Pay all or focus on one at a time?

psychopathbabble

Hi guys,

I have 5 credit cards (omg!) and currently pay about double the minimum payment on all of them. I'm just wondering whether you think this is the best idea or whether I should pay minimum on 4 of them and concentrate on paying one off at a time?

I don't have a good enough credit rating to get new cards for balance transfers at the moment, as quite a few of my payments were late due to my payday and timings etc.

Thanks x

poppy_f1

depends
im paying min payment on 3 cards however they are all on 0%
if your paying interest check out the snowball calculator http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx and it will tell you which order to pay them in

xgingerx

Hi, snowball calc is good but with me some of my smaller debts I had made an exception to clear these first, call it phycological, it just made me feel better to cross a debt off the list, leaving me just the biggies. I know this isnt the best way its working for me and keeping me motivated to clear my debts

SecretSquirrel88

Hi there, would you be able to list the debts (amounts, names and APR's) so that we could look at it. You should always pay more on the one with the highest APR as this will be the one charging you most interest. I can understand your theory about the smallest debts - that what I used to be be like but not now thanks to these MoneySavers!! goodluck x

psychopathbabble

Hi, sorry for late reply... forgot to check as been so busy! I am aware interest is quite high but as I said before, some missed payments and an overdraft I need to pay off is going against me...

Right CC are as below:

Lloyds TSB £1750 1.527% monthly (18.324% pa?)
Halifax £1503 21.95% per annum
Capital One £850 16.61% per annum
Barclaycard £900 25.9% per annum
Alliance and Leicester £712 1.2408% monthly (14.9% pa?)
Lloyds TSB overdraft £998 I think this is 19.3% per annum

I do have about £600 free on my halifax card if it is worth balance transferring from any of the other cards?

Thanks for your help!

nomoneytoday

Pay off the most expensive first, with minimum payments off all the others...
The LTSB is 19.9% APR (1.527 ^ 12 -1 )
I make it :

Barclaycard £900 25.9% per annum
Halifax £1503 21.95% per annum
Lloyds TSB £1750 19.9%
Lloyds TSB overdraft £998 19.3% per annum
Capital One £850 16.61% per annum
Alliance and Leicester £712 15.9%

psychopathbabble

ok, thanks for your help... it makes it easier to have all the information together, I never really looked at it properly before! Is it worth transferring the barclaycard over to Halifax so it's one lump sum? I'm guessing not...

latecomer

It might be but probably not. you need to figure out how long it would take you to pay it off if you concentrate on the Barclaycard debt (as its the highest interest) and then find out what the balance transfer fee would be. If the interest you would save by transferring it is greater than the fee then its worth it. I suspect there isn't much in it and hence it might not be worth the effort.

Once the Barclaycard is clear you could phone and ask if they will do a deal on transfers from another card. Certainly worth asking.