Which credit card to pay a lump sum to??

anna42hmr

molerat said:

RobHT said:

I jump in this thread for pure curiosity.
Your salary should be around 100k for a credit card of 5.3k, is it right?
I assume that this is not your total amount of balance available, but if it is, please let me know, I'm just curious to understand how banks allocate the credit, between me and one of my friends there is a huge discrepancy, even having pretty much the same salary.

On that basis I must be on around £600K !

lol me too ( I wish) , given I earn less than 30K (and always have) and up until the end of last year across my cards i had credit limits totalling £42,750 (including one card with a 10k limit alone).  

I've cancelled a large portion of them in November and December following clearing 0% deals, closing unused cards, but still have credit card limits across them of over £13K.  

Brie

Idle boasting here....my available credit across all my cards is twice my gross annual salary. It was 3 times but Barclaycard decided to cut my credit....grrrrrr!

The OH has available credit about 5 times salary.

enthusiasticsaver

I have moved this to DFW and merged with the duplicate thread. 

[Deleted User]

RobHT said:

Sncjw said:

RobHT said:

SumacRoastedStrawberries said:

Hello, 

I racked up some debt on two credit cards while on mat leave and over the past 18 months or so. I was recently given £3000 cash by a relative.

I'm on a reduced income having gone back to work part time and the monthly payments take a real chunk out of my budget each month (as well as bloody nursery fees).

I wondered if you clever people could help me to understand which card should I pay the £3k to (or maybe a bit to both?) to reduce my monthly payments the most? 

Card 1 - Sainsburys 

Balance - £2865 

This was a Balance transfer and is on a 0% rate until June 2023 

Minimum payment is £64.47 I currently pay £70 p/m to this card 

Card 2 - Natwest 

Balance - £5304

Of which £3052 is on a 0% Balance transfer until May 2022, and £2,252 is at an annual rate of 18.276%

Minimum payment is £78.45 and that's what I am paying at the moment. 

My instinct is to get rid of the Sainsburys card completely as my budget is literally break even even the penny at the minute and another £70 a month would give me huge breathing room. However I think the clever thing to do might be to pay the vast majority of the money to the Natwest card and get rid of thr Purchases amount which is costing me interest? 

Thanks so much for any advice, please let me know if I've missed any info.

I jump in this thread for pure curiosity.
Your salary should be around 100k for a credit card of 5.3k, is it right?
I assume that this is not your total amount of balance available, but if it is, please let me know, I'm just curious to understand how banks allocate the credit, between me and one of my friends there is a huge discrepancy, even having pretty much the same salary.

Where did you get that figure from? 

Just experience, but don't tell me that someone with 100k (example) will receive 30k balance .
There is correlation with the salary and that's quite strong.

I wouldn't tell you that.

But I would tell you that I had in excess of 30k limits on cards on far less than 100k.

I think your salary correlation calculator is a little broken. 

kimwp

RobHT said:

Sncjw said:

RobHT said:

SumacRoastedStrawberries said:

Hello, 

I racked up some debt on two credit cards while on mat leave and over the past 18 months or so. I was recently given £3000 cash by a relative.

I'm on a reduced income having gone back to work part time and the monthly payments take a real chunk out of my budget each month (as well as bloody nursery fees).

I wondered if you clever people could help me to understand which card should I pay the £3k to (or maybe a bit to both?) to reduce my monthly payments the most? 

Card 1 - Sainsburys 

Balance - £2865 

This was a Balance transfer and is on a 0% rate until June 2023 

Minimum payment is £64.47 I currently pay £70 p/m to this card 

Card 2 - Natwest 

Balance - £5304

Of which £3052 is on a 0% Balance transfer until May 2022, and £2,252 is at an annual rate of 18.276%

Minimum payment is £78.45 and that's what I am paying at the moment. 

My instinct is to get rid of the Sainsburys card completely as my budget is literally break even even the penny at the minute and another £70 a month would give me huge breathing room. However I think the clever thing to do might be to pay the vast majority of the money to the Natwest card and get rid of thr Purchases amount which is costing me interest? 

Thanks so much for any advice, please let me know if I've missed any info.

I jump in this thread for pure curiosity.
Your salary should be around 100k for a credit card of 5.3k, is it right?
I assume that this is not your total amount of balance available, but if it is, please let me know, I'm just curious to understand how banks allocate the credit, between me and one of my friends there is a huge discrepancy, even having pretty much the same salary.

Where did you get that figure from? 

Just experience, but don't tell me that someone with 100k (example) will receive 30k balance .
There is correlation with the salary and that's quite strong.
If you want long term credit, that can be a loan, not a credit card, the credit card issuer expects you to pay asap, even though it's offered as a benefit to repay in more than 24 months.

Actually, it's in the credit card issuer's interest for you to only be able to afford minimum repayments as they'll make more money that way. Very curious as to where you got the £100k income for £5.3k balance from!

There are so many factors, I've been given (on application) £12k and £900 by different providers. Same salary, same address for >5 years, no debt and (as far as I can recall) similar available credit.

SumacRoastedStrawberries

Hi all. Thanks so much for the fab advice and some additional things to look into. I have paid the £3k to the Natwest card and feel a lot better now. As advised Natwest Ts and Cs say this will come off the interest bearing portion first. Regarding plans for when the interest free period ends in May, I intend to look for another balance transfer card.

I do have the option to go back to work another day a week if things get really sticky but I really don't want to do that if I can until little one is at least 3.

To answer some questions about extra help I may be entitled to/ help to save/ income: credit ratio - my income pre mat leave (I commenced 14 months of mat leave in July 2020) was just over £42k, I am now part time (3 days and week) on about £25k gross so I am not entitled to any more help (we do get CB and tax free childcare)  

My other half has picked up a greater proportion of our joint bills in the meantime - though his industry (specialist tech sales) has been hit by the pandemic so his income is also about £200-300 p/m down on what it should be, so we are definitely tightening our belts this year. 

Again thanks so much for all your sage advice.