Consolidation of credit card bill and 0% loan into 0% balance transfer card?

mrrsparks

Hello everyone,

Just after a bit of advice, really. I'm trying to reduce my overall monthly outgoings (as I'm sure a lot of us are!). I have two specific aspects that I would like to get advice on: these are a) a loan from Black Horse and b) a Barclaycard debt.

Neither debt is particularly substantial but I am trying to increase the monthly cashflow.

The details:

I currently pay £65.58 per month on a 0% loan repayment to Black Horse, for a total of £1,574.00. There are 16 instalments (£1,049.28) remaining. There is no penalty for paying off early.

I also have a balance of £1,211.28 on Barclaycard @ 19.9%.

To service the Barclaycard debt, I usually pay between £100-£200p/m.

If I were to repay the Black Horse loan in full using my Barclaycard, this would take my total balance to £2260.56, but would mean I would no longer need to pay the £65 per month to Black Horse. I could therefore 0% balance-transfer the remaining amount to a Capital One card with 0% until Sept 2009 (13 months away).

The minimum repayment is 5% of the balance, which would be £113.03 per month. So whereas right now I spend approximately £200p/m repaying the Barclaycard debt, plus £65.58 to service the loan charge from Blackhorse; that's ~ £266, meaning I stand to put about £153 back in my pocket each month.

So I guess the options are:

a) Pay off Blackhorse with Barclaycard; balance transfer the lot to Capital One. Make the minimum repayment (or more when possible) to Capital One.

b) Pay off Blackhorse with savings, leave Barclaycard debt where it is and continue to pay off ~£200p/m.

c) Pay off Blackhorse with savings, move Barclaycard debt to Capital One and lower the repayment amount to £100p/m, saving £100p/m.

d) Do nothing!

Your thoughts/insights would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

CLAPTON

If you have debt that's costing you more (i.e. the APR) than we are earning net of tax on your savings then pay off the debt.... so in your case simply pay off the barclaycard CC asap.

As you are paying no interest on the Blackhorse loan then just let that run its course.

mrrsparks

Clapton; that makes so much sense - I have no idea why I didn't think of that!

Thanks for your clear head!