credit card

As an active gambler it is extremely dangerous that you have a credit card. You are in effect borrowing to lose and pay interest on it.

If you cant pay it off quickly the free interest period will soon come to an end. They offer the free interest because they know that the chances are that you will still have a large balance when the free interest stops.

The reality of a gambling binge is now dawning on you but if you dont get help you will be back gambling again.

Are you ready to stop gambling because that is your main problem? I dont wish to sound tough but if you dont really understand credit cards you shouldnt have one. I say that because I care about you. Really you should be in full recovery and making you feel better about credit card interest is just the tip of the iceberg

You need to take some time now to think about whether you really want to stop gambling and take all the advice here.

If you dont block properly and tell your family you will keep relapsing and the problems you have now will get far worse.

Best wishes from everyone on the forum

Unfortunately card transactions when gambling don’t count towards the 0% rate they’re treated as cash transactions. Suggest you get some proper financial advice and aswell cut the card up and start paying it back because if left unchecked your borrowings will snowball in no time.

Have to agree that if you don't understand how credit cards work they are not the product for you.

Have you checked the T&C's of your card? The 0% may apply to balance transfers (from other cards) only with new spending incurring normal charges and fees but the T&C's will tell you how your charges will be calculated. Also agree with cutting the card up now and closing the account as soon as the balance is paid. I don't have a credit card and never intend to again nor does Mr L who is the recovering gambler in the house. Work out a proper budget for yourself and hopefully you will find you don't need to resort to extortionate avenues of funding.

Gambling transactions are classes as cash withdrawals so for each deposit made they will add between 3-5 pounds against it. So if you made 8 deposits at 100 each, you will probably have 8 X 3 pounds added. This is before you pay interest at month end for bill if not cleared in full which will normally be about 30 pounds on that level of balance. Hope this helps

i no its suicide i have relapsed a couple of times with this credit card now so if i dont pay it back on the date i am supposed the worst that will happen is a £54 charge is that correct it has 0% interest i am absoloutley devastated its ruined christmas

If its interest free just the cash transaction charges and minimum debt payment not the 30 at end of month

Unfortunately cash withdrawals don’t class as 0% interest so basically you will be charged what ever the apr is for your card in transactions until the balance is paid in full. Basically you will be charged the percentage every month . If you only pay the minimum payment each month you’re only paying the interest and not the loan in the card.

Hi alexs100, I would follow the advice given above re:clear balance as soon as and get rid of the card. The first time I used credit card for gambling didn't realise I was charged £3 for each transaction because it was regarded as cash withdrawal. When I finally looked at my statement to assess the damage and realised that I paid nearly £100 beacuse of this I didn't stop, instead I was just making larger deposits to make the fee "worth". I must've added at least £300 worth of cash fees to date, perhaps even more.

If you borrowed 1 thousand for instance and the apr on “cash” transactions is 30 percent your bill would say one thousand pound minimum payment would be 25 pound if you pay the 25 only next month it would still say the same with same 1000 owing . You really need to check the apr because some are almost 67 percent on cash withdrawals. Read the fine print on your form or google your credit cards t&c.

We’ve all been there and it’s a bad place to be but you can work your way through it .

Just make sure you don’t keep adding to it

i just phoned my credit card up they said it is 28.2% apr interest on the cash withdrawls can anyone help me out with this i have no clue what am getting charged

Hi alex,

Please donot panic. I maxed out 2 credit cards 5 months ago. One with 12500 & another 1 with 2500.
My credit score dropped from excellent to fair. But i have made progress since I stopped gamblimg. I have paid more than 2k into these cards. I remember at the start i freaked out, your monthly statment will come out soon and you will be able to make the minimum payments at least till you get your head clear on how your are going to takle your debt.
Goodluck

It will be roughly 35 pounds a month interest on 1500 pound.

Hopefully you’ll take some of the advice on board and cut the card up. Get some help for your gambling problem instead of just concentrating on what has gone

Yes. Approx £35 per month but that is just the interest. If that and/or the minimum repayment is all you pay you will be paying it until the cows come home so try and reduce the balance as much as possible as quickly as possible. The ridiculous APR's are how the credit card companies make their money.

alexs100 wrote:

i no its suicide i have relapsed a couple of times with this credit card now so if i dont pay it back on the date i am supposed the worst that will happen is a £54 charge is that correct it has 0% interest i am absoloutley devastated its ruined christmas

I do hope you are tackling the root cause of all this. When you stop gambling it will get a lot easier. The credit card is one symptom. For others its stealing from family or wasting all the life savings

You have to look at this in that you are still here and can only pay what you can afford. If you worry about debt it can lead to further gambling or ill health.

Best wishes