What one piece of advice would you give to someone struggling to pay off their credit card debts?
I’d probably suggest that they create a budget and review their spending so they can then work out if it’s possible to make bigger monthly repayments.
What would you suggest?
Didn’t know it was called the pyramid method - makes sense!
And yeah, balance transfer cards can be a great idea for cutting credit card costs 
This is generally considered the best approach.
If you’re in debt, it doesn’t need to be a 0% deal to save you serious cash. In some cases, just being able to put a chunk of debt at the lowest rate possible so you have some headroom to pay off your nastiest [Edit: remaining! - obviously, transfer your highest interest debt] credit cards can speed the whole pyramid up considerably
Yeah, I was playing around with a credit card repayment calculator online and it really shows what a huge difference even a few % less interest can make to your total repayments!
Which one is it?
There are loads online, but I always go for the MSE calculators. (They have a calculator for everything!)
See if it’s possible to consolidate onto a new card that might give an interest-free period. Or a personal loan for the card balances.
Cut up the cards. Or, keep 1 for emergencies in the home.
Spend only on necessities, no eating out, no takeaways, no new anything unless something needs to be replaced.
Make the financial priority to clear the debt and once cleared build an emergency fund.
With the exception of cars and property, only buy something if you’ve got the money to pay for it. Other exception, if something is available on interest free credit but only have 1, maybe 2, of these at any given time.
Loads of great tips here, thanks for sharing!
I’ve seen tips online that suggest literally freezing your credit card to reduce any temptation to use it - not sure how well that would work though haha
Yeah I guess you’re right!
Even having to input your card details when you buy something online, instead of the info being automatically populated, adds just enough effort to make me question how much I want to buy something lol
If you want to go extreme, try the 24h cooling off method. You want to buy something - diarise the purchase for tomorrow.
I was speaking to someone on our Instagram account that did this kinda thing but had a 2-week cooling-off period instead. Pretty cool to have that much dedication to mindful spending!
I think the price of something deffo dictates how long I think about buying it, too - under £50 I think I’d just go for it, anything over I’d probably ponder on for a bit longer
Do you know what their main purpose of doing this was? Sounds like they went into quite a lot of effort to work it all out, but then what did they do with that information lol?
Haha ok this is amazing
Loving all the discussion about how the price would vary depending how full the kettle was 
And someone saying they boil the kettle once and put it in a flask to keep hot all day - now that’s thrifty!
I just got completely lost down this rabbit hole 
I like this. I’m going write it down somewhere so I remember when I want to break a habit
Taking a loan out to consolidate can lead to more (a doubling of) debt, unless the cause of that debt addressed. What often happens is that the loan is used to pay off the credit card(s), which the holder then doesn’t destroy, but uses (perhaps on essentials, like food, housing etc.)
e.g. Bob has £5k of debt on his credit card that he’d like to pay off/transfer to a cheaper rate, he’s run up the debt as his income is not sufficient for the lifestyle he wants / his essential spending…
He takes out a loan for £5k - and then pays the required instalments for that… in the meantime he’s not addressed the cause of his debt - so puts spending back on the card, quickly running up another £5k of debt - he then has £10k of debt.
Bob should also definitely not seek to consolidate by increasing a mortgage that he has by the £5k - as he turns that from unsecured debt, to a secured debt.
With the tightening of lending criteria that’s been happening over the last year, there is also no guarantee that a loan will be forthcoming, especially if the debt is a multiple of someone’s monthly income.
What Bob should do if he’s struggling, is to talk to one of the debt charities e.g. stepchange to understand what his options are, and how he can best engage with his creditors.
Wow. It’s a really deep explanation and a great tip, thanks for sharing!