Which credit card to pay off first?

Cantdance_2

Hey All,

I know the general consensus is you pay off the card with the highest interest rate first, but I've got a 0% for 6 months balance transfer pending and once this comes through I'm curious to know whether I should chuck all my available spare cash at this in order to clear it before I have to start paying interest, or use it to pay something I'm already paying interest on?

Any ideas?!

James

Broken_hearted

If I don't know which to go for I go 50/50.

CLAPTON

need the figures before anything can be worked out; like
for each card need, debt , monthly minimun payement, APR
what will the APR of your 0% card be at the end of 6 months
how much is available each month to repay debts

Tondella

The snowball calculator prioritises credit card debts in terms of final APR, and doesn't really take into account the interest free period. so if i had two cards, one at 10.9% and one at 0% for six months then 15.9%, it would prioritise repayments to the o% introductory offer, because of the subsequent APR. However, it depends on how confident you are about tarting, whether to another 0% card or to a lower APR life of balance offer. If you think either of these things is achieveable then you might want to concentrate on repaying the one with gaining the interest now.

Why don;t you post details of each credit card (balance, interest rate and how long any introductory offer will last for. If you want to enter them into the snowball calculator you'll need to find out what % of the balance your minimum repayment is too.

here's the site http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

good luck

Cantdance_2

Sorry guys, totally unprepared for this, should have found out my APRs first! I'll get back to you...

James

Kevicho

it would be best to pay off the highest interest ones now, that way you save more on interest, then if you can, get another 0% BT interest card when the current one expires, or shift the debt to a cheaper card if the apr is higher on the 0% one when that expires

Cantdance_2

Thanks for all the tips...

I'm 99% sure though that I won't be able to get another credit card or loan for a good few years due to my credit rating being less than perfect!

So I'll be stuck with what I have now for the forseeable future! I only got this 0% card because my bank sent me a letter saying I'd been preapproved for it and there would be no credit check!

:rotfl:

James

K9cuddles

Do the snowball calc, it told me to do my 0% first and make over payments... I guess it depend on that other rates of APR your paying and if you can make over or under payments!!