Paying off Credit Card

Elephas

Hi.

New to the forums so sorry if I have posted this to wrong board etc.

In need of some advice on paying off the £2000 on my Credit card. I have managed to fix the interest at 17.9% (as they were tying to increase it in October). I roughly pay a £100 a month but this doesn't even seem to put a dent in reducing the amount. What I really want to know is would it be better to get a loan to pay off the credit card or should I try harder to pay more towards the card and continue as I am?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Ideally I would like to pay it off as soon as I can.

Thanks

[Deleted User]

Check your statements. £100 a month should be making a significant dent in the balance. Your interest should only be around £30 a month.

If the balance is not going down, are you still spending on it?

Gromitt

I'd say a loan will definitely be cheaper than a 17.9% credit card.

But £2000 * 0.179 = £358, so £29 a month, and this assumes the balance does not change, but you are also paying off an additional £70 towards the balance. So I'd expect the balance to decrease by at least £70.

planteria

so would i.

if you can get a loan it is bound to be cheaper. cheaper still if you extended your mortgage. and cheaper still if you can do a balance transfer to an alternative credit card.

if you can't do the latter it may be best to leave it where it is & make a serious commitment to paying it off, rather than moving it to a cheaper loan/mortgage and retaining the debt for a longer-term.

dotdash79

I would look at moving it to a balance transfer card with a 0% rate for about 21 months (or more) and pay off at about the same rate.

jonesMUFCforever

Sorry to disagree with posters here but if OP only has this debt of £2k then it is highly unlikely that he/she would get the best interest rate on a personal loan.
If they cannot get a balance transfer to shift it then paying the absolute maximum that they can afford each month is the quickest way to reduce the debt.

dotdash79

Yea I wouldn't go for for a loan, balance transfer to 0% or just pay it off.

Have a look at this for the costing http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/minimum-repayments-credit-card for paying £100 off per month.

planteria

good points. hadn't really thought about the small size of the loan, and i agree.