Which card to pay medium amounts off?

Naf

I'm undecided where to pay extra £100-£1000 off my credit cards.
I have an Aqua card at 44.94% and a Barclaycard, some at 25.9% and some at 6.9%.
I'm pretty certain that whenever I work the Barclaycard's balance down by around £500, I'll be offered another balance transfer at 6.9%. If I had a lump sum to pay off, clearly this is the way to reduce my interest the most as I'll pay off a chunk of the Aqua card, as well as reducing some of the interest rate on some of the Barclaycard.
But does the same logic apply when I'm paying the odd £100 extra here & there; do I still save an appreciable amount of interest if I pay that off the Barclaycard in drips & drabs 'till it amounts up to a BT offer?

grumbler

TBH, I struggle to understand your question, but ignoring your 'certainty' with getting a BT offer from Barclaycard you always save money by paying the higher interest balance first.

Eonel

Surely pay off the Aqua card directly. You would save you 44.94% interest of any amount paid off.

Paying off the Barclaycard & the transfering the Aqua balance would save you the 44.94% interest - but you will incur additional interest on the Barclaycard + the balance transfer fee.

+ your ability to get a balance transfer deal is not guaranteed.

Naf

Assuming for a moment that I do get the BT deal each time (having got it before, I'm pretty confident I can negotiate it in future);
-I save 44.94% on the Aqua card and 25.9% on the Barclaycard
-It costs me 6.9% plus 3% fee on the Barclaycard so 9.9% (assuming paid off over 12 months)
--That totals a 60.94% saving, which you must admit is quite attractive.

That's the obvious course of action (risking a guaranteed saving of 44.94% to get a saving of 25.9% with a possibility of 60.94%) assuming I had a lump sum £500+ to do it with at once.
My dilemma comes in that I don't have the lump sum, and will probably be managing around £100-£200 per month.
So what I'm not sure about (risk of BT aside) is if, across say 3-6 months, the saving of 60.94% is very much diluted compared to the 44.94% or if there actually ends up being little difference at all.

redcard

I'm no expert, but you don't add 44.9% to 25.6%

[Deleted User]

Naf wrote: »

-I save 44.94% on the Aqua card and 25.9% on the Barclaycard
-It costs me 6.9% plus 3% fee on the Barclaycard so 9.9% (assuming paid off over 12 months)
--That totals a 60.94% saving, which you must admit is quite attractive.

You can't have the same balance on two cards simultaneously.

Naf

redcard wrote: »

I'm no expert, but you don't add 44.9% to 25.6%

Deleted_User wrote: »

You can't have the same balance on two cards simultaneously.

Look at it step by step:
I pay x amount off the Barclaycard which means I save 25.9% (my standard rate) on that amount.
I pay x amount off Aqua (as a BT, but it still comes off) which means I save 44.94%.
Total Saving: 25.9%+44.94% = 70.84%
x amount transfers to the Barclaycard to a rate of 6.9% with a 3% fee.
Total Cost: 6.9% + 3% = 9.9%
Net Savings: 70.84% - 9.9% = 60.94%

I could be wrong somewhere I guess; but I can't see where.

[Deleted User]

You don't add the percentages together. It's a blend of the two rates.

Otherwise, what if you had 5 cards, all at 20%? By your rationale, you would be saving interest of 120%.

Pantera_Fan

Naf wrote: »

Look at it step by step:
I pay x amount off the Barclaycard which means I save 25.9% (my standard rate) on that amount.
I pay x amount off Aqua (as a BT, but it still comes off) which means I save 44.94%.
Total Saving: 25.9%+44.94% = 70.84%
x amount transfers to the Barclaycard to a rate of 6.9% with a 3% fee.
Total Cost: 6.9% + 3% = 9.9%
Net Savings: 70.84% - 9.9% = 60.94%

I could be wrong somewhere I guess; but I can't see where.

Oh the irony of your signature!!

dotdash79

eh?

The maths doesn't work out at all. You pay off the highest rate first, this debt is accruing at the fastest rate. Use a snowball calculator to see how it would work for you.

Naf

Deleted_User wrote: »

You don't add the percentages together. It's a blend of the two rates.

Otherwise, what if you had 5 cards, all at 20%? By your rationale, you would be saving interest of 120%.

No, you don't seem to see where I'm coming from.
Currently I pay interest on x amount on both Barclaycard & Aqua:
x at 44.95% and x at 25.9%
I agree, the interest on 2x isn't 70.85%; it is actually half of that, 35.425%

But if I only have x to pay off somewhere, say it's £100 and takes a year to pay off for simplicity, then look at it again:
-On the Barclaycard I pay off x amount with cash saving £25.90 as its no longer on the card
-On the Aqua card I save 44.95% off x amount (it's no longer on the card as the BT pays it off) - that's £44.95 saved
-On the Barclaycard x amount is added back on , costing £3 BT fee, and a new interest rate costing £6.90.
Total cost if I hadn't paid anything off: £70.85
Total cost if I pay x off Barclaycard then BT to Aqua: £9.90
Total saving: £60.95

EDIT: as the amount I paid off in cash was £100, saving £60.95 represents 60.95% interest saving.