Tarting/paying off credit card strategy advice please

The_Boss

Ok people, need some opinions please on the state of my credit card finances.

These are my current cards, limits etc

NatWest : £3400 limit, £2985 used (approx 88% used), 17% apr
MBNA : £3000 limit, £2225 used (approx 74% used), 20% apr
Halifax : £2250 limit, £1901 used (approx 84.5% used) 14% apr
Morgan Stanley : £2000 limit, £1757 used (approx 88% used) 18% apr now, 24% from November 1st
Barclaycard : £1600 limit, £1299 used (approx 81% used), 0% for another 5 months

Now, usually the advice is to pay off the one with the most interest first, but I want to apply for a balance transfer in the new year and have been getting serious grief when applying for new cards and have not succeeded in getting one this year. So I was wondering - should I pay them off each by each or should I look at reducing to get below 70% on each and then concentrate on clearing one in order to boost my chances of getting a new card in January?

I am due £1200 expenses next week which will go straight into paying the cards. I was going to give Morgan Stanley my full attention, but do lenders prefer to see all accounts under a certain level or some with a low level and others much higher?

Fahim_2

Lenders usually sees the level of debt you are in with the other accounts. According to credit agencies, we shouldn't go over more than 35% on credit accounts. Also lenders will check status of every account so try to pay them off all. I'd pay NatWest and Morgan Stanley more than I'd pay Halifax or Barclaycard. Try to pay a little to MBNA if you can. Once your debts go down by about 50-60%, try to lower down the APR with the companies or try to transfer balance. M&S seems to do a 3.9% APR for the life of balance.

The_Boss

Over 35%? Looks like I shall definitely pay off Morgan Stanley and then move onto MBNA and NatWest. I'm not applying for anything else until January so gives me plenty of time to reduce the levels!