What to pay first ?

milky1991

In November I finally get to do something about my debt.
I separated from my ex 2 years ago with around £25000 of debt between us which stupidly I put all in my name ( lesson learnt there), to cut a long story short she bought me out of the house and with the money I paid of a huge chunk off the debt but currently I owe £11128 on several credit cards, which is coming down I haven't borrowed more and refuse to do so

I have a good job and can pay all my bills and can currently afford all minimum payments bills and food etc.

In October I will stop paying the mortgage on my old house ( I agreed to do this for two years as it is on a fixed rate which the last fixed payment is in October she still lives there and I wanted somewhere decent for my two kids to live, at this point she will be able to afford the mortgage and I will pay maintenance instead which will make me somewhat better off).

So come November I will be able to afford around another £200 to pay towards my debt.I currently pay £220 a month but will be paying a minimum of £420 a month plus anything else I can throw at it.

I want to know if anyone has any advice as to which order to pay them off in they are as follows

Tesco Credit Card £990 £25 min payment 0% till Apr 2014
Credit union at work £708 £35 min payment but 10.9% apr but very flexible payments
AA credit card £3840 £60 min payment 5.7% life balance
MBNA Credit card £4550 £70 min payment 5.7 life balance
Virgin Credit card £1040 £25 min payment 0% till October 2015.

I have done the snowball calculator and done both smallest debt v/s highest interest rate and there doesn't seem much difference in interest.

should I just keep paying as much as I can off the highest interest, but then what happens when my 0% deals run out should I swop cards ?? my credit rating is good ( I think )
when I get to a stage of having paid off all but the two life of balance transfer cards should I then try and get one of those on 0% then which one should I pay off first ? or am I thinking too hard about it all ??

I just want rid of this debt once and for all so I can live my life like I should be able to afford, I have been in debt for so much of my life I hate it and want rid as soon as humanly possible.

worried48

Since these are all low interest (lucky you!) I'd suggest going for the smallest one first, just for the psychological boost. So do them in reverse order of size.

[Deleted User]

What do the 0% debts go to, once the 0% ends?

Eyes_wide_open

I agree with worried, paying off a the small debts is a huge psychological boost.

I paid 2 little ones off and not only is it an achievement but it enables me to focus fully on the one remaining debt without juggling payments every month.

Good luck xx

LionessInWinter

I would pay the Credit Union one first, lowest amount plus highest APR, it would roughly take you 4 months, then I would concentrate on the Tesco credit card cause the 0% is going to end soon. Which would take you another 4 months. After that I would concentrate on the MBNA until about May 2015 and then concentrate on Virgin for a bit and then back to MBNA and the other.

milky1991

Thanks for all the answers The credit union one is the one I think I will concentrate on first, bedsit bob the 0% ones go to the normal apr on the cards which I think is around 17/18%