To save or not to save...?

Madaboutgolf

Just need a little advice please.

We were badly in debt until recently but following a massive re budget and several years (and I mean years) of paying down debt now find we are left with only 2 debts:-

Credit card £11000 (interest free until Feb 2019 when we will owe £9000 on it).

Buy to let mortgage £165000. This is interest only (about 2.35%) and has 12 years to run, also as it was taken out in the good old 1990’s it has no repayment vehicle behind it, however this isn’t really a concern as having cleared all the debt we are now in the position to make overpayments of about £2k a month.

The question is should we put aside the money to cover the Credit Card first, or just start pouring this money into the mortgage straight away until November of next year and then save up to pay off the CC?

The issue is, having been deeply in debt I get a bit nervous having the CC debt sitting there, even though it is 0% but at the same time feel we should make the money work a bit harder by paying down the mortgage and realise the sooner we start paying it down the better, and obviously paying off £11000 now would hopefully make a bit of a dent in the interest.

[Deleted User]

You need to check the go to rate of the credit card and assess the likelihood of you being able to move that to another 0% deal.

If not, you may find that paying the card down will save you more in the long run.

BattleToads

You didn't mention the rate for the credit card after the 0% period. However I would probably look to pay more towards the credit card with the aim to clear the total balance for Feb 2019.

There is another section of the forum for debt clearing, you will probably find you are able to get more replies there.

Madaboutgolf

Hi ZX,

Sorry I wasn't that clear, I'm planning to pay it off when the 0% ends in Feb 19, I was just wondering should I put the money by now, or use that money to pay down the BTL.

[Deleted User]

I understand that. But it depends on what rate you think the card debt will go to in Feb 19.

If you can move it to 0% for another couple of years, then start paying the BTL.

If it's going to go to 25%, then save the money to pay the card off.

If you think you will have the money to pay off the card debt in either case, then you could put any surplus to the mortgage, if that's the most efficient thing to do.

getmore4less

mortgage first then divert the cash flow to meet the needs of the CC

£2k pm over around 14 months will save around £300-£350 gross, a bit less net as you should be getting a bit of tax relief

Then hope your £2k pm free cash flow does not dry up.

getmore4less

Feb 19 is 18/19 months away at £2k pm thats £36k-£38k plenty of time to leave saving up £9k for a while.