How WeMoney helped Ellen swap credit card interest for one fixed repayment

Ellen's story at a glance

• Member: Ellen, 46 (VIC), a psychiatric nurse and single mum of two teenagers
• Before WeMoney: legal costs from her divorce, close to $200,000 by her estimate, had drained her savings, and a maxed credit card was carrying the strain
• What she consolidated: the card balance into a three-year loan at 9.89% p.a. through a lender matched in WeMoney, then closed the card
• How WeMoney helped: showed her matched options to compare, with the flexibility to make extra repayments whenever she wants
• Her experience: setup was easier than she expected, and the lender answered her questions straight away
• After: $291 a fortnight, direct debited the day after pay day. By her estimate the card had been costing her around an extra $100 a week in interest
• Next: getting the balance down, then a holiday with her kids

Before WeMoney

Ellen is 46, a psychiatric nurse in Melbourne, and a single mum to two teenagers. She rents, owns her car, and shares the house with three cats and a parrot.

Her debt did not come from careless spending. It came from her divorce. The settlement she received turned into a custody battle, and the years in the family court system chewed through close to $200,000 by her estimate.

"Family court robbed me of the chance to set myself up again."

Her superannuation is healthy for her age, but super does not pay this month's rent. Day to day, the savings were gone, and two credit cards had accumulated the overflow from the legal years. One of them was maxed, and the interest was making the repayments too difficult to keep up.

She is matter-of-fact about where that left her. She had done her years of losing sleep over money, and decided it was not worth doing again.

"You can't get blood from a stone."

What she wanted was specific: clear the maxed card, and close it, so the same thing could not happen twice.

How she found us

Ellen found WeMoney the way plenty of members do. After work, glass of wine, scrolling Facebook and Instagram, and an ad came past. The impression it left was simple enough: an easy way to see her money in one place and keep on top of it.

She describes herself as not really tech savvy, and expected the setup to be a hurdle. It was not.

"This isn't nearly as complicated as what I thought it might be."

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How WeMoney helped

Ellen compared consolidation options for herself before deciding. The loan she found through WeMoney was the one that worked financially: the lowest rate among her matches, an affordable repayment, and the option to make extra repayments when and where she wanted, which mattered to her.

The matched lender called her, and she went in with questions. How is this going to benefit me in the long run? How am I going to be saving more? She got her answers straight away.

"The communication was good. It was very transparent."

The balance moved off the maxed credit card and the card was closed. The lender remained responsible for the credit decision, the contract and settlement. WeMoney's role was to show Ellen her matched options and let her compare them before she continued.

After WeMoney

The card became a loan at 9.89% per annum over three years, with repayments of $291 a fortnight. Ellen set the direct debit for the day after her pay lands.

"Goes in, goes out."

By her estimate, staying on the credit card would have taken about an extra $100 a week just to cover the interest. That difference is not abstract for her: the rent is easier to pay, and there is a little more room to say yes to her kids.

The loan itself no longer takes up headspace. "That's just in the background being paid off." There is no fluctuating interest to watch and no guesswork about what leaves her account.

She kept one credit card, which she admits is still a juggle some weeks. The next goal, once the balance is down, is a holiday with the kids. Japan or Scotland, she has not decided.

Asked to describe WeMoney in one word, she landed on: "Resourceful."

See the full cost before you decide

If a credit card balance has stopped moving and the interest is doing the damage, start by seeing the debt clearly. Connecting your accounts in WeMoney can show your balances and repayments in one place. You can then review consolidation options you may be eligible for and compare the repayment, rate, term, fees and total amount repayable against what the card is costing you now.

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Ellen's rates, repayments and timing are her individual experience. Outcomes vary by member and lender, and her story is not a promise that another person will be eligible or receive the same result.

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