Credit cards - should I close accounts?

Puddylove

Hi all
I have the following cc debts
Barclaycard - £5k - have 18 months @ 0% interest left, paying £250 off each month, limit £16k

Mastercard - CB - £500 on it, don't know interest rate, limit £8k

Halifax Visa - £3k - don't know interest and also bank with Halifax, limit £15k

My questions are -
1. Should I transfer both of the M/Card and Visa balances onto the Barclaycard?
2. Having transferred it, should I close one account - is it better for my (currently healthy) credit rating? And after 18 months, I won't have paid it off so may want to apply for another 0% one.

Thanks in advance.
Puddylove

Tixy

Is the bcard still within the 0% transfer offer? And what is the transfer fee.

To make an informed decision you need to know the APRs on the other cards. And what the bcard will revert to after the 0% deal finishes.
And how much you can afford/intend to pay in total a month towards the debt.

Puddylove

The Barclaycard has another 18 months of 0% on the £5k, and would be 6.9% I think on balance transfers.
I can pay £250 per month for sure, and probably pay double this some months (I do variable contracts in addition to my full time contract).

ETA The Halifax one is 26%, can't find the CB one info (but very little on it anyway)

Tixy

Probably not worth moving the Mastercard balance - I'd just pay that off as soon as you can (pay just the minimum to the bcard in the meantime) and hopefully you'll have it clear in a 2-3months.

Is the current offer you have 6.9% for the life of balance? If so then it would be worth transfering that debt.

Who is the mastercard account with?

BenL

You need to drop the barlcaycard payment from £250 down to minimum payment only. Then attack the other 2 cards, the Halifax is a pretty high rate but as you don't know the rate on the other card and its a low amount I would get this gone within 2 to 3 months so you have a feeling of getting somewhere.

Keeping the barclaycard at minimu payment you need to then be paying the Halifax off as this is attracting interest month in month out.

Hopefully the Halifax will be gone before the Barclaycard 18 months intrest free is up and you will only have 1 card and can make a decision of where you want to balance transfer that to when the offer runs out.