Where should i put my money?

nessa203

:money: Hi there, I was looking for some on advice on managing my money (why else would i be here? lol) and was hoping people could give me some ideas on what I should be doing!

Situation:
I am a student with a Natwest Student Account which has an interest free OD limit of £1400 - currently it is £900 OD.
I also have a Natwest eISA with £1700 in.
And an initial Barclaycard Visa credit card (limit £2100) with £1050 on it, with a 27.5% apr.
I have an income of about £350 a month.

Should I use my savings to pay off my credit card or should I chip away at it for the next few months? Should I pay as much money as I can into my ISA for the interest? The only way I can get cash out is by using my student account, so having no money available in there is not an option..

Any advice would be appreciated!

onlypaddy

usually the rule of thumb is to pay of debts instead of saving.

£1050 in the e-ISA (not sure the rate - but maximum easy access atm is about 2.5% so lets go with that....) will earn you in the region of £2 a month in interest.

BUT - the £1050 you have on the Barclaycard will cost you around £24 a month.

so, by having money in savings instead of paying the credit card means you are losing £22 a month. If you do pay it off, take the opportunity to get rid of the card so that you no longer have the temptation....because the ISA wont be there the second time

As the OD is interest free (for now) you can keep that liquid, but look to pay it off. And be wary, if you fall behind paying the overdraft then Natwest can take money from the ISA to pay it without warning, so perhaps switching the ISA to a different bank not connected with Natwest may be a good idea?

kudos_ni

nessa203 wrote: »

:money: Hi there, I was looking for some on advice on managing my money (why else would i be here? lol) and was hoping people could give me some ideas on what I should be doing!

Situation:
I am a student with a Natwest Student Account which has an interest free OD limit of £1400 - currently it is £900 OD.
I also have a Natwest eISA with £1700 in.
And an initial Barclaycard Visa credit card (limit £2100) with £1050 on it, with a 27.5% apr.
I have an income of about £350 a month.

Should I use my savings to pay off my credit card or should I chip away at it for the next few months? Should I pay as much money as I can into my ISA for the interest? The only way I can get cash out is by using my student account, so having no money available in there is not an option..

Any advice would be appreciated!

I would definitely use the money in your ISA to pay off the credit card, and then get rid of the card to avoid temptation.

I was a student for 5 years. I never had a credit card. I used my student loan and interest free overdraft to survive.

The interest free overdraft with the student account will usually remain interest free for a year after graduating (at least my RBS on did)...so when i got a job I was able to pay it off within the year so never paid any interest or charges.

I was never out of my overdraft of a student and never saved as a student...but never needed a credit card.

But the guy above made it clear...but keeping your savings and not paying off the credit card you are costing yourself money.