Teetering on the brink

ellenvan

Depends what interest rates Fluid and Aqua card are at. If you can pay it off an interest bearing account, that is what I would do.
Even better if the facility to re use the card remains, if unfortunately 
your situation gets worse.

bubblycrazy

Congratulations! That's amazing news 👏 

I agree with ellenvan. If one of those cards can be paid off you'll still have a couple of hundred to keep as an emergency fund, or pay down something else to help increase the chance of balance transfers. 

biggerpickle

@EatingBeans sorry to hear you're feeling so poorly 

Don't get disheartened on the weight either, I know mine can vary by a kg overnight at times, you know you can shift it so when you have capacity to do so, you can.

Agree though on the SL repayment- get rid of one of the smaller cards if they're not interest free, one less thing to juggle every month. 

daisy_1571

All 3 options sound good, great advice above. 

You have enough 'extra' to completely clear one of fluid or aqua.  Pros - one less thing to think about and manage.   Cons may not actually free up much day to day cash

You could pay it off your bigger account and hope to get another 0% offer. Pros - I think that was what you've been trying to do so it would be sticking to the plan.   Cons - may not result in an offer, may not free up much day to day.

You could get van fixed.  Pros - may not cost the whole 1300 so you'd have extra to use elsewhere, van would be fixed which you need to do at some point so will need to find that money.  Cons - none that I can see

You could save it all.  Pros  - money there hopefully gaining interest, good peace of mind knowing you have some spare cash for anything that crops up, its unexpected money so good to do something that you can instantly see gets you ahead of where you were.   Cons - you are going to need it to fix van at some point, its not such a huge amount that the interest gained will be hugely mathematically significant, to gain the best amount of interest it needs to be there for a while.


If it was me, I'd go for van first as that needs done. Whatever is left split between saving and paying something down in your already decided priority.  Not as satisfying as completely paying something off but maybe spreads the benefit? 

Back in our early days of trying to be more organised whenever we got 'extra' money we settled on a strategy that meant we always knew what to do with it.  Whether it was birthday/Xmas money, overtime (very rare we got an opportunity to work overtime), unexpected gift from the in laws etc.  Percentages went on each of our priorities- sometimes that was 50% house (repairs or something we needed) 30% savings, 10% to each of us.  Other years it was 50/25/25 you get the idea.  So,  following your plan, any left over from the van fix you could allocate 50% savings, 50% debt.  Or 30% future presents for daughters that you are committed to, 30% savings,  30% debt, 10% general income?   We just found it easier to know we had a system funding our priorities as we had decided them.

Dxxx

Brunette84

Do you have any sort of emergency fund at the moment? I'd have a min of £500 set aside for the unexpected as no matter how much we try on this journey things WILL go wrong whether its a new tyre, vet visit, boiler call out etc. Some people use a CC for an EF but i tend to follow the Dave Ramsey method of always having actual cash for an EF so that i can focus on reducing the debt and not adding to it.

Hope you feel better soon and get the pain under control, you've not had a good year with it x