Save or pay off cards

hampshirebabe

I've just done my tax return and have to pay about £1800 by Jan 31st, thats about £50 a week. I'm trying realy hard to pay off my credit cards which are on lowish life of balence rates, 5.9% or less. (They'll take a couple of years, but I'm getting there.) The problem is that the tax can't be paid by credit card, and to take the money out on a card would incur a cash handling fee. So should I pay off the cards, and then pay the cash handling fee to pay the tax, or save the money in a mini ISA at a lower interest rate about 4.8%?
Any thoughts?

grumbler

What card do you have? I think 5.9% is only on balance transfers. I am quite sure that cash advances rate is 20%+ and plus 2% handling fee.
Save in a cash ISA or in the new Lloyds TSB 8% regular savings account. It is 6.4% net for a basic rate taxpayer. You can withdraw money in January without loss of interest (and keep on using it later if you need).