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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
World
Lottie Gibbons

Martin Lewis shares one simple way to help clear your debt

Many of you may have made the New Year's resolution to sort your finances out in 2021.

And Martin Lewis is here to help, as he has shared one simple way to help clear your debt.

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, the finance guru spoke about balance transfers.

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A balance transfer is when you get a new card that pays off the debt on your existing cards for you, leaving you owing money to the new card but at 0% interest.

Martin said: "The real difficulty in doing this is one of acceptance. If you have a great credit score it should be fine, if you are struggling it gets more difficult.

"What I suggest most people do is they go on a balance transfer eligibility calculator, that's a tool that does a soft search on you, so it doesn't affect your future creditworthiness and will tell you which of the top cards you are most likely to get.

"I would always go for the card with the lowest fee and these are one-off fees for the amount of debt you shift in the time that you are sure you can repay.

"But if you're not sure how long it's going to take you, play safe and go long."

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Martin added: "Once you get the balance transfer card there are a few golden rules."

These include never missing minimum monthly repayments, clearing the card or shifting the debt again before the 0% ends, and never spending or withdrawing cash on the card.

Martin said: "But the simple message on balance transfers if you cannot afford to clear your credit card debt, you cannot afford not to check out whether you can get a 0% balance transfer."

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