Juggling my Credit and Debt

Big_Alan_2

I have £12,600 worth of credit card debt with Egg, about £4,000 is charged at a low interest rate of 0.482% per month and the remaining £8,600 is charged at 1.385% per month.

Now I understand that the lower figure of £4,000 will be paid off first leaving the remaining £8,600 building up the interest until I start to pay it off when the lower amount is cleared.

The good news is, I also have a good credit history and have three other means of paying off this debt with Balance Transfers at overall, lower rates.

• I have a Barclaycard with a max limit of £6,500 and only £2.39p owing on it, which I have just paid. I can use a BT with Barclay Card of up to £5,000 at 6.9% for the life of the transfer with NO handling fee.
• I have a Halifax C/C with a zero balance and a £11,500 limit. I have some Credit Card Cheques which can be used for BT at 6.95% for the life of the balance with a minimum 3% handling fee.
• I have an HSBC C/C with a zero balance and a £6,000 limit, on which I could do a BT at 2.9% for two years on balances and a 2.5% balance transfer fee applies.

My real question is, armed with all these options, in which order should I use my credit cards with BT’s at the least possible cost.

I intend to clear my debt within 2 years.

I have no need to use these cards for anything else other than clearing my existing debt.
Once used, they will be locked away.

CannyJock

Big_Alan wrote: »

I have £12,600 worth of credit card debt with Egg, about £4,000 is charged at a low interest rate of 0.482% per month and the remaining £8,600 is charged at 1.385% per month.

• I have a Barclaycard with a max limit of £6,500 and only £2.39p owing on it, which I have just paid. I can use a BT with Barclay Card of up to £5,000 at 6.9% for the life of the transfer with NO handling fee.
• I have a Halifax C/C with a zero balance and a £11,500 limit. I have some Credit Card Cheques which can be used for BT at 6.95% for the life of the balance with a minimum 3% handling fee.
• I have an HSBC C/C with a zero balance and a £6,000 limit, on which I could do a BT at 2.9% for two years on balances and a 2.5% balance transfer fee applies.

I'd say first step should be to call Barclaycard, Halifax and HSBC and ask for a better deal. Then it's just a case of doing the calcs in a spreadsheet and comparing them.

Clariman put a link to an article relating to asking for an extension of 0% deals in another post - http://www.makesenseofmoney.co.uk/a_extend.html

I'd say use that as the basis of calling to ask for a better balance transfer deal than the ones they have. You can get 0% for 6 months, no fees with Ulsterbank, or 0% for 15 months with 2.98% fees with Virgin Money - so that's what you want them to beat or at least match.