offering interest free balance transfer which last over a year, each with fees of between 2.5% and 3%. If you are unlikely to be able to pay off your initial debt for a long time, the longest interest free duration is offered by Virgin at 16 months followed closely by NatWest at 15 months. Further to this, Halifax and Sainsburys are both offering cards with a 3% balance transfer fee which are interest free for at least nine months. All of these cards have a Typical APR of less than 17%, the Barclaycard being the lowest at just 12.4%. Balance transfer could be your best option if your current card has an unacceptably high interest rate or you don’t and can’t make a lot of purchases using your credit card.

The other option with interest free credit cards is interest free purchases. This method has the advantage of not requiring the fee. If you’re debt is reasonably low this could be your best option. Work our how much extra you could have a month to pay your debt off with if you don’t pay for your retail, supermarket and similar expenses immediately but using your interest free credit card and if this amount adds up over one or two months to more than your total debt amount then this is the ideal way to go. You can therefore pay off your debt and end your interest payments while getting a similar amount of debt on your essential purchases which you will have at least nine months to pay off before you have any interest to pay. Many of the credit cards available allow you to combine purchases and balance transfers, and paying everything on your card could be a good idea if you wish to accumulate cash in order to pay off a loan which requires the full amount to be paid back in order not to continue with the regular monthly payments.

Perhaps the best way for a low credit rating which prevents you from getting a credit card would be free overdraft offers from high street banks. Most high street banks have bank accounts which allow interest free overdrafts. Alliance and Leicester’s Premier current account has an interest free overdraft without fees for the first year, which follows by an amount up to £5 a month. If you are borrowing £1000 then this will add up to £60 over the second year, being equivalent an interest rate of 6%, much better than most other debts, and with no fee for the first year this is a great way of reducing your debt. Barclays also offers a year without interest on overdrafts, but their interest rate after this is 17.9% which is higher than a lot of credit cards. However Barclays, and many other banks, offer premium accounts that include interest free overdrafts. The cost of these varies, but you’re best option is to make an appointment with your existing bank to see what interest free overdraft you could get with what account, asking them to work out an equivalent APR for you. Most banks like to keep your custom, so will be able to offer you something in order to avoid you switching banks.


About The Author
Sean Spurr is the author of Debt Management Guide, a popular website offering free debt help advice to people in the United Kingdom. The site has articles on all aspects of debt management, from credit card debt transfer to bankruptcy.