Do I Pay off my cards in full or keep one and pay balance each month?

Sncjw

You won't clear your debts by getting a loan as a loan is still debt. Also you may be paying more out due to the interest rate and also may not be allowed to pay more than a set amount.

You will need a deposit for a mortgage as others have said this done by saving and also showing you can save it. Doing this will show you can pay the repayments as well.

enthusiasticsaver

As others have said getting a loan will not clear your cards quicker or get you debt free. The best way of doing that is increase the monthly payments you are making. If you are unable to make more than minimums and have nothing saved towards your new car then taking out further borrowing is not a good move. Your credit rating will not improve with further borrowing and if you only have an average rate then you will not be offered a very good rate.

phillw

rcunningham87 wrote: »

I have 2 credit cards I currently pay the minimum (I'm able to pay off more each month but this could take some time).

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I guess my question is, what is the quickest way to improve my credit rating considering my situation and get debt free?

The first thing to do is to reduce the interest you're paying on those credit cards. If they are 0% then paying the minimum balance is ok. If they are 20% then you need to try to shift them to a 0%.

Unless having the car will allow you to pay off the debt any quicker (i.e. it's absolutely necessary for increasing the amount you can earn) then don't buy it. Even when an old car is costing extra money to run it and repair it, it can still be cheaper to keep it than buy another car.