Am I doing the right thing

backpacker21

Advice Wanted Please

I have 3 credit cards Marks and spencer £4324.00 , virgin money £3210.00 and barclaycard £ 9571.57. I have just received my lump sum private pension of £46.000 , I have already paid off the virgin one . My intention is to clear them all using this money and close the accounts so I dont have any more credit cards. I then intend to save the money I would have paid to the 3 cards to put back the money I have used clearing them as I am still working as i am only 59. This is the last chance saloon for me as i know i would not be able to clear them any other way due to my age . I just need confirmation that i am doing the right thing after a lifetime of living with one debt or another. I will not be getting any more large sums of money from any one or anywhere until we eventually down size and pay off our outstanding mortgage.

BitterAndTwisted

I would do precisely the same thing as you are planning. Being shot of debts that size would be a huge relief to me. I'd also be looking at why and how I got myself saddled with such huge debts in the first place and take steps to prevent being in the same situation ever again.

digging

I would do that too. If this is your last chance to pay them off....go for it! You will still have over £28k left. Going from about £18k in debt to £28k in credit in one go would be an amazing feeling. Saving the money you would have paid them off with is an excellent idea. You will also be saving a fortune in interest too (assuming they were not on 0% offers).

Good luck with it. I like hearing happy stories like this. :T

Mort

From what you have said it sounds like a good use of the lump sum. Killing the credit cards and saving £s on interest can't be a bad thing.

CurlyTop

I'm in agreement with all of the above. You will still have money left over after having cleared the debt, the interest will be gone and so will that horrible feeling each month when the envelope drops on the hallway mat from the credit card company, knowing you have to use your hard earned wages to pay them off. Just stopping the accumulation of interest has got to be for the best. Also, if you are going to repay yourself back what you would have paid the credit card companies, then you are balancing it back again. Added to which, you will feel so much better. At the end of the day, what price quality of life. Go for it, you know it makes sense.

owen_money

From experiance all I would say is when you pay the cards off make sure you close the account at the same time! Ok I know, grandmother and eggs, just wanted to comment

ifstar

100% pay off the debts however make sure you don't fall into the same trap that brought them in the first place. It would be worthwhile doing a SOA and seeing if there is anything in your budget that you are paying too much for and what helped bring about the problem in the first place