"Best" way of making minimum payments?

robjo2

I have £39K in Cahoot savings account.  The "capital" for this is on the following cards at 0%: (approx figures)
 Halifax £2,300
 Tesco £ 2,500
 NSPCC £4,000
 MBNA  £14,000
 LloydsTSB £14,500
 Mint £2,000

I have a Capital One (18 months) ready to move some of the above as 0%s end.

I am fortunate to able to make the minimum monthly payments from my current account (Lloyds so getting interest) so my debt is slowly reducing and I look on these repayments as an additional way of saving.  Repayments are v approx £320/mth.  Is this the most efficient way of managing my stoozing?  The alternative, of course, would be to "repay" my current account from Cahoot.

I'd be interested to hear folks' opinions

Unbelievable_2

I do the same thing - additionally after making the min payment on my Mint card I then use the freed up credit limit to BT the minimum payment on Lloyds Advance card

Milarky

I have £39K in Cahoot savings account.  The "capital" for this is on the following cards at 0%: (approx figures)
 Halifax £2,300
 Tesco £ 2,500
 NSPCC £4,000
 MBNA  £14,000
 LloydsTSB £14,500
 Mint £2,000

I have a Capital One (18 months) ready to move some of the above as 0%s end.

I am fortunate to able to make the minimum monthly payments from my current account (Lloyds so getting interest) so my debt is slowly reducing and I look on these repayments as an additional way of saving.  Repayments are v approx £320/mth.  Is this the most efficient way of managing my stoozing?  The alternative, of course, would be to "repay" my current account from Cahoot.

I'd be interested to hear folks' opinions

Well the first good bit of news is that cahoot savings account allows you to make payments direct to third parties [i.e. the credit cards themselves]. I would understand if you stuck with your bank account for making minimum payments [i.e. by direct debit] as this optimises the period whilst avoiding nasty 'late payment' charges - but when you come to make non min payments [e.g. at the end of a promotion] doing so direct from the cahoot account saves a few days.

Your cards could probably be used to make min payments to the other cards subject to T&Cs in each case. [Too complicated?] And of course you then aren't 'reducing' the debt are you? Halifax is slow and unreliable now, Tesco is RBS - just as is Mint - so cross transfers would not be possible there... NSPCC is 'Bank of Scotland' [and so linked to Halifax] Don't know enough about Lloyds - except balance transfers probably can't be made after six weeks. Then there's MBNA, which charges fees.

One card I shall mention [quietly!] is the Nationwide. If you got the 'cash reward' card it's 1% on cashback for 6 months - but that isn't the reason for getting it. It will also allow you to do the following

- Balance transfer any amount from £1. Can be done online - seems efficient
- Balance transfers are treated like purchases* - interest free for up to 56 days provided you clear the balance in full each month
- Pay by full direct debit which can be set up to take account of any other payment you may make in advance of the due date.

What I am suggesting is that this card could become your 'purchases' card at the same time as being used to make the minimum payments on those other cards requiring them. Each month you would pay one bill from your bank account [by DD] and pay no interest for the privilege. You can make balance transfers as and when you get new statements issued [no point in waiting longer] and only use the cahoot account to move money once a month or whenever a card runs out and you are unable to transfer the remaning balance

[*Don't know how long before they'll close these loopholes on the T&Cs though.]

Otherwise I think you need an Egg card - gets recommended by everyone!

robjo2

Thanks, Milarky, for that long and useful reply.
Will certainly give the Nationwide some thought to use along the lines you suggest.

BTW, forgot to mention that I do have an Egg card; currently lying idle awaiting "annivesary" in February. I haven't yet used the tactic on this of creating a credit to SBT