Pay.off & invest or not pay off & invest?

Foxywarrior

Hi all,

Just wanted your opinions on the following.
A few weeks ago I was extremely lucky to win a competition that resulted in a considerable 5 figure sum hitting my bank account. 

I immediately paid off 2 bank loans that freed up over £550 a month. I have invested the remaining amount into a stocks & shares ISA that is doing reasonably well at the present time.

My dilemma is I have 5 credit cards on 0% interest free periods. The combined balance of those cards is slightly less than the balance I have in my ISA. Do I pay those cards off anyway so freeing up another £450 a month (as I pay fixed amounts & not the minimum payments). This means I could invest around £800 to £900 a month back into my ISA that would now have a small balance or do I carry on stoozying down keeping my high ISA balance but meaning I still effectively have CC debt that would still take a long time to clear by stoozying?

I keep flipping between the 2 options & can't make up my mind.

Thank you.

QrizB

In principle, continuing to stooze will leave you better off overall so long as your investments don't fall and lose money.

Archerychick

I’d keep it saved until just before the 0% ends and then pay off at that point. Keeping the money inside a cash ISA as it’ll be too short term for investing 

masonic

Providing you can continue to get stooze deals, and you don't need to apply for a mortgage or other important borrowing, then I see no reason to pay off. But be prepared for the deals to dry up, at which point you should have cash available to clear the debt. Borrowing to invest is not a great idea, as investments have a nasty habit of falling from time to time and you don't want to sell at that point.

I'm stoozing about £8k at this point in time, but I have cash savings available to pay it off at any time (my S&S ISA is for long term investing).

On-the-coast

It’s a bit worrying that you’d say you’ve only been invested in a s&s isa for 3 weeks and “that is doing reasonably well at the present time.”
how are you going to (mentally) handle a fall of 10%, 20% etc?
unless you’re into investing for the long haul (5+, ideally 10+ years) you’d be better of paying down all those cards and then trickle feeding your monthly savings into stocks & shares. 

Hoenir

Foxywarrior said:

 I have invested the remaining amount into a stocks & shares ISA that is doing reasonably well at the present time.

How much of the money can you afford to lose? 

jimi_man

Pay off the debts, absolutely no contest. Then start saving the excess. 

Bigwheels1111

If the ISA goes down how will you pay off the cards.

Save the cash in a fixed rate account. Some interest and your rear is covered.

PropertyGuru_Wannabe

Stick to your initial plan of stoozing as plans are there for a reason.  If you're afraid of your investments going down in your S&S Isa, you can change those investments into extremely low risk investments such as gilts, bonds, MMF's, and low risk ETF's.  You have enough to pay off the credit card debts with your other funds anyway.

surreysaver

jimi_man said:

Pay off the debts, absolutely no contest. Then start saving the excess. 

There is a contest in paying off 0% debts. You don't want to be paying those off if the money is sitting around in a high interest savings account 

SpeedSouth

We are currently stoozing just over £30k as a couple.  At 4% which is the average interest across the accounts, it's difficult to see a reason not to do it. I wouldn't be stoozing in a S&S ISA though.  I have S&S ISA, but that is not the stooze pot.