To switch or not to switch my credit card??

CEC1980

I currently have 2 credit cards, one is a Capital One card with a balance of £1979.71 on it, and the second one is a MBNA card with a balance of £2135.79. Therefore my total credit card debt amounts to a total of £4115.50.
With my Capital One card I am currrently on a promotion of 0% APR on balance transfers and purchases which will run out in Sept 09. After this the APR will go up to 12.94% APR. With my MBNA card I am currently paying 18.9% APR on purchases, and 0.9% APR for all balance transfers. This 0.9% APR on balance transfers shall increase to 20.9% after Dec 09.
I am totally confused as to the best way to handle which card to transfer a balance from, or should I transfer both? And if so to which card?
I currently pay a lump sum of both cards each month, more than my minimum payments require. However, I will still need a credit card to use for purchases. With my Capital One card I have almost reached my credit limit, but with my MBNA card the APR is just so high for purchases.
I would really appreciate any advice that anyone could offer, as when it comes to credit card jargon I'm totally lost!!
Many thanks for taking the time to read my scenario!:o

td_007

First of all evaluate where you can cut down...seeing that you have so much debt already you should be looking at reducing putting expenses on cards and getting other cards will just pull you further into debt.

CEC1980 wrote: »

I am totally confused as to the best way to handle which card to transfer a balance from, or should I transfer both? And if so to which card?

The cap 1 card should be used for purchases but as you are close to the limit it makes sense to transfer the amount the MBNA card - this will cost you 0.9% interest plus the transfer fee, but you will have an advantage only for approx two months should you want to go down this route.

A more longer term approach would be ideally go for a 0% purchase and 0% BT card so that you can trasfer balances from the cards you have to the new 0% BT card and then have another 0% card for purchases.

CEC1980 wrote: »

I currently pay a lump sum of both cards each month, more than my minimum payments require. However, I will still need a credit card to use for purchases.

You need to pay only the minimum to Cap 1 during 0% introductory rate, use the additional amount to pay into the MBNA card together with min payment as it is at higher interest presently.

CEC1980

many thanks for the advice, much appreciated!

sarahs999

Can you get another CC with a 0% balance transfer to get rid of your MBNA debt? If so I would do that. DON'tT spend on it (in fact you could start thinking about not spending at all on your credit cards. Why do you need them? Do it on debit instead, thenyou'll really know where you stand).

When your Cap 1 runs out in September you could then transfer to MBNA and take advantage of their 0% (when does that run out, BTW? May not be a good move if it's only a short offer). Whatever you do don't transfer to MBNA before you've moved the existing debt off it, as you'll 'trap' the new BT.

CEC1980

Thanks for the advice Sarah, although I need to use my credit card as I am a single girl who is trying to keep up with mortgage etc on one income! Just had a few big payments to make getting work done to my car so hence the reason the credit card got used!!