It's the final countdown...£10k to go

mark55man

It is unwelcome to be going backward but if its cheapest that's what counts.  I am currently building up a 0% purchase CC so I can pay of a 0% BT card that's coming to an end.  It feels wanton to be spending and only making minimum payments, but I just extended the 0% by 14 months at no charge.  

Not quite sure how your 3.9% deal works is that a one off charge or a guaranteed low rate.  There's so many choices.  Just do the one that's cheapest, so long as it doesn't lead you into temptation - I think my focus on spending has lessened now I'm not worrying about the monthly budget in quite the same way - which was perhaps inevitable - so make sure you have a plan for getting out!!

t2rry

mark55man said:

It is unwelcome to be going backward but if its cheapest that's what counts.  I am currently building up a 0% purchase CC so I can pay of a 0% BT card that's coming to an end.  It feels wanton to be spending and only making minimum payments, but I just extended the 0% by 14 months at no charge.  

Not quite sure how your 3.9% deal works is that a one off charge or a guaranteed low rate.  There's so many choices.  Just do the one that's cheapest, so long as it doesn't lead you into temptation - I think my focus on spending has lessened now I'm not worrying about the monthly budget in quite the same way - which was perhaps inevitable - so make sure you have a plan for getting out!!

It is the cheapest way, I'm sure of it.  You're right, very similar with your CC shuffle.

The 3.9% is a guaranteed rate for 3 years, so even if I didn't pay it all off in the intended time (maybe if I want to keep a little more back as an emergency fund) then I'll still pay a lot less interest than I would do on the car PCP.

I don't think my monthly spending will change, I don't see myself being tempted to do anything different to now, to be honest, I'm so close to being rid of all of it that is the biggest incentive I can think of and it has made me slightly obsessed with how much I can put into the 'savings' column of my spreadsheet every month (it's listed as 'savings' in there but really is the money I bank or use to pay down the debt, so it will work the same, I'm just paying off a CC instead of the PCP)

I'm going to do it. 

t2rry

It will also knock all the PCP interest off my signature totals immediately, so I will have a balance of £15,500 instead of £17,357.90, which will look nicer to start with!

Sarahwithlove

You may also find seeing them adding the interest on every month gives you more incentive to have it paid off and find other ways to cut back etc. 

t2rry

Sarahwithlove said:

You may also find seeing them adding the interest on every month gives you more incentive to have it paid off and find other ways to cut back etc. 

I hope so... I'm not actually sure there's much left for us to cut back, I feel like we live on the bare bones at the moment, but certainly will keep me from any 'sod it' or 'we deserve a treat' moments, which definitely happen occasionally.
Head down now until it's gone.

I've done it, anyway, amazing how quickly you can access £10k worth of cash
To keep me on the straight and narrow, I've taken £10k on the card and used the overpayment I was going to put to OH's credit card this month.  I'll make a minimum payment to that instead.  

Time for my second signature shuffle of the last week!

I'm going to keep the interest saved showing on it, somehow incorporate that the £10k CC was PCP finance.. The interest saved figure will now reduce a little month on month as I incur some interest on the new CC balance, but I think the biggest month will only be around £25, so I can definitely take that!!!

Current forecasted budgets have me paying off the new CC balance on May's payday (so that's £10k cleared in 4 paydays) and the 0% CC on July's payday, still ahead of the 0% running out.   The only change from these dates will be whether I choose to keep more in emergency funds or not... about which, we will see...

Sarahwithlove

I guess it shows how easy it would be to get more low credit if you needed it in a real emergency. If you were to postpone the 0% CC payments would you be going into interest charging months? Could you maybe pay the monthly amount that would clear by end of 0% period and any extra save to EF then once you have a good EF saved you can then divert it back to CC overpayments. It's up to you I recently moved my EF to fill sinking funds up but now have 500 in car fund and 500 in house fund and anything above that I would have needed a loan for anyway from my dad so to me having an EF as well isn't end of world. If I spend from either of those funds I will top it back up. 

t2rry

Sarahwithlove said:

I guess it shows how easy it would be to get more low credit if you needed it in a real emergency. If you were to postpone the 0% CC payments would you be going into interest charging months? Could you maybe pay the monthly amount that would clear by end of 0% period and any extra save to EF then once you have a good EF saved you can then divert it back to CC overpayments. It's up to you I recently moved my EF to fill sinking funds up but now have 500 in car fund and 500 in house fund and anything above that I would have needed a loan for anyway from my dad so to me having an EF as well isn't end of world. If I spend from either of those funds I will top it back up. 

I have a month's grace on the 0% payments from current plan as I could make the final payment in the 0% deal with August's payday, but to be safe if I did want to keep more banked funds, I'd probably pay a little less off the 3.9% CC instead though, as the interest there will be minimal.

I have the £1,500 banked still and with my forecasted budgets as they stand that never gets touched.  It doesn't get added to a great deal, maybe a couple of hundred 'leftover' amounts, but never gets taken away from so it's always there as a just in case.  I can't think of many things where we'd need more than £1500...maybe the car but it's not like we're using it much at the moment and the MOT isn't due until October when (touch wood) we'll be debt free and with a truly disposable monthly income that could more than cover anything.

I have toyed repeatedly with splitting the 0% credit card total into equal payments between now and the end date and setting that aside, but that would stop me from overpaying the 3.9% card as much, which would cost me more interest for the sake of it.  Ultimately it all does the same job, either it's paid off debt to save a bit of interest, or it's building in a side pot until it's enough to pay a whole one off)

I am going to try to stop tinkering now.  I think I've done the right thing, I need to judge each month on how much I 'pay off' versus 'save'.

Maybe the simple answer is to set the amount aside on pay day, then actually pay it off the credit cards at the end of each month rather than as soon as the statements arrive, so it's always there just in case, but still pays down the debt in the relevant statement month.  

Sarahwithlove

I agree I think 1500 is enough for most things as an emergency fund so I would just focus on overpaying now. 

mark55man

if you are deciding to pay back at the beginning or the end please check you know when the interest is charged from.  ie if you pay at the end will get charged interest that would not have been incurred if you had paid at the beginning of the period

t2rry

mark55man said:

if you are deciding to pay back at the beginning or the end please check you know when the interest is charged from.  ie if you pay at the end will get charged interest that would not have been incurred if you had paid at the beginning of the period

This is a good point, and I don't know the answer but will check anyway...if I feel an overwhelming need to have more than £1500 in the bank any given month maybe it's literally the cost I'd pay for the privilege, as mentioned I have worked out the highest month's interest should be around £25 so it wouldn't be any more than that.

I suspect I won't anyway, because I know how much I like adjusting the figures when I can, and I'd feel like I was just working a month behind all the time if I did.