Transferring my credit card debt

If you read my first Diary of a Young Debtor entry, you may be wondering how on earth I am going to pay my rent which is due out on Wednesday... because I know I was.

Well, I found a solution. Admittedly, not an ideal one: I have opened up a new credit card. My rent HAS to be paid and I HAVE to be able to get to work. I don't know what else I could have done.

When I wrote that post my HSBC credit card was almost entirely at its limit (balance: minus £3,646, credit available: £104) and I was also paying loads of interest (about £50 per month).

So I have transferred my credit card debt to a new Barclaycard Platinum credit card which is O% interest (I found the offer via this article). I don't know why I didn't transfer it elsewhere before. It is just stupid and lazy that I didn't, because I'm now £50 per month better off without even changing my lifestyle.

If I miss a payment I will lose the O% interest offer, which lasts 24 months, so I have to keep a close eye on it, but it seems to have worked out so far.

...It also means my HSBC credit card has been freed-up for me to continue recklessly using it to pay my rent (erm, yes - I did say it wasn't an ideal solution). I'm committed to getting in credit now, though, and as soon as I can pay it off I will.

This month I have already saved money by smoking less (one packet of 20 and one packet of 10 cigarettes this entire month, compared to about one packet of 20 every two days last month), scavenging from my parents' fridge and cupboards (this is fine by them as long as I don't take the... biscuit) and cancelling my £30 per month Virgin Media broadband (and using my parents' connection at home instead for now).

I'm feeling like a bit of a paragon of virtue. One packet of cigarettes in a month! This seems semi-miraculous! I don't want to get too smug though, because I have a long way to go. It is much easier to cut back on spending when everyone is on a post-Christmas/New-Year-health-drive and the pubs are quiet (ahem, and when you are living with your parents and scrounging internet and food off them).

I am genuinely in this getting-out-of-debt-mission for the long-haul though, and I now have two lots of credit card payments instead of one, so I can't start celebrating yet.

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