Advice Needed In Planning For The Future

Picard91 wrote: »

Hey Everyone, hoping someone can help me out and answer a few questions and give me a little advice on the future.. I was a little slack before and always want to try plan ahead now..

So a little bit of background of background
Im 26 & Self Employed. In July 2017 I moved over a 6k debt which was on my BarclayCard to a 0% Card via Balance Transfer to Halifax. My 0% is nearly up, the debt is now 2.9k and I'm faced with two options. Pay off the card in full, or move it over to another 0% card and keep paying it off in amounts. I would then close the Halifax account.

I'm trying to keep a high Credit rating as in October 2018 I want to try get a mortgage.
I do have a car on lease which I pay monthly for. Im having Laser Eye Surgery Later this week which is costing £2500, I could pay this in full but they offered me a 0% deal for 10 months.

So Do I move to a new 0% card pay off in amounts still and get the 0% finance on my eyes (Keeping the £3k in Savings)
or
Pay off the Card, get 0% finance on my eyes
or
Keep The Card & pay Interest.

If I did 0% on a new card and 0% on my eyes, I would pay all off September 2018.
Sorry if thats all abit confusing but hoping someone can lend a bit of advice or whether or not it matters that much?

You do know the credit rating is only seen by yourself, lenders see your credit history.

Picard91 wrote: »

So Do I move to a new 0% card pay off in amounts still and get the 0% finance on my eyes (Keeping the £3k in Savings)
or
Pay off the Card, get 0% finance on my eyes
or
Keep The Card & pay Interest.

If I did 0% on a new card and 0% on my eyes, I would pay all off September 2018.
Sorry if thats all abit confusing but hoping someone can lend a bit of advice or whether or not it matters that much?

Seems a bit pointless to get a new 0% card now if you are only going to clear the balance by September, plus it would mean an additional unnecessary hard search.

Your best option is to pay off the £2.9k in full, close the Halifax card, get 0% for 10 months for your eye surgery with the clinic.

That way you'll only have 1 hard search on your file (clinic) and the cc debt will have been cleared and account closed - if you intended to clear the balance in September, it can take up to 3 months for this change to be reflected on your credit files depending on which point in the month Halifax reported the data to the CRAs. So if you were going for a mortgage in October, it would just cause unnecessary faff and delays as your lender may require you to obtain a credit card statement showing a zero balance, or worse still, wait until your credit files have been updated and it's showing as settled and won't proceed until this has been provided.

Ultimately you want to have 0 hard searches for at least 6 months before applying, 0 debt and a healthy deposit. Your monthly car payment will be taken into account as to how much the lender will be able to lend, but assuming it's not a large amount every month vs your salary and savings, you should be fine. Keep an eye on your credit files every month to make sure everything is ticking over and there are no mistakes or anomalies on it.

The free versions to check your credit files are below:
Experian: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/creditclub
Equifax: https://www.clearscore.com
Call Credit: https://www.noddle.co.uk

If you have the funds and the ability to do it, then definitely pay the card off in full.

Personally, I wouldn't close the account though, leave it open as it will look good on your credit report that you have 'available credit' that isn't being used.

Hope this helps :-)