Cant get my head round this, help please

lynzpower

HI all

Right, i need advice on something my maths isnt up to much.

I have 450 on a barclaycard at 14.9%, credit limit 550
Ive got a co-op travel card ( 0% apr) with £0 balance and a 2.5% BT fee
Ive got 300 in my lodgers account put aside for me paying off my sofas ( 0% at the mo, 29% come october)
Sofas were 800.
Next month I'll have 350 from the lodgers account (may)
Month after will have 150 for the rest of the sofas.( june)


Do i
a) leave everything where it is, carry on paying off the b/card as per normal, saving the sofa money in the lodger account
b) transfer my B/card balance to Co-op, close b/card & then use the co-op card to pay for the sofas as Ive got 0% on purchases....
c) another better option I havent thought of yet?

your thoughts please!!

Peppa_Pig_5

Hi Lynz. I see you giving so much advice to other people that I thought maybe I could help out. I would use the 300 in the lodger account to pay the Barclaycard this month together with 150 from May's Lodger payment. Then start putting the money away for the Sofa with the balance of Lodger payment in May onwards...

Hope this helps.
Peppa
x

Annie_Fanny

What's to stop you paying off part of the sofa(s) payment now if you want to? I believe payment dates are given as a tactic to make sure we 'Fook up' and pay later so incure a charge...

tesuhoha

I think b seems the best option because your debt will then be at 0% and you can pay off the sofas with the lodger account money. Is this 0% an introductory offer?

Anastacia

£ £ £
May 350 -350 0
June 350 -100 250
July 350 600
Aug 350 950
Sept 350 1300
Oct 350 -800 850

Assuming £350 in the lodger account every month, I'd pay the Barclaycard first, you'll still have plenty to pay for the sofa before the interest kicks in plus you'll have £850 left over at the end of it (or £500 if it has to be by the beginning of the month)
However if you think you are likely to stray from the path then start paying the sofas now so that you dont get caught out.
Wish I had room for a lodger !(the only remaining space aorund here is the uselessly large back lavatory)
Panda
(plus you might not get charged for your garden furniture by the nice lady at Woolworth - sssh, dont want to set everyone off again!)

lynzpower

I cant pay off the sofas though on the b/card account as my credit limit is only 550, not enough to cover the 800, otherwise thats the way Id do it.

Annie, I asked about paying it off in instalments as pre-LB moment that was the only thing I would concive of being able to do. they said if I pay off a proportion, then the 0% offer doesnt exist, they start charging me standard interest on the rest. No surprise im not going that way!!!

My co-op travel card is 0% on purchases for 9 months, got it last week.

Any more thoughts?

tesuhoha

how much is the BT fee going to work out at? my maths isnt that good either as youve probably realised but just looking at your a & b options it seems obvious that b is best

Annie_Fanny

Can someone give those of us a lesson in how to work out the balance transfer issue! I remember when I first used to come on here some of the posters were wizard at working this stuff out. I would really appreciate a lesson!

lynzpower

Right 2.5% of 450 is 11.25

So thats what they will charge me for moving the debt over.

I think however, that Panda might be right here, that actually, Its the b/card I need to be focusing on as thats the one currently charging interest, ad it looks as if I might be able to do both, sort of concurrently....

*ponders*

tesuhoha

I suppose it depends on how much interest you are paying each month on Barclaycard. if it were me I think I would do the bt, then buy the sofas thats a total of £1250 you would owe on co-op. If you divide that by 9 which is how many months I assume you have to pay it off at 0%, that comes to £139 per month. I see youll have £800 for the first 3 months, so you could pay that easily (treating it as an interest free loan) and still have loads left over to throw at other debt. Could you manage that for the rest of the time? If so you would only pay the £11 bt fee and your expensive barclaycard and sofas would be paid off within 9 months. Maybe im missing something but you said you would rather pay for the sofas by barclaycard but your credit limit is not high enough. Lynz I dont understand why you would want to do that when youd be paying interest on them and then they wouldnt be such a good deal.

all_hours

I agree with peppa pig and new panda bear.

BC £450 @ 14.9 is £5.59 per month
Pay off £300 from lodgers account leaving a balance of £155.59, 0 in lodgers account.
BC £155.59 (£450 - £300 + £5.59) @ 14.9 is £1.93 per month
Pay off £157.52 leaving 0 balance and £192.48 (350-157.52) in lodgers account.
Then leave all the next two months in the lodgers account (earning interest?).

This uses the £300 + may + june + july. Then you'd have august-october free to do something else with.

You'd only pay a maximum £7.52 (5.59+1.93) in interest rather than £11.25 BT fee - if interest is worked out daily it will be less.