Credit Cards Best Way To Pay Off? Longwinded

lynsayjane

if you are over your limit on some of the cards i'd suggest splitting the money between them to get them within the limit and stop the charges you'll incur otherwise.

another thing to think about (not mentioned yet) is if you are looking to pay £100 over the minimum, why not do that to the capitol one mastercard, then in two months you have a debt cleared, it'll give you a mental boost and it'll also mean one less minimum to find each month. then maybe move onto the barclaycard. within five months you'll have two cards cleared.

doing it this way isn't gonna minimise the interest you pay, but like i say it'll give you a fairly quick boost and maybe help your motivation to get htem payed off.

s1h

ok looking at the snowball calc now but i dont have the rates with me anyone got any ideas?

GirlRacer_2

Have you paid any charges to the card issuers for Late/Overlimit fees. Can you reclaim any? Maybe the charges will then help towards repaying the balances.

s1h

yes I have paid quite a few to capital one on both accounts, the one with the £200 limit went up to about £500 at one point. I then paid it all off and then stupidly used it again.

I have sent off SAR to capital one for my statements on both. Barclaycard has prob had £200 of charges over the years so I am going to do the same and but the other 2 have only had maybe 2 or 3 charges on each so not really worth it.

The_Boss

I would suggest applying for another low rate credit card and transfering, but if your debts are around the credit limits and you have previously missed payments, you might not get very far.

Definitely clear the Vanquis first - that interest rate is probably twice that of any other.

s1h

its a pain waiting for the statements to come through just want to get stuck into it.

s1h

have looked at the snowball calculator and guessed the interest rates at 30% for all of them apart from vanquis which i have guessed at 40% to give me a rough idea.

That calculator is great it means I can get rid of this by June 2008.

s1h

Cheers people I really feel a lot more positive about this now. For just an extra £100 a month over the next year and a bit then I can get rid of this all.

The_Boss

s1h wrote:

Cheers people I really feel a lot more positive about this now. For just an extra £100 a month over the next year and a bit then I can get rid of this all.

You have no reason not to feel positive - you are going about clearing your debts in a realistic and responsible way.

The_Boss

s1h wrote:

have looked at the snowball calculator and guessed the interest rates at 30% for all of them apart from vanquis which i have guessed at 40% to give me a rough idea.

That calculator is great it means I can get rid of this by June 2008.

Thats good that you worked out as a worst case - I can imagine that two of them may be around the 17-20% mark