In debt with 2 options - help?

cobraman

I won't go into the circumstances of how I've gotten into such a situation but here is where I am...

Natwest Bank Account - £1600 debt
Natwest Credit Card - £1580 debt
Barclays Credit Card - £2600 debt (0% balance card with 14 months to run)

Savings - £6470 ISA @ 4.25%
Halifax Current Account - £570

Income - £1,111 per month
Spend - £700 per month

I am thinking about doing two things but cannot decide which is the best option:-

Option 1 - Pay off all my debts in one go with the cash in my ISA savings.

Option 2 - Get another 23 month 0% balance card and transfer the £1580 from my Natwest Credit Card (shutting that down once transferred) and pay the minimum amount on both the Barclays and new 0% credit cards whilst using what I have left over from my income after outgoings to pay the £1600 debt off my Natwest Bank Account (which will take 4 months to pay off).

Any ideas?

YorkshireBoy

Option 3:

Get a 22-24 month 0% MBNA card.
BT the NatWest credit card debt to it (circa 3% fee)
BT the NatWest O/D debt to it (4% fee)
And get ALL your debt on 0%.

Close your NatWest credit card, and get yourself into the best possible shape ready for BTing any residual Barclaycard debt in 14 months time.

This will, of course, mean you don't have a card you could use for purchases. Problem?

cobraman

Thanks for the reply - most appreciated. I really need to get myself sorted out quickly and stop messing around.

I have no concerns about not having a credit card to spend on as I realised 18 months ago to spend only what I earn. So absolutely no spending on credit cards again for me.

Option 3, as you set out above, sounds great. However, how on earth do I go about balance transferring from both my old Natwest card and my Natwest bank onto one card?

I also didn't know you could balance transfer from an actual bank account. How do you go about doing this?

YorkshireBoy

cobraman wrote: »

I also didn't know you could balance transfer from an actual bank account. How do you go about doing this?

http://www.mbna.co.uk/credit-cards/mbna-credit-card/?MC=UCMMBN001I1

Scroll down to 'card features'.

cobraman

I didn't even know that was possible.

So if I do this it will mean I have:-

Barclays Credit Card - £2600 debt
MBNA Credit Card - £3180 debt
Total debt - £5780

I will have £400 per month from my income to pay off this debt so I should be able to pay off all the debt within 15 months (my Barclays Credit Card's 0% expires in July 2014) so I won't even have to balance transfer again (if that makes sense).

cobraman

Thanks for your help YorkshireBoy.

I carried out my application for an MBNA card and it was accepted with £1600 money transfer and £1500 card transfer and they have given me credit of £3500.

I generally feel like a weight has lifted off my shoulders as I was really worried for the past few weeks.

So now I will concentrate on paying off £300 per month on the Barclays card and £100 per month on the MBNA card.