Advice on credit card debt please.

PJ1

Hello. This may be a bit long-winded so apologies in advance. I have one credit card from Cahoot with a zero balance kept purely for emergencies. My partner has two cards both with fairly high balances. I have taken over the day-to-day management of our finances and am paying off these balances as fast as possible (with joint income) and need a little advice. One of my partners cards is MBNA 19.2% £6100 balance. The other is a Nectar Amex 13.08% £5900 balance. I just heard today though that the rate on the Amex has increased to 17.5%. Not sure if this correct but I'm panicking at the thought of it. I have just got my partner a new card which is Barclaycard Platinum with 6.5% for life of balance transfer but they've only allowed a £3210 limit. My question is should we just get a loan to pay all these cards off which would have a lower rate or keep trying to play the game of shuffling and tarting? Really not sure what to do anymore but feel we are running out of choices rapidly. Any helpful suggestions/advice gratefully received. Thank you.
PJ

JohnHargreaves

Well done for your light bulb! I suggest that you should move as much debt as possible off the most expensive credit card and into the barclays life of BT card, then focus your repayments on the remainder of the balance on the expensive card until it's gone. Then switch to the next most expensive card etc. Do you think you would be able to apply for a 0% balance transfer credit card like the Virgin card? There are various ones listed here:
http://www.everyinvestor.co.uk/comparison-tables/credit-cards/balance-transfer-credit-cards.aspx

If you can get a Virgin card they often seem to give out high limits which might allow you to transfer in the rest of your expensive credit card debt from Amex/MBNA. If you are able to apply for the Virgin card (rather than your partner as he has an MBNA card) that might give you more options.

I'd avoid the loan if you can.

Hope this helps