I have 4 credit cards - how do I prioritise?

W99

I currently have 4 credit cards. Here are the amounts on each and the interest rates and limits:

Skycard £1000 0% until Jan 08 (limit £1000 - maxed out)
Visa £500 1.9% until Oct 07 (limit £6000)
Natwest £3340 0% until Jun 08 (limit £3340 - maxed out)
P.Office £1720 0% until Jan 08 (limit £3100)

I'm not the greatest person in the world with figures, so I was wondering:

a) should I try to pay one off before the other, and if so, which?
b) is there any juggling around I can do in order to be better off?

Ideally I'd rather have 1 card with one repayment, but 2 cards are already maxed out so I can't transfer to them.

Any advice would be gratefully received. Thanks in advance.

Karl.H_2

Well, transfer, and close, your Visa card to your P.Office card. That way, you are not being charge interest on your debt, until Jan 08. Personally, I'd attempt to pay off the largest debt (Natwest), as come Jan 08 you'd be paying interest. It may be worth checking what the APR is going to be after Jan on each card. Then, I would Balance Transfer the card with the most APR first, maybe do that this month. Then, Balance Transfer the second most APR next month, as it's important to spread credit applications. Remember the Balance Transfer fee. See what other users have to say first.

Good luck.

riad_2

Whatever you do make sure you keep up the minimum payments on all the cards... best way I've done it is to set up a DD for min pymnt and then overpay on whichever one when possible.

After setting up your min pymnt DD's on all your cards, I would work on overpaing the Visa card to clear the £500 off the Visa card first (as it's the only card you're paying interest on).

After that I would work off paying the cards in the order that the 0% runs out sooner. i.e. pay off the Visa first and the Natwest last! If you find that you're unable to pay off the SkyCard or the Post Office card before the 0% expires in January, do a Balance Transfer the day after the 0% expires to the Natwest card (if you can manage to get a credit limit increase on it...).

Hope that helps!

Bokkens

I would concentrate on the Visa card and get rid of the £500 debt ASAP.Then leave the card active but don't use it for now.It has a very low and useful 1.9% and a good limit of £6000 .
In my experience Visa will often give you the same rate again if you ask them or another promotional rate, (you can ask for that in October or November)you may need this if you cannot move any of your balances in Jan 08,so keep that card for now you can always close cards but getting them back at the rate you want is not always as easy.
Consider moving the Nat West card before Jan to a LOB card you can then take your time repaying the debt at a pace that will suit you and the interest charges are a lot lower.
Try and concentrate on reducing the Post office card next as this has a resonable limit and if you are really stuck later you can always BT the Sky amount to the PO card and request a lower interest rate..
There are lots of ways to manage the funds over the next few months and I am sure someone else will contradict what has been said but it will be up to you to pull it all together ,allow plenty of time for your decisions and don't leave things to the last moment.Make sure you keep up the payments each month and avoid any charges.There will be BT charges so try and plan the BT in advance to avoid any extra charges.
Good luck.
post here again if you get stuck.

W99

albertross wrote: »

visa 1.9%/month or /yr ?

That's a good point - I should've said it's 1.9% per month until Oct, which makes it even more worthwhile to transfer/pay it off first.

Many thanks for everyone's advice. It's genuinely appreciated.

W99

riad_2

W99 wrote: »

That's a good point - I should've said it's 1.9% per month until Oct, which makes it even more worthwhile to transfer/pay it off first.

Many thanks for everyone's advice. It's genuinely appreciated.

W99

OH MY in that case transfer the £500 balance to the Visa card to the post office card ASAP to get the 0% !!