Which card to pay off first

claypath

Advice needed please. I have six creditcards all with various amounts owing. Can anyone advise if it is best to pay off the smallest one owing first or spread the surplus monies(what I have) over the six.
It's really difficult when the creditor will not agree to my payment and the interest is just mounting up and up, also does anyone know if creditors extend temporary payment arrangements
Many thanks
claypath

thechippy

They will give a temporary payment arrangement, but they will still place a derogatory mark on your credit file.......:mad:

brokeinlondon

You need to find out the APR on your debts. It's better to pay off the one with the largest APR first because that will cost you more in interest.

You should do minimum payments on the cards with the lowest APRs and put all your surplus cash on the one with the highest. once that's cleared, the next highest should get the surplus until that's clear, and so on until everything is gone. it's called 'snowballing'

Tixy

Can you currently meet the minimum repayments on all your cards? - if you can then do as brokeinlondon suggests and snowball in order of APR.

If you cannot meet all your minimum repayments and need to break your agreements with them then its usually best to split what you can afford pro-rata amongst your creditors based on the balances outstanding. This means you are treating all creditors the same and gives the best chance that they will accept your reduced payments and may agree to freeze interest.