Persistent Debt

When we contact you at 18 months to advise you that you’re in persistent debt, we’ll give you information relating to a voluntary payment. The voluntary payment will appear on your statement every month for the next 18 months and will change each month depending on how you use your card. Paying the voluntary payment will help you pay your balance more quickly and reduce the amount of interest you pay. You can start paying it at any month although it’s worth bearing in mind, the later you start the higher the voluntary payments will be.

If you're able to pay more than the minimum payment, or set up a fixed monthly payment, this will also help you to get out of persistent debt and pay your balance quicker.

To see how doing this could make a huge difference to your balance, try it out with the balance and interest rates on your latest statement using the calculator at cardcosts.org.uk.

This table shows an example of the positive impact it has on the interest you pay and the time it takes to repay.

The easiest way to pay your Voluntary Payment or a fixed amount is by setting up a Direct Debit.

If you’d like to make additional payments yourself, view alternative ways to pay your M&S Credit Card.

Credit cards give you flexibility on how you repay your balance but aren’t designed for long-term borrowing. Depending on how you use your card, there may be cheaper ways to borrow over a longer period e.g. repaying the balance with a loan at a cheaper interest rate. If you’d like to discuss other options available to you, please get in touch via our contact us page.

Using a budget planner is an easy way to manage your finances, work out an achievable budget and identify where savings can be made. You should:

• List everything that's coming in and out of your account each month. Your bank statements should help with this.
• Highlight the essential outgoings such as your mortgage, council tax, utilities, travel expenses, childcare etc. These costs are likely to be a set amount each month.
• Identify variable outgoings such as groceries, clothes and everyday expenses such as coffee and lunch. These outgoings will change on a month-to-month basis and they are the ones that you can reduce which can have the biggest impact on balancing your budget.

Once you've created a budget planner, these are things you can do to organise and take control of your finances:

• Wherever possible, pay your bills by Direct Debit or standing order 1 or 2 days after you get paid, so that you know you'll have enough in your account and can clearly see what's left over.
• If your bank has an online banking service, use it regularly to keep track of your spending.
• Regularly review your variable outgoings and save money by cutting back on non-essential items, cancelling that unused gym membership or see how you could switch to cheaper options.
• If you have any money left over at the end of the month, you should consider saving it. Even small, regular savings can make a difference over time, creating a pot of money you can break into for unforeseen emergencies or even periods when you know your spending will increase, such as Christmas.

A good way to explore what a difference increasing your monthly payments could make to the time it takes to repay your existing balance and the interest you'll have to pay is by using a repayment calculator like the one StepChange have available. It's important to remember that the calculator won't consider any further spending on your card. So, you'll need to factor that in when deciding what you can afford to increase your payments to.

There are different ways to change the way you pay to get yourself out of persistent debt.

We understand that everyone's circumstances are different. If you're in persistent debt and would like to discuss your options, please get in touch via our contact us page.