How much and which one?

myfairlady

Firstly I would like to say what a great site this is!

Okay, can someone help me please?

I recently sold my house in order to get myself out of debt. I have £23,000 on credit cards and luckily the equity from my house will cover it. I have the following cards:

Halifax One
Capital One
Virgin
Barclaycard
Egg

My question is this...should I pay all of them off and clear my debt before buying another property? Or should I pay some off and have more for a deposit?
If I clear them all, which ones should I close down and which ones should I keep open? Im not planning on running them up again as I have learnt my lesson, but would I be wise to keep one of them open?

Thank you so much in advance for any advice :beer:

Rafter

Egg is probably the best ongoing card.

Why?

Because you get the anniversary offer.
Because you can make transfers to a current account as well as another card.
Because with Egg Money you get a good cashback offer at the moment.

After that I'd suggest Halifax One which has the lowest interest rate. Virgin has some reward scheme but it isn't that great.

So ditch capital one, virgin and Barclaycard.

There is no point having debt at 15% on a credit card, to have a lower mortgage at say 6%. However, make sure you have enough deposit to avoid paying a high lending fee.

Good luck.

R.

myfairlady

Thank you Rafter. Everything you said makes perfect sense...just needed to hear it from someone!